Forensic Files - Season 2, Episode 10 - Sealed with a Kiss (In HD) | Forensic Files

[Music] For more than a year, angry, hateful letters were sent to a first grade school teacher in a small mountain
village in Pennsylvania. Many were sexual in nature. Some threatened violence. When scientists analyzed the letters,
they found evidence that the stalker knew a lot about the victim, more than anyone could possibly imagine.
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] In 1993, some hate mail began to arrive at the
Cool Ball Learning Center, a public elementary school in the Pocono Mountains in Eastern Pennsylvania.
The letters were unsigned and sent to the principal making serious allegations against a first grade reading teacher,
Joanne Chambers. She had been teaching in the school district for the past 8 years.
>> Chambers brought pot into school and then showed it in the faculty room just like it was a big joke.
>> I thought it was just somebody a disgruntled employee. I just wanted to know who it was and I
thought it was a thing that you could, you know, sit down with that person, talk it out and fix it.
>> Soon, letters were sent to Joanne Chambers herself at both home and at school.
>> I can get you in one try. No one will ever prove it. They may not think so, but I'm smarter than all of you. You
stupid [ __ ] >> Joanne Chambers was popular with students and was an unlikely target of a
hate campaign. She was married with a 10-year-old son and had no known enemies. >> I can speak with uh assurance about
Joannne's teaching abilities. Uh she's highly recommended by uh other teachers in the district. Uh she was also highly
respected by parents. Uh she was an outstanding teacher. All her recommendations show that.
>> It appeared that someone had a grudge against her. >> Look in Chambers's desk. She seems to
like Jack Daniels. Chambers found the whiskey bottle in her desk drawer and said personal items were
missing. >> There were things missing from my drawers. The picture of my child and
myself and my friend and her daughter was taken from my desk. >> The police suspected that a fellow
teacher or school employee was sending the letters since they often alluded to activities going on inside the school.
One of the letters contained an interesting clue. It was a snide reference to the school superintendent
as Colonel Clink, a character in the Hogan's Heroes television series. A teacher in the school was once overheard
referring to the superintendent in this way. Her name was Paula Noraki. Like Joanne Chambers, Noraki also taught
first grade and had worked in the school district for 18 years. >> I was totally surprised. I was positive
that it wasn't anybody in the building that it could be explained in some other way.
>> The letters continued, but soon there were other incidents. The first was something Joanne Chambers found under
her desk. I went to start my lesson with my children and sat down in a chair and
had a dress on and put my hand underneath to straighten the dress out and I was covered with feces
and I couldn't even tell you what I felt like. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt
horing. It was like this could not happen. Just a few days later, a hidden camera
captured several teachers entering Joanne Chambers vacant classroom. One removed Chambers coffee cup from her
desk. It was Paula Naraki. The photograph of Joanne Chambers, stolen from her desk, was pasted onto a
nude picture, photocopied and distributed throughout the schoolyard, mailed to parents' homes, and a copy was
taped to the door of a local store. >> There were phone calls to parents saying that I was a lesbian, that um I had
AIDS, that you know, that I shouldn't be teaching their children. The FBI suggested that Joanne Chambers be given
a lie detector test to validate her various claims. Paul and Noraki also volunteered to take a lie detector test,
hoping to clear her name after suspicions arose from the Colonel Clink reference and the coffee cup incident.
One of the two failed on the most crucial question of all. [Music] After 10 months of threatening letters,
x-rated pictures, and hidden video surveillance, police believe they had a break in the stalking case.
Joanne Chambers and Paul and Iraqi both took lie detector tests about their knowledge of the threatening letters.
Each was asked whether they were involved in making or sending any of the harassing letters. One passed,
the other failed. >> I was told that I failed my polygraph. >> Paula Noraki became the primary suspect.
>> I was very upset. I I couldn't believe that it was making things worse instead
of better. Noraki said she was videotaped taking Joanne Chambers coffee cup because Chambers had asked Paula to
get it for her. The surveillance video tape shows that Joanne Chambers and Paula Noraki were both in the classroom
and left together just moments before Paula returned for the coffee cup. Police asked Noraki if they could search
her home and once again she voluntarily complied. They took with them an old typewriter that we had. They took um
different kinds of paper and different envelopes. The analysis of Naraki's typewriter revealed that it was not the
one used to type the threatening letters. The paper and envelopes from Narra's home did not match those used in
the threatening letters either. Noraki's reputation as a by the book teacher and
strict disciplinarian was in sharp contrast to Joanne Chambers's loose and funloving classroom style. The way the
police saw it, Paula was jealous of Joanne Chambers unconventional teaching style and the popularity that she gained
from that style. Uh Paul Naraki was more of a buy the book conservative teacher who favored traditional teaching methods
whereas Joanne Chambers would show up in the classroom wearing jeans and a Mickey
Mouse t-shirt and she would do things like stage water fights with the school administrators which uh the police
believe angered Paul Iraqi. >> As the investigation continued, so did the threatening letters.
>> Letters went out to parents to parents saying that I was molesting their children. I thought my career was gone.
I thought I was going to be in jail. I thought I didn't know what was going to happen.
>> By the fall of 1994, the letters included death threats. >> You die. >> For her own protection, Joanne Chambers
was transferred to another school. Shortly after her transfer, a box in pink wrapping paper was found at the
front door of the school. Inside was a Barbie doll. The throat slashed with the razor blade and covered
with paint the color of blood. The dress was identical to one often worn by Joanne Chambers. The hair was cut and
styled like Chambers as well. >> I said goodbye to my husband. Like I wanted him to remember me saying
goodbye. I lived every day thinking that it was truly possible that it could be my last.
>> In November of 1994, Chambers said a car tried to run her off the highway. She said she saw the face
of the driver. >> I go off the road. I pull over. I look, she's looking right at me. I will never
forget that look. Never. I will never forget it. She looked right at me. >> She said the face she saw was a face she
knew. [Music] [Applause] When Joanne Chambers called police to report that a car forced her off the
highway, she said she recognized the face of the other driver. >> I saw her. She looked at me.
I know that Paul Rocki was driving that car. >> Paula Norraki denied the allegation, but
was arrested and charged with harassment, stalking, simple and aggravated assault, making terroristic
threats, and recklessly endangering the life of Joanne Chambers. Over 100 counts
in all, >> I was finding out that I was charged with many, many horrendous things I had
never heard about before. The school district suspended her from her teaching position with pay. If convicted, she
could serve 5 years in jail. After Noraki's arrest, the letters, threats, and mailings stopped. Noraki maintained
her innocence and hired both an attorney and private investigator to help. The investigator was a former state
policeman, and even he admitted that Paula's situation did not look good. My first thought was, well, she's probably
guilty. It it just looked overwhelming when you looked at the at at the whole complaint.
>> The FBI found some partial fingerprints on the threatening letters, but they did
not match Paula or Rocky's. The defense team wanted to see if any DNA was present on the threatening letters. The
prosecutor would allow DNA testing by the defense only if the results were fully disclosed, regardless of the
outcome. Paula's defense team wanted to make sure she understood the ramifications of such an agreement.
>> He asked, "Would there be any possible reason that any of my DNA should be on
any of it, any possibility whatsoever?" And I I said, "No, >> Paula, if we do this testing and your
DNA is found on these stamps or or envelope flaps, your chances you're going to jail."
>> The cost of the DNA testing, approximately $7,000, would have to be paid by Paula Noraki. Blood samples from
both Paula and her husband were sent to a local DNA lab along with the threatening letters and the envelopes.
The amount of DNA that would wind up on the back of a stamp or an envelope flap depends on how hard you lick the
envelope, how much cells that you shed from the inside of your mouth. They're variables that it's hard to predict
exactly what the value would be, but it is there. In some cases, there's more DNA than others.
>> First, scientists use steam to gently remove the stamps from the envelopes. The back of each stamp and envelope flap
was swabbed for epithelial cells which come from saliva. DNA was found on the back of one set of
stamps and on one envelope flap. The number of cells recovered was so small that forensic scientists performed a
process called polymerase chain reaction or PCR which amplifies or copies the DNA
in those few cells to make enough for testing. >> What we're looking for to see is how
does um this DNA that we've extracted compared to somebody else's DNA. Now, if the DNA is from a similar source, you'll
get the same pattern of blue dots on a white strip. >> This is the genetic profile of the
individual who licked the stamps. When the DNA profile of Paula Rocki and her husband were compared to the DNA from
the back of the stamps, there was no match. >> For example, Paula Rocki has two dots
here and um the DNA from the back of the post stamp only has one. So therefore, right away we can exclude Paul and Iraqi
with just this one genetic marker. We looked at five different genetic markers and four out of five can exclude Paula
Iraqi. >> DNA was found and it did not match Paula and it did not match Len Moraki
which meant that someone licked that those stamps and it wasn't Leonard Paul. >> We thought it was going to blow apart
the whole case. We thought we thought we were done. >> Now armed with the DNA profile of the
stalker, the manhunt had just begun. [Music] When DNA testing of the stamps and envelope flap did not match Paul Rocky
or her husband, the defense team went one step further. They wanted to find the individual whose DNA was on the
threatening letters. >> If Paula didn't do it, there's only one other person that could have done it
because there's only one other person that knew the circumstances of all these letters that knew everything that was
going on. That was Joan Chambers. >> Was it possible that the alleged victim wrote the threatening letters and mailed
them to herself? The defense uncovered some information which pointed in that very direction.
Police in the neighboring town of Carbondale, Pennsylvania, told defense investigators that Chambers had a
history of reporting suspicious incidents from burglaries to fires. >> They said every crime that she's been a
victim of is has some weirdness attached to it. and just off the top of their heads,
they started relating different uh crimes that supposedly she's been a victim of. When Anderson researched
Chambers employment history, he learned that Chambers reported similar threatening letters and also reported
finding feces on her classroom chair while in another school district years earlier. To find out if it was Joanne
Chambers DNA on the threatening letters, Jim Anderson needed her DNA profile. For
that, he looked in her trash. Once trash is placed at the curbside, the owner gives up all legal rights to what's
inside. >> One plastic drinking straw, one used looks like toilet tissue. Plastic
straws, used tissues, and a cotton swab with ear wax. All items with possible genetic material were sent to the DNA
lab for testing. Dr. Liken Walner identified two different DNA profiles from the mucus, saliva, and ear wax
samples from the chamber's trash. >> The DNA from the uh one of the household members was similar to the uh DNA on the
back of the stamps in the envelope. With these DNA results, the defense team demanded that all charges against Paul
and Oraki be dropped. The prosecution refused and Joanne Chambers provided a blood sample for further DNA testing.
Once again, Joanne Chambers blood DNA matched the DNA from the stamps and the envelope flap. You can see how all five
genetic markers line up perfectly between the DNA of Joanne Chambers and the DNA from the back of the postage
stamps. The odds of someone in the random US population having the same combination of five genotypes tested was
1 in4,925. >> The match was fairly significant in that, you know, that's a small community
there. So, it's unlikely that too many people are going to be walking around with a similar DNA pattern.
>> Despite this second DNA test, the prosecution refused once again to drop their case against Paul and Iraqi.
During the trial, the prosecution presented the circumstantial evidence against Paula Norraki, including the
coffee cup incident and the Colonel Clink reference in one of the threatening letters. For the defense,
teachers from Joanne Chambers former school district testified that she made similar claims of harassment years
earlier. But it was the DNA evidence that stunned most courtroom observers. The DNA was definitely a bombshell. Um,
to hear that uh Joanne Chambers saliva was found on the stamps of one of the the threatening letters and the flap of
another envelope. It was just unbelievable. >> But on the witness stand under oath,
Joanne Chambers had an explanation. She said the prosecutor left her alone with the evidence and the stamps fell off one
of the envelopes. She said she licked the stamps to reattach them and when that didn't work, used a glue stick.
>> At the very least, she showed poor judgment and at the most she tampered with uh important evidence.
>> Dr. Liken Walner testified that she saw no glue stick residue on the stamps when
she removed them for DNA testing. As a lifelong stamp collector, she has experience distinguishing glue stick
residue from regular stamp adhesive. >> I know gum from knowing stamps, and it would looked to me just like the gum on
recent US stamps, and it's smooth and glistening, and it looked just like that. There was no outward evidence that
a glue stick had been used. >> The trial lasted 5 days, and it took the jury less than 2 hours to reach a
verdict. They found Paula Nor Rocky not guilty. >> Reaction after the verdict was the most
amazing thing I've ever seen. The alleged victim was being treated as the defendant and the defendant was being
treated as the victim. In the hallway, jurors sought out Paulie and hugged her and told her how much they loved her
while Joanne Chambers left the courthouse uh virtually ignored. Joanne Chambers denies that she created the
campaign of threats against her. >> I could never ever do this stuff to myself. I don't think that I could be
functioning in a world as a parent, as a teacher, as a wife. If I were that sick to do that to
myself, >> I think Joanne Chambers did it herself. Yes. I think she sent the Barbie doll. I
think uh this was all a stage for Joanne. >> I hope the lesson that people could
learn from this is that you really are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and you aren't supposed to be
guilty until proven innocent. >> I've never seen anything like this. And if I cover cases for another 40 years, I
think I'll give you that same answer still. [Music] No, [Music] one Heat. Heat. [Music]
[Applause] [Music]

For more than a year, hateful letters were sent to a school teacher in Pennsylvania. DNA analysis would eventually help seal the perpetrator's fate.

Brief Summary

A teacher's harassment case spirals into shocking revelations and a trial that questions the victim's credibility.

Key points

The Stalker Letters. For over a year, a first-grade teacher received threatening letters filled with hate.
The Investigation Unfolds. As the investigation deepens, shocking evidence points to a fellow teacher.
DNA Evidence Shocks Court. DNA testing reveals a shocking connection between the alleged victim and the letters.
A Surprising Verdict. In a twist, the jury finds Paula Noraki not guilty, leaving the community stunned.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I felt sick to my stomach. I felt horrified.

Joanne Chambers describes her reaction to finding feces under her desk.

4:10WatchSep 24, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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