Forensic Files — Season 3, Episode 13 — Out of the Ashes (In HD) | Forensic Files

[music playing] NARRATOR: On a cold December night in 1993, Rose Larner left the convenience store on her way
to a boyfriend's house. But she was never seen or heard from again. Rose Larner's disappearance remained a mystery
until a tiny clue found years later uncovered a tragic tale of drugs, romance, and revenge.
[music playing] Rose Larner was the second of three children in a broken family.
She was a highly intelligent, but very difficult teenager. Rose Larner was an 18-year-old girl who liked to spend a lot
of time out at night with her friends away from her family, a family that dubbed her the vampire because they--
they only saw her in the daytime. NARRATOR: Rose's best friend, Bill Brown, was a boy she had known since second grade.
They remained friends even after high school. First girl I ever got a kiss from.
Her and two other girls came down our house and they chased me through the woods
and my brothers held me down and she gave me a kiss. And we was just basically friends.
We had crushes on each other, but nothing serious, and we were just kids. NARRATOR: After high school, Rose worked at a pizza shop
in her hometown of Lansing, Michigan and started dating a friend of Bill Brown's, John Ortiz-Kehoe.
He came on quite polite. He was a local star, rap star. I mean, everyone thought he was just it, you know?
This was John Kehoe. And when I first met him, I thought he was a nice. I thought he was all right.
NARRATOR: Rose, John Kehoe, and Bill Brown were inseparable, spending their days and most of their nights
together. For a time, Rose and John Kehoe lived together, but the relationship didn't last.
Kehoe moved out, and Rose was devastated. John, at some point, decided that he wasn't interested in Rose and tried to break it off.
Rose wasn't real keen on that idea. NARRATOR: On the night Rose disappeared, she stopped in to visit her mother, who was working
at the convenience store. Rose said she was headed to the home of her friend, Keith,
who lived nearby. She walked up to my work and told me she was walking over to a boyfriend she had at the time.
Her and John were split up. And-- and I asked her not to. I told her I had a bad feeling about tonight,
go back and get to bed, but she didn't want to do that. NARRATOR: Rose preferred to walk that night instead of driving
and did not return home. The next day, Rose Markey called her daughter's friend, Keith,
who said that Rose never showed up. Rose didn't show up for work that day either.
Rose ran on the wild side. She was independent, rebellious, and it would not have been out of the-- out of the realm of possibility
for her to have simply left the area and gone looked for another lifestyle. NARRATOR: Rose Larner made approximately 1,500 telephone
calls every month, but no one heard from her after she disappeared. Nobody heard from Rosie.
And the detective that was assigned to the case, that was his sign that there was something wrong there.
Because he said that someone just doesn't break a habit like that. NARRATOR: Rose Larner's mother still hoped
for her daughter's safe return. Perhaps something in Rose's phone records would provide a clue.
After two weeks went by with no word from Rose Larner, Lansing police began one of the most intensive searches ever
undertaken in central Michigan. They dragged area rivers, coordinated search teams
to look for clues in the surrounding neighborhoods, and investigated every lead.
DONALD MARTIN: The persistent rumors, Rose is in so an so's backyard, Rose is in so and so's basement, and I'll admit,
we dug up a few basements and drained a few gravel pits looking for Rose with nothing.
Came up dry every time. Nothing. NARRATOR: Police learned that Rose Larner spoke
with her ex-boyfriend, John Ortiz-Kehoe, on the night she disappeared. Kehoe had an alibi for that night.
He was on a date with another woman. Bill Brown was with Kehoe and his date on the night Rose disappeared and corroborated Kehoe's alibi.
For the next 2 and 1/2 years, police could find no trace of Rose Larner. You're simply stymied.
You're stalled. That was where the police were at-- at that time, 2 and 1/2 years after she disappeared.
NARRATOR: The state police began their investigation with a fresh look at Rose's ex-boyfriend, John Ortiz-Kehoe.
They quickly discovered that Kehoe and Rose Larner had an unusual relationship, one that continued
even after they broke up. In one incident, Rose followed Kehoe to this fraternity house
near Michigan State University. Kehoe was on a date with another woman. In a fit of anger, Rose drove a van
into the side of Kehoe's truck. BILL BROWN: She was smashing her mother's van into his truck,
breaking out his windows. We'd come out my parents' house and she'd be hiding behind trees.
NARRATOR: Police also learned that Kehoe and Bill Brown were in business together, the drug business,
and had customers all over Michigan. DONALD BROOKS: We, as a task force, put a lot of pressure
on Bill Brown I mean, we were talking to family members, we were talking to friends, we were talking to neighbors,
we were talking to all kinds of people had been approached before. NARRATOR: Brown and Kehoe were together
on the night Rose Larner disappeared, but police did not believe that Brown had told them everything about their activities that night.
BILL BROWN: I knew it was gonna be very hard, very, very hard for them to be able to get a case.
I knew the only way would be is if people started talking. NARRATOR: Bill Brown originally said he knew nothing about Rose
Larner's disappearance. But 2 and 1/2 years later, under constant police pressure,
he changed his story, and it was a story so shocking few believed him. When Bill Brown was sitting there in the office,
we were hearing things that we had never heard before. It was an eye-opener. After listening to his whole story
about what happened to Rose Larner, I literally went home and told my wife that I
felt like I just met Satan. You know, I almost stopped on the way home and went into a church that I didn't belong to.
It's-- it was-- it was the most unsettling thing that I've ever been through, to listen to that.
NARRATOR: And police needed science to determine whether Brown was telling the truth.
After 2 and 1/2 years of searching for Rose Larner, Bill Brown finally revealed what happened
on the night she disappeared. Brown said that on December 7, he unexpectedly ran into Rose Larner
near the convenience store. Rose told Brown she wanted to see John Kehoe. Rose was begging me to face John, and so I finally do.
I page John, and she asked me to ask John to come pick her up. John says the only way he'll agree to that is if she agrees
to have sex with both of us. NARRATOR: Brown said Rose agreed. They drove to John Kehoe's grandparents' home
because they were away on vacation. Rose changed her mind about the threesome. When she did, Brown said Kehoe murdered her
and dismembered her body. Brown said they cleaned every square foot of the house,
removing all of the blood, bone, and debris. Later, they drove to a cabin owned by Bill Brown's parents
where they burned Rose's body. Afterwards, they spread Rose's ashes along miles of highway
throughout Michigan. Brown said he didn't come forward sooner because he was afraid Kehoe would murder him as well.
All I wanted to do was get away from him. I just wanted to get away from him. And after that, he basically kind of kept me hostage.
I mean, he wouldn't let me out of his sight. NARRATOR: After 2 and 1/2 years, police finally
had the break they were hoping for, but they needed to know if Brown was telling the truth.
He'd been involved in the drug scene, that he ran with this group that would fight.
Violence was a part of their world. He was-- he ran with a rough crowd. NARRATOR: Brown said Rose was murdered in the bathroom.
Police sprayed the area with luminol, a chemical which can reveal trace amounts of blood
even after it's been removed with water and detergent, but they found nothing. On a hallway carpet, the luminol revealed
what appeared to be the imprint of a bloody bucket, but after 2 and 1/2 years, there was not enough blood
to perform DNA testing. Investigators feared they were at a dead end, until they
noticed a small spot on the wallpaper just outside the bathroom. It had the color consistent with blood,
and it had kind of the configuration of what you would suspect if a blood droplet was
falling down a wall. NARRATOR: The spot looked like part of the wallpaper pattern.
To see if it was blood, scientists performed a phenolphthalein test. A wet Q-tip was rubbed over the spot, then,
phenolphthalein and hydrogen peroxide were applied. The Q-tip turned pink, a positive presumptive test
for the presence of blood. Of course, we didn't know whose blood it was. Keep in mind, just because we find a drop of blood, I mean,
it could be the grandparents, it could be anybody's blood that-- we didn't know for sure.
You know, in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, could this be a blood drop of Rose Larner?
And this point, you know, of course, I got very excited and thought, you know, what if?
This could actually be from our victim. NARRATOR: Scientists were able to extract enough blood
from the wallpaper for DNA analysis, but they have nothing to compare it to. In Rose Larner's case file, police
learned that she had been involved in a sexual assault four years earlier. After the assault, a sample of her blood
was taken and still existed in police custody. The DNA profile from the blood on the wallpaper
matched the DNA from Rose Larner's blood sample. The odds of the blood belonging to anyone else
were 1 in 747 million. Identifying it as Rose Larner's is what's remarkable. That tells us that Rose Larner was in that house at that time.
That corroborates what Bill Brown told us. That was crucial. NARRATOR: Brown also revealed that they
both rinsed rags soaked with Rose's blood in the basement sump pump. Forensic scientists gathered all of the debris
from the bottom of the drain. They also excavated the fire pit near Bill Brown's parents' cabin, where Rose's
body had allegedly been burned. The search resembled an archeological dig. My job at that site was to excavate the fire pit
and collect any remains, any evidence in that fire pit that might be relevant to the case.
Specifically, I was looking for evidence for human bone, human material. NARRATOR: The fragments were analyzed
with an ultraviolet light in order to determine whether they were bone. Under ultraviolet light, bone will glow.
MAY MICHAUD: The fragments that I did end up finding were very, very small. Probably none of them were larger than the size of a pea.
So, initially, when all the dirt and debris was in there, it was very difficult to tell what we had.
NARRATOR: The bone chips were too damaged and degraded for DNA analysis. But they were analyzed to determine if they were human.
Magnified 100 times, human bone is circular in structure, while animal bone, seen here, is more linear.
The bones found in both sites were clearly human. The number of circular structures in the bones,
are osteons, increases with age. They were relatively few osteons in the bone chips
found in the debris. We were able to determine that the remains were clearly human,
and, in some cases, they probably represented somebody who was a teenager or in their early 20s.
People just don't find bone fragments in their house. And it collaborated with the bone fragments
that we found in northern Michigan at the site where Bill Brown's property, where they took
her and burned her remains. NARRATOR: The blood and the bone chips were exactly where Bill Brown said they'd be.
Police were now convinced that Rose Larner had been murdered. According to Bill Brown's confession
and the forensic evidence, prosecutors now knew what happened to Rose Larner on her last night alive.
Shortly after visiting her mother at the convenience store, Rose ran into her childhood
friend, Bill Brown. BILL BROWN: Hi, Rose. Hi, Billy. Let's go get John. BILL BROWN: Fine.
NARRATOR: At Rose's suggestion, they picked up her ex-boyfriend, John Kehoe. I'm gonna go inside and grab some stuff
for the night's festivities. NARRATOR: John Kehoe bought some supplies for the evening,
including a hatchet, a knife, and some lighter fluid. Brown said he was not aware of the specific items
Kehoe purchased until later that night. Once at Kehoe's grandparents' home, all three took a shower together.
Kehoe again tried to initiate the sexual threesome, but Rose refused. At the sink, without warning, Kehoe strangled her.
In the shower stall, Kehoe slit her throat and dismembered her body using the knife and hatchet
he purchased at the store. Brown and Kehoe spent the next two days cleaning the blood, bone, and debris.
A bloody bucket left the stain on the carpet found years later with the luminol.
Rags soaked with blood and bone were rinsed in the basement sump pump, where tiny pieces of bone
were also discovered. And a blood spot on the wall was identified as Rose Larner's through DNA testing.
Her body was burned in an outdoor fire pit. After the cremation, the ashes were dumped out of the car window as Kehoe and Brown
drove back to Lansing. BILL BROWN: I did say a prayer for right afterwards. And I'm not a religious person, but I did pray for her soul.
And-- and-- that-- that night-- night-- many nights after, that's about all the thought I put into it.
All the other thought was in saving my-- saving my butt. NARRATOR: The bones in the sump pump,
the luminol impression of the bloody bucket, the tiny speck of blood on the wallpaper,
and the bone fragments in the fire pit all confirmed Brown's story. Before police could question John Kehoe,
he fled the country. After a six-month international manhunt, Kehoe was finally located.
DONALD BROOKS: When I saw him for the first time in Mexico, he was drinking a beer in a bar.
Four minutes later, he's sitting in US Customs, ends up on the other side of the bridge.
It was like slam, bam, and he was out of there right now. I don't think he knew what happened.
NARRATOR: At the trial, Kehoe had a ready defense. He claimed that it was Bill Brown
who had murdered Rose Larner. John Kehoe was gonna point the finger at him and say, well, gee, I didn't do it.
I was just there, and he killed my girlfriend. He went nuts on coke and killed my girlfriend.
We knew that was coming. NARRATOR: But prosecutors argued that Bill Brown had no motive to kill Rose Larner.
John Kehoe did. DOUG BARRETT: His motive was the problems that Rose Larner was causing for him in the days and weeks
prior to her disappearance. She was embarrassing him. She smashed his truck. It was typical for Rose not to be intimidated by this guy
and to simply get into arguments with him and call him names, not back down. That was Rose Larner.
And this, I think, was something new for John Kehoe, and it angered him. It really angered him.
NARRATOR: Although the crime occurred 2 and 1/2 years earlier, Rose Larner was still able to speak to the jury
through the power of forensic science. In this case, you know, I don't take the position
that we didn't have a body. I think we did, we just had very small pieces of it.
So, I mean, they basically gave us a body. NARRATOR: The jury deliberated just over an hour.
JURY FOREMAN: We, the jury, find the defendant, John Ortiz-Kehoe, guilty of first degree
premeditated murder. NARRATOR: Kehoe received Michigan's maximum sentence, life in prison without possibility of parole.
Rose Larner's grave is empty. All that remains of her body are the tiny bone fragments,
which are still in evidence. ROSE MARKEY: I hope John Kehoe lives a long time in prison,
and I hope he thinks of Rosie every day that he's in prison. I feel a person like that would rather
die than to be in prison the rest of his life, so I feel that that's a just punishment.
But if he were to die, I hope it's brutal. NARRATOR: Bill Brown was sentenced to one year in prison
for helping cover up the murder. He is now out on parole. If I were to know it was gonna take place, like I said,
I wouldn't have been there. She wouldn't have been. Never would've happened. The way I feel about it is that by convicting John Kehoe,
I just saved other people's lives, other young girls lives. Because I just feel that it was his nature
and that he enjoyed killing Rose Larner and that he would do it again. [music playing]

On a cold December night in 1993, Rose Larner stopped in a convenience store on her way to her boyfriend's house. She was never seen or heard from again. A tiny clue found years later revealed a tragic tale of drugs, romance and revenge. Now in HD.

Brief Summary

Rose Larner's 1993 disappearance led to a shocking murder confession and conviction of her ex-boyfriend John Ortiz-Kehoe after years of investigation.

Key points

The Disappearance of Rose Larner. On a cold December night in 1993, Rose Larner vanished without a trace, leading to a tragic tale of drugs and revenge.
Bill Brown's Shocking Confession. After years of silence, Bill Brown reveals the chilling details of Rose's murder, claiming she was killed by John Kehoe.
John Kehoe's Conviction. After a lengthy trial, John Kehoe is found guilty of first-degree murder, receiving a life sentence without parole.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was never seen or heard from again.

NARRATOR: On a cold December night in 1993, Rose Larner left the convenience store.

0:21WatchOct 6, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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