Forensic Files - Season 5, Episode 19 - Deadly Knowledge - Full Episode | Forensic Files

at the start of the fall semester in 1995 a 23 year old college co-ed tina bigger
was reported missing she had been working on a research project studying the health risks of
high-priced call girls in detroit but she soon discovered that prostitutes face more than health risks in their job
they face the possibility of violence [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
tina bigger was a 23 year old psychology major about to enter her senior year at
oakland university outside of detroit she was raised in a military family and friends knew her as vivacious and hard
working tina bigger was the all-american girl she came from a coast guard family her
father was a coast guard commander her mother was a registered nurse the people who knew tina and who were closest to
her knew her as a very fun-loving dedicated student well-liked by all her peers and
colleagues and very much be loved by her family a great big sister a great daughter
tina worked her way through school as a waitress at the rochester chop house and lived with her boyfriend todd
nurnberger in an upscale apartment complex not far from school todd nurenberger was a student at the
university of michigan the two had an on-again off-again relationship and friends weren't sure
whether it would work out tina also had another side to her she could be distrustful she could be
vengeful she had a temper at times too this was a tina that not a lot of people who knew
her saw tina was conducting a research project for school entitled a survey of sexual history and health
practices among women employed as escorts she wanted to find out if high-priced coal girls and street prostitutes had
the same knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases she decided that she wanted to do her
own study she thought it would help her get into a good graduate school and she decided to study high class call girls
and their awareness of aids and then she was going to compare the two on august 23rd 1995
todd left for work he said tina was still asleep when he left when he returned home that night
she was gone todd immediately phoned police usually missing persons the case is wrapped up within
a couple days maybe even a couple of hours usually phone calls could be made to determine where the person is or where
they've been even but from the start this case was different tina's car was gone
none of her personal belongings were missing from the apartment none of tina's friends had seen or heard
from her and police also discovered that tina was planning to move into her own apartment
without todd the fact that tina was looking to move to another apartment was actually in the process of
looking to get into another apartment led me to think that there was something wrong
that maybe i need to talk to todd a little bit further about what was happening in their lives
maybe that there was something i was missing [Music] police learned that tina found evidence
that todd was seeing another woman [Music] and in an unexpected twist police discovered that tina was hiding
some secrets of her own 23 year old psychology student tina bigger was a hard-working honor student who
friends say had a promising career ahead of her she disappeared without a trace shortly
before the fall semester at oakland university outside of detroit when her boyfriend todd nurnberger
called police to report her missing police were naturally suspicious the two had an on-again off-again
relationship [Music] a few months earlier tina found a suggestive greeting card to
todd from another woman and realized that todd had been unfaithful people had seen them fight sometimes he
was very devoted but sometimes they had a very combustible relationship he spent
more time with her than anyone else he probably knew her better than anyone else he would seem like a natural
suspect despite their differences todd nurenberger denied any involvement in tina's disappearance
tina worked as a waitress at the rochester chop house did tina bigger show up for work last
night when todd called to see if she had reported to work he was told that tina had quit her job
four months earlier okay thank you tina said nothing about quitting her waitressing job and had continued to
launder her waitressing outfits as if nothing had changed todd searched their apartment looking
for some clue as to where tina might have gone [Music] todd found a duffel bag he had never
seen before inside were condoms thigh high stockings lingerie sexual lubricants credit card slips and
envelopes addressed to the la escort service with the name crystal in the upper left hand corner
hello do you have a girl that works for your name tina bigger the owners of the la escort service said
they didn't know anyone by the name of tina bigger but they said that crystal was the name
of one of their more popular escorts escort services operate in most large cities and offer female companionship
demand in return for fees ranging from 150 to 300 per hour among the services provided is usually
sex todd now began to suspect that tina had been living a secret life as a high-priced call girl
she decided she was going to do a study of high class call girls and their awareness of aids and she began
contacting services asking if she could talk to girls she started doing that and
i think in the process became sort of enamored with what they were doing i think in part it was the money she was
broke she had maxed out her credit cards she needed a new car she had to pay for
school the money they make is a lot more than you make working at a steakhouse at
one point she was making 250 dollars for an appointment maybe women have a little
fantasy about themselves maybe all women do and maybe she lived it out i think she had a fantasy about herself
i think she wanted more attention in kind of a distant way and being a call girl she was getting it because that's
the kind of attention you get maybe it gave her power hi i'm crystal after initially denying it the escort
service eventually admitted what todd already suspected that tina beggar worked as an escort
with the professional name of crystal they also revealed that tina worked for two other escort services and had dozens
of clients that also meant dozens of possible suspects [Music] the investigation into tina bigger's
disappearance revealed a dark secret for the past year tina had been working as a high-priced
call girl it was probably very important for tina to keep this information or what was
going on her life away from her boyfriend because she was living with him he knew so much about her
but at the same time if if he had determined that she was involved with an escort service actually working for one
obviously that would have caused a great deal of havoc in his life and their lives together
he naturally was despondent at one point he even uh considered killing himself with a gun that he had but he called
some friends they talked him out of it and he decided basically that he was going to do whatever needed to be done
that he owed it to tina to get to the bottom of what had happened to her records from the escort service revealed
numerous requests for tina's services from a man named ken tranchita their first meeting took place at the
bluebird motel just 12 days before tina's disappearance among tina's personal items found in her
apartment was a love letter from ken dear tina my heart is yours for you to keep
your love will lift me off my feet you came to me your love so willing i know it's worth all our waiting
love can when police entered ken tranchita's apartment they noticed the name crystal on some
artwork attached to his refrigerator a local car dealer said tina was with ken tranchita looking at new cars
together [Music] you like it yeah [Applause] and that ken had offered to loan her
money for the car i love it ken tranchita was a 42 year old ex-convict with a history of passing bad
checks forgery fraud embezzlement and theft he was not the wealthy businessman he
portrayed to tina sort of a drifter a loner he was a petty thief and a petty con man
type of a person he held down some menial jobs but not for very long i thought he was just like kind of a
little weasel really i don't know how else you would describe him he had kind of a little voice and he he was sort of
pathetic really he just was a guy who probably thought tina was going to be his girlfriend or something
tranchita admitted meeting tina bigger whom he first knew as crystal through the escort service
he said they later met without the agency knowing and the tina stopped charging him for their sexual liaisons
since the two had become friends he told police that he had driven tina to the airport just one week earlier for
a flight to ohio where she was going to service a client a check of flight log showed
no record of tina bigger on any flight to ohio ken said tina left her car with him for
safekeeping while she was away when police asked to inspect the car tranchita willingly obliged
inside police found names and addresses of more escort service clients along with
directions to their homes we had learned through paperwork found in her car and through the escort service that she
actually had contact with people that were living out of the country they were living out of state
so it was possible that she could have just taken off gone someplace although the trunk was filled with
debris a preliminary search found no evidence of foul play research shows that most first-time
killers dispose of their victims bodies in locations the killer is familiar with
so police used cadaver dogs to search areas near tranchita's home michigan state trooper richard hetu
works with kai a veteran cadaver dog trained specifically to find human bodies to train the dogs the troopers hide a
small sample of human tissue or fluid in their wooded training area the dog isn't
rewarded for finding animal remains but they're rewarded for finding human remains
so they're going to dig along a lot harder and look a lot harder because they're working for that reward
trooper hitu and kai searched wooded areas around ken tranchita's rented home as well as the
grounds of a nearby monastery where tranchita often walked although they searched hundreds of
wooded acres they found nothing with no evidence to hold ken tranchita he was released from police custody
it was a mistake police would soon regret after police questioned ken tranchita about the disappearance of tina bigger
he was released because of a lack of evidence even though they suspected he knew more
about her whereabouts than he had told them it was clear that ken's relationship with tina was
more than just business since a love letter from ken was found in tina's belongings and ken had
promised to loan tina the money for a new car was he going to help her get a car he
made promises he was probably telling her things to maybe make her hang on to him maybe
she was making him think that they were friends just to kind of get some of these things taken care of
with no other leads police decided to take a second look inside tina's car to their embarrassment what they first
thought were coffee stains on the side of a cup now appeared to be blood and when they peeled back the trunk
carpet they found a pool of blood on the right hand side dna tests revealed the blood belonged
to tina baker the investigation was already being looked at as a homicide more so than
perhaps another case might have been but once they found that blood there was really no question
the amount of blood in the trunk pointed to murder and since the car had been in ken
tranchita's possession since tina's disappearance he was the prime suspect but by this time
ken tranchita had vanished police finally got a break in the case one month after tina bigger disappeared
ken tranchita's brother suggested that police search a deserted home once owned by his aunt
the home was just 10 miles from tinabigger's apartment in the woods in the backyard
police found the badly decomposed body of a young woman since there were no pools of blood near
the body this told forensic scientists that the murder had taken place somewhere else
an analysis of dental records later revealed the body was that of tina bigger since the decomposition started in the
neck area the coroner suspected tina had been strangled since decomposition begins in the areas
where there is bleeding at the time of death it was a unnatural cause of death there
was no fracture anywhere even in the head area so neck has to be a place where the event happened and we
call it a neck trauma i could not identify specific if neck was slashed she was strangled she was smothered i
cannot say that but it has to be a neck injury and that was the conclusion a nationwide manhunt for ken tranchita
was now underway tranchita was eventually spotted in a run-down neighborhood in downtown
detroit police closed in ken made a weak attempt at slitting his wrists in the bathroom before giving
himself up after several hours of police interrogation ken tranchita finally admitted
that he and tina had an argument over money you don't have the money to loan me do you of course i have the money i
don't believe you the money is coming they had struggled and tina fell hitting her head and died
[Music] but x-rays of tina's skull contradicted that scenario she did not have any skull fracture
anyway if she bleed inside of the skull i would have seen some blood staining inside of
the skull which was not present although tina may have suffered a head wound as evidenced by the blood found in
tina's trunk the wound was probably not fatal when tranchita was confronted with this
information his statement shot police what he said was tina was just so miserable in those last days
that i made a sudden decision to end it for her and put her out of her misery the minute the police heard that
statement they thought holy jesus i thought guilty of your honor ken tranchita accepted a plea bargain
and pled guilty to second degree murder tina's family reluctant to have tina's double life made public
agreed to the deal prosecutors believe when tina discovered ken had lied to her about having the
money to buy the new car the two fought tina struck her head and was later strangled or smothered to death
ken placed tina's body in the trunk of her car then dumped the body in the woods near his aunt's home
[Music] it was a tragic end to an unfortunate story ken tranchita was sentenced to life in
prison ironically while tina was living a life of deception she too was deceived by ken tranchita
a con man offering the promise of a big loan if tina was brought into this double
life under some kind of illusion that it was going to be like a scene from pretty
woman and richard gere was going to come rescue her and you know bring her wonderful gifts and she was going to
fall into this opulent lifestyle that that's not the reality of the call girl world
you can meet up with some very desperate characters and some very bizarre characters
in this case unfortunately the person that she met up with was not richard gere it was ken
and [Music] where tina ended up lying in that field is more the reality than the movie i
think she [Music] chose to cross the line and she paid the ultimate price which is
what all of us as parents guard against and fear the most i think for our children
and i believe by telling tina baker's story that we sent a message to other girls who might be in the
business to other young women who might be thinking of going into the business to young women who might think they can
tease or play a little bit with a world that they don't belong in i think that sends a message that you're
asking for trouble that you could end up in a situation that you can't handle that you can end
up dead [Music] [Music] you

When 23 -year-old Tina Biggar goes missing, her boyfriend and family fear she has been murdered. A police investigation reveals details about her past that no one suspected: She was a student by day and a $100-an-hour call-girl by night.

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

Tina Bigger, a college student, was murdered after her secret life as an escort led to a deadly confrontation with Ken Tranchita.

Key points

The Disappearance of Tina Bigger. A promising psychology student vanishes, leading to a dark investigation.
Secrets Uncovered. Tina's hidden life as an escort comes to light, complicating the investigation.
The Tragic End. Tina's body is found, revealing the grim outcome of her disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She paid the ultimate price.

Reflecting on Tina's tragic fate.

21:28WatchNov 11, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from Forensic Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.