Forensic Files - Season 5, Episode 5 - Burning Ambition - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In 1996, a suspicious house fire destroyed the home of the Seattle, Washington policeman.
In a bizarre twist, an ex-convict confessed to setting the fire, then mysteriously disappeared.
When investigators looked carefully at the written confession, they discovered clues
of a more serious crime than arson. They found evidence of murder. [theme music]
Sergeant Matt Bachmeier was a 25-year veteran of the King County Sheriff's Department, a man well
liked and respected by his peers. DET. DENNY GULLA: This guy was a police hero, you know?
He had been involved in several different types of shootouts, or real interesting type of events, and had survived them.
NARRATOR: On July 9, 1996, at 1:30 in the morning, a fire broke out in Sergeant Bachmeier's suburban home.
Bachmeier was at a local bowling alley when the fire broke out. By the time the fire was extinguished,
the home was almost completely destroyed. The origin of the fire appeared suspicious.
And dogs specially trained to recognize flammable liquids or accelerants were sent to sniff through the rubble.
The dogs identified five different areas where accelerants were used to set this fire.
One was in the basement. A second in the dining room. There were two separate areas in the attic.
And the fifth was in the garage. In arson terms, this is called a layering fire.
On the outside wall of Sargent Bachmeier's garage were spray painted messages critical of police.
One said, Rios lives. Guadalupe Rios was a man Sergeant Bachmeier Meyer had shot and killed eight years earlier in the line of duty.
Bachmeier told colleagues that he had received threats from Rios' friends and relatives,
but until now they had only been threats. Captain Dave Maehren was Sergeant Bachmeier's supervisor.
CAPTAIN MAEHREN: We were concerned any time a fellow officer's home is-- is arsoned,
that's a traumatic event for them. And I talked to him what he might need as a way of help
and support and time off to recover from that. NARRATOR: While the arson investigation continued,
Sergeant Bachmeier himself uncovered some important information about the fire. It happened when he was called to break
up a neighborhood fight. -Sir, are you OK? -Yeah, I'm all right. -Did anybody here say what happened?
-I saw most of it. NARRATOR: One of the men in that fight was Brad Wren, who had a history of mental problems and had
some prior brushes with the law. -Thank you. What happened? -Well, I can start off by telling you two weeks ago
he was shot in the leg. And now tonight, he got in a fight with his brother's-- his roommate's brother.
-You doing OK? Is that leg all right? -Yeah, it's certainly killing me, but I guess it's gonna be all right.
-All right, let's get down to the police station. We can take your statement there.
NARRATOR: Sergeant Bachmeier asked Wren to come to the police station so that he could take his statement.
According to Sergeant Bachmeier, during questioning Wren asked Bachmeier if he was the cop whose home
was destroyed by the recent fire. -Are you the cop that had his house burned down?
-Yeah. why? NARRATOR: When Bachmeier said yes, Wren allegedly told Bachmeier that he
knew the identity of the arsonist. -He's a drug dealer I met in a bar. Pepe Hernandez.
NARRATOR: Pepe Hernandez told Wren that a local cop had stolen some drugs and money from him
during a recent drug bust. -Hey man, this cop busted me the other day. -Yeah? -He stole my dope and my stash of money.
-So what are you going to do? -I know where he lives and I want to go get myself back.
-You know, I'll give you $500 if you come and help me. NARRATOR: The cop Fernandez was talking about
was none other than Sergeant Bachmeier. -So I said, OK. -Then what happened? -We broke into your house and Pepe tore the house up.
He couldn't find the drugs or the money. And so Pepe started stealing things-- paintings and-- and statues.
And I heard him say he was going to burn your house down. And then he-- he just did it.
-Where is he now? -If you think I'm going to help you find him, you're crazy. He'll kill me.
When I left, he was pissed and I'm glad he's gone. NARRATOR: Sergeant Bachmeier transcribed
Wren's entire statement, had Wren sign it, then released him from custody. But Bachmeier had a dilemma.
The confession implicated him in the theft of drugs and money. So he decided not to turn it over to his superiors.
At least, not yet. Brad Wren, the man who allegedly confessed to taking part in the arson of Sergeant Bachmeier's home,
had a history of mental problems. It all started when Brad Wren was in the Air Force.
He was in a severe motorcycle accident and barely escaped with his life. -He had massive brain injuries.
They didn't know if he went in a coma. They didn't know what to tell us or anything
until he come out of the coma. NARRATOR: Wren eventually recovered, but he was never the same after the accident.
His personality changed. He was more aggressive. And for the first time in his life,
got into trouble with the law. Shortly after the accident, he was convicted of a sex-related offense
and spent three months in prison. More recently, Wren was in a violent argument with his roommate, Emmet Marcel, who shot him in the leg,
shattering his tibia. -His roommate had a mental problem, too. And if he didn't take his medication,
why, then he was just more or less wacky, you know. And evidently he'd been off his medication for awhile
and him and Brad got into it. -They were doing some kind of siding or roofing or something for a friend.
And Brad hit Emmet's finger with the hammer. And that's what Emmet said he shot him for.
NARRATOR: Unaware of Brad Wren's alleged confession, arson investigator Becky Gibbs was assigned to investigate
the arson fire of Sargent Bachmeier's home. She saw evidence that was inconsistent with a fire set
for revenge. -And typically, if somebody's going to set a fire for revenge, they may go to some trouble
to set a fire, but this particular way of setting a fire takes some time. NARRATOR: The debris from the fire
was analyzed using gas chromatography, which found traces of gasoline in the debris.
There was also evidence that road flares were used to ignite the gasoline. -These would be considered a time-delay device.
If you set the road flare on fire, the fire doesn't start right away. But once it reaches the point where it's touching the gas
container, then the fire-- the gas container would melt and the fire would start.
NARRATOR: Most fires set for revenge do not use time-delay devices. The flares would have given Sergeant Bachmeier enough time
to drive to the bowling alley to establish his alibi before the gasoline containers exploded.
Investigators were also suspicious because Bachmeier's artwork, porcelain collection,
and bowling trophies were found undamaged in his backyard shed after the fire. Sergeant Bachmeier became the prime suspect.
He adamantly denied any involvement. But when asked to take a lie detector test, he refused.
Under increasing scrutiny, Sergeant Bachmeier had no choice but to produce Brad Wren's alleged confession,
even though it implicated Bachmeier in stealing from a reputed drug dealer. When police tried to interview Brad Wren to corroborate
his confession, they discovered he was missing. -There wasn't any of his clothes, none of his shoes,
nothing left in the house. -I knew Brad was dead. I knew it. I don't know how I knew it.
But I knew my son was dead. We would have heard from him. He would have never went off and left his dog
with nobody taking care of him. He would have never-- he would have just never let him like that.
NARRATOR: Detective Denny Gulla asked Matt Bachmeier if he knew anything about Wren's alleged disappearance,
since Bachmeier was the last known person to see Wren alive. -He starts laughing.
He goes, well, if you find him dead with my business card nailed to his forehead, you'll know to come talk to me.
And he kind of laughs it off, kind of jokingly. And, you know, I wrote that down when he says that,
because I'm going, that's kind of bizarre. NARRATOR: Police could find no arrest record for anyone
by the name of Pepe Hernandez and police officials say Bachmeier's handling of Brad Wren's interrogation
was improper. -It would be highly, highly unusual for an experienced police sergeant of 25 years
to take a statement like that alone for a suspect. And then certainly to release him immediately
afterwards would be extremely, extremely rare. NARRATOR: Although Brad Wren's family identified the signature
on the bottom of the alleged confession as Brad's, forensic document examiners weren't entirely convinced.
In Seattle, Washington, police were conducting two simultaneous investigations. One into the fire that destroyed police
sergeant Matt Bachmeier's home. The other, a search for the whereabouts of Brad Wren.
They were connected, since Brad Wren was last seen alive in the backseat of Sergeant Bachmeier's patrol car.
-That was the last sighting we had and, uh, in police investigations, last person seen with someone who's
alive is-- is certainly going to attract your interest. NARRATOR: The four and a half page statement, in which
Brad Wren allegedly admitted to taking part in the arson of Sergeant Bachmeier's home,
was written by Bachmeier then signed by Wren, which is standard procedure. Brad Wren had signed the first four pages of the confession,
but for some unexplained reason, did not sign the last page. -In our department that's not normal.
That's not a normal procedure. We would write the whole statement. The very last page would have that on it.
NARRATOR: The confession was subjected to a process known as videospectography. To the naked eye, the ink in Wren's confession
all looked the same. But the videospectography told a different story. Under various infrared light sources,
scientists could see that the confession was written with three different inks. All of Wren's signatures and his initials
were written in a black ink with high luminescence. The entire first page and the top of the second
used a gray black ink with medium luminescence. From then on, a third ink was used, a black ink that
shows no reaction to the infrared light. And there were other discrepancies. Wren's occupation was listed as truck driver, which
was incorrect, as well as other vital information. -James Wren's birth date was different on the second page.
It's listed as 1971. And then on the third and fourth page, it's 1961. And then the fifth page doesn't even have a birth date.
NARRATOR: In the confession, Bachmeier incorrectly wrote the contraction you are as y-o-u-r, the same mistake found
in the threatening message on Sergeant Bachmeier's garage after the fire. Next, scientists check Bachmeier's patrol car
and found something unusual. -As they go through the backseat of Bachmeier's patrol car,
they find just very faint traces of blood. And initially they thought, well, that's a police car.
It's not going to be unusual to have faint traces of blood in the backseat of a police car.
They open up the seat and they find in the stitching several blood stain patterns on the backside
of the seat cover that had soaked through the stitching. NARRATOR: Using a sample of blood from Brad Wren's parents,
a reverse paternity DNA test was made. It proved conclusively that the blood from the backseat
of the patrol car was that of Brad Wren. -Can anybody here tell me what Happened
NARRATOR: Bachmeier said the blood was from Wren's bloody nose that occurred in the fight Bachmeier
was called to break up. Investigators decided to test this hypothesis to see if the size of the blood stain was
consistent with a nose bleed. Forensic scientists use identical rear seats from other patrol cars to conduct their test.
Using head sculptures with wigs and weights to simulate a human head, investigators
poured different amounts of blood onto the seat cushions. It took two quarts of blood to produce a stain the size
found in Bachmeier's patrol car. A loss of two quarts of blood would be life threatening.
Police also found Brad Wren's blood on a pair of Sergeant Bachmeier's work shoes.
Investigators now believed that Brad Wren died in the backseat of Sergeant Bachmeier's patrol car.
But where was Brad Wren's body? Seven months after Brad Wren's disappearance, hikers in a restricted area of Cougar Mountain Park outside
of Seattle found some bones and what appeared to be a human skull. The bones had been scattered by animals.
Fragments were found over a quarter mile away. Only 20% of the skeleton was recovered,
but the size and shape of the cranium told forensic anthropologists that the victim was male.
And that the condition of the bones indicated that they had been in the park less than a year.
They also found a steel rod in the lower leg bone, a surgical repair identical to one performed on Brad Wren.
And near some of the bones in the park, searchers found a red, white, and blue leg cast.
-I need your name and address. NARRATOR: Witnesses said Brad Wren was wearing an identical leg cast when he left with Sergeant Bachmeier
in his patrol car. The marrow in one of the bones was tested for DNA and the results confirmed what investigators
already suspected. The bone was that of Brad Wren. -First thing it did was start bawling.
Cried my heart out. But I was glad in a lot of ways they found him. It was hell, not knowing where he was at.
NARRATOR: The only remaining question for investigators was the motive. -The story is so convoluted and so sort of pathetically obvious
in its fabrication that it almost defies belief. I mean, I think it would be rejected as a plot for a novel
or a script for a movie because it just seems so absurd and outlandish and unnecessarily
sort of complex and contradictory. NARRATOR: Matt Bachmeier was an avid bowler, and his dream was to compete on the professional bowlers tour.
Prosecutors believe Bachmeier set fire to his own home using the time-delay device, giving him time to get
to the bowling alley to establish his alibi. Bachmeier may have planned to use the insurance money
from the fire to finance his entry onto the Pro Bowlers Tour. But removing his bowling trophies and artwork
from the home before the fire was a classic arson mistake. When Bachmeier learned he was a suspect in the arson,
he looked for a scapegoat. Brad Wren was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And there is no evidence he ever made
it to police headquarters for questioning. Somewhere along the way, Bachmeier stopped this car
and forced or coerced Wren into signing some blank police reports. -I'm not going to bother taking you down to the station.
I'll just strike the report from what you've already told me. There'll be no charges.
Just sign a couple of these forms for me, would you? -Is this something you normally do?
-Yeah. It's fine. Hey, do me a favor? In case your statement goes on too long, could you sign a few extra copies for me?
-Yeah. Sure. NARRATOR: Then, Bachmeier murdered him. Wren's blood seeped into the rear seat cushions
as Bachmeier made the 30-minute minute drive to Cougar Mountain Park to dump the body.
Some time later, Bachmeier composed the phony confession, which forensic technology revealed as bogus.
-I'd never been so mad at somebody in my whole life. There was a time or two there that I just
wanted to get a hold of him so bad. I think I could have ripped him limb by limb.
I was just furious with that man. -I don't think he's much of a man. I think the man must have a mental problem or something,
I don't know. I can't feature a police officer, 25 years or so, doing something like this, without having
some kind of a problem. What-- what-- what was he going to gain out of it, you know?
I don't know. NARRATOR: Sergeant Matt Bachmeier was convicted of first-degree murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison. Seattle prosecutors say it was one of the most bizarre murder
cases they had ever encountered . -I can't pretend to, uh, to tell you what sort of a person
gets drawn into a web of his own making to the extent that he's willing to take a human life.
Uh, All I can say is that we see this happen. And we rarely see it happen with a law enforcement officer
with 25 years of service. But most murders are fundamentally inexplicable, unreasonable, irrational events.
-I think, um, stupid would apply. But I think-- the thing that comes to mind is just he really underestimated the people
that worked around him. -One of our members was, uh, talking not too long about someone writing a book about this.
And they said, um, I don't think anybody will write a book about this because when you tell the story, it's not believable.
Um, but it is interesting. And so I think there's still, for-- for quite some time
to come, will be with our department, unfortunately. [theme music]

When a policeman's house goes up in flames, experts suspect arson. The officer whose home was torched arrests low-level drug dealer James Wren, who confesses. But when the suspect vanishes, investigators question the authenticity of the confession.

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

Sergeant Matt Bachmeier was convicted of murdering Brad Wren after a suspicious house fire linked to him.

Key points

The Mysterious Fire. In 1996, a suspicious fire destroyed a policeman's home, leading to a shocking confession.
The Confession. Sergeant Bachmeier learns of a confession implicating him in a drug theft.
The Discovery of Bones. Months later, hikers find remains linked to the missing man, Brad Wren.
Bachmeier's Downfall. Sergeant Bachmeier is convicted of first-degree murder in a bizarre case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This guy was a police hero, you know?

DET. DENNY GULLA reflects on Sergeant Bachmeier's reputation.

1:16WatchNov 11, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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