Forensic Files - Season 5, Episode 7 - Trail of Truth - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In 1987, a mother and her two young daughters were brutally murdered in their apartment in Anchorage, Alaska.
Microscopic clues from inside the apartment identified a family relative as a possible suspect.
But how could investigators tell whether the evidence was fresh or had been there since long before the murders?
[theme music] Anchorage, Alaska, is considered one of the most scenic cities in the United States.
Bordered by the Alaska mountain range on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other,
it draws tens of thousands of tourists each year. The life blood of the state had been the oil business.
But in the mid 1980s, prices for crude oil crashed, forcing thousands of workers off the job.
John Newman was one of the oil workers who lost his job. When he couldn't find other work in Alaska,
he left for California to take classes to become a locksmith. His wife Nancy stayed behind to care for their two
young daughters eight-year-old Melissa and three-year-old Angie. -Angie was a cherub, beautiful blonde hair.
Just cute, charming, very charming. Melissa was at that stage where she wasn't baby-cute anymore,
but she had all the potential to be beautiful. NARRATOR: Nancy worked as a waitress
at Gwennie's restaurant, an Anchorage landmark. She was known for never missing a day.
And when she didn't come to work one Sunday morning, her co-workers were concerned.
-Nancy's sister Cheryl worked for us as a hostess. And they were very, very close.
And I said, Cheryl, you know, you've got your car. Can you run over and check on Nancy, see what's going on?
NARRATOR: Cheryl immediately drove over to her sister's apartment. Nancy Newman's front door was locked,
but inside was a scene of horrific violence. Nancy was found in her bedroom. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled
to death with a pillowcase. Eight-year-old Melissa had met the same fate. Three-year-old Angie had bled to death
after her throat was slashed. -We'd never had a crime like that in town before, you know,
a whole family basically killed in, in their own house. That was very heinous and definitely
out of the ordinary for Anchorage. NARRATOR: The coroner underestimated the murders took
place some time on Saturday morning. None of the neighbors saw or heard anything unusual during that time.
Although there were no signs of forced entry, Nancy Newman's camera and purse were
missing from the apartment. A knife was also missing from a butcher block in the kitchen.
A cookie tin that normally held Nancy's waitressing tips was empty on the kitchen table.
A damp wash rag was found in the bathroom sink. -He was in a comfort zone inside that apartment.
He knew this situation of these victims enough to know that he wouldn't in all likelihood be interrupted,
that he could spend a significant amount of time. And we could tell he spent a significant amount of time.
He had three different victims, three different bedrooms, two of them sexually assaulted.
And then we had the person completely cleaning up. He was-- had to be covered in blood.
NARRATOR: John Newman was attending school in California. Police could find no evidence that he had returned to Alaska
at the time of the murders, and was not considered a suspect. But the killings reflected a great rage
on the part of the perpetrator. Police wondered if Nancy Newman had made an enemy
among co-workers or customers of the restaurant. -It was a difficult station that she worked.
It was normally, you know, single guys. And maybe they were hung over. Maybe they were just being jerks.
NARRATOR: As John Newman returned home to bury his wife and two small children, investigators
wondered whether this was a botched robbery attempt that had turned violent or an act of revenge.
After the murders of Nancy Newman and her two daughters Melissa and Angie, Anchorage residents feared that a random sex
killer was on the loose. -Why didn't somebody hear Nancy's screams? I used to have dreams at night.
I could hear a woman screaming. And it would be, you know, when you first fall asleep,
and I'd wake up and I'd still hear the screams. But I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything.
And for a while I didn't know if it was dreams or if it was really happening. -Who in this community would commit such a crime where they
would actually kill two young children like that? And if, if it wasn't the husband, then who?
And was he still out there on the streets? And that had a lot of people who were genuinely scared.
NARRATOR: The lack of forced entry and the time spent in the apartment led investigators
to believe the killer had been there before. -Yeah, this is the worst case that I've worked.
I've had, I've been involved in one form or another in over 200 homicide investigations.
And this would be the worst as far as the victims go, the brutality, the age, what was done to them.
NARRATOR: At the crime scene, investigators searched for fingerprints using a technique
called superglue fuming. When superglue is heated, the fumes attach to the biological material in finger oils.
Then powder is used to reveal the print. -Sometimes you'll be able to see them, sometimes you will not.
After the superglue fuming process is completed. As a fingerprint examiner, once those fingerprints are fixed,
we either photograph them as they develop or add different chemicals to that item to try to make the fingerprints
visible, so that we can preserve them and compare them to suspects or other individuals.
NARRATOR: Kathy Monfreda found over 100 fingerprints in the apartment, many did not belong
to anyone in the immediate family. These prints were found on the inside of the front door,
on the cookie tin, where Nancy Newman kept her waitressing tips, in the bathroom, and in other areas.
Investigators identified the prints as those of Kirby Anthony, a nephew of the Newman family.
Anthony was a 23-year-old drifter who had recently moved to Anchorage from Idaho.
Since he needed a place to stay, the Newmans allowed him to move in temporarily.
-Kirby had lived there with them. They had let him stay there. That he was a relative, they felt sorry for him.
They knew he had a troubled past. And so he had a legitimate reason for being in there, which means a lot to what we're
going to discover in trace evidence. -They put him up. He stayed with them. And I think they got along OK, although, we did hear later
and learn that he didn't get along real well with Melissa, the eight-year-old. NARRATOR: Kirby Anthony admitted that living
in a small apartment with two young children was difficult. And he told police he moved out amicably,
just two weeks before the murders. Furthermore, Kirby Anthony denied any knowledge
of the attack and said he had an alibi. He told police he was out with friends on Friday
night and spent Saturday morning eating breakfast at a Burger King restaurant. In addition to the fingerprints, investigators
found large amounts of hair in almost every room of the Newman's apartment. The hairs were Caucasian and were not similar to anyone
in the Newman family. Anchorage police sent the hairs to the FBI in Washington, DC,
hoping that they could shed some light on the identity of the killer. At FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC,
analyst Doug Deedrick examined all of the hairs and fibers collected from the Newman's apartment.
There were thousands of hairs and fibers throughout the apartment, which is not unusual.
But Deedrick found large numbers of hairs in the victims' bedrooms, which were pubic.
-It is very easy to distinguish the differences between the head hair and the pubic hair,
differences being in diameter, length, color, internal microscopic characteristics,
the appearance of the tip. Pubic hairs generally have a pointed tip, whereas head hairs are often cut.
NARRATOR: His first task was to compare the hairs to the victims and to their prime suspect, Kirby Anthony.
In Deedrick's opinion, the pubic hairs were microscopically similar to hair samples collected from Kirby Anthony.
But Anthony's hairs in the apartment could be explained, since he had been living there
until 10 days before the murders. The question was when were these hairs left in the apartment?
To find out, Doug Deedrick devised a unique experiment. -I had to take a vacuum home.
I had to vacuum the house. And I don't believe the house has ever been any cleaner.
But every, every night for two weeks I vacuumed and, and, then, compared afterwards to see
what types of hairs I found and how many hairs I found. NARRATOR: Deedrick discovered that pubic hairs can
travel, or migrate, from room to room. And the way that happens in a household is through what is called "a secondary transfer."
Pubic hairs travel from room to room, primarily on socks. The Deedrick experiment revealed that these transfers
were limited. Very few pubic hairs from an adult's bedroom migrate into a child's bedroom.
How then to account for the large number of Kirby Anthony's pubic hairs in the children's rooms?
One explanation was that Anthony was in the girl's bedroom nude or uncovered. In addition, all of the pubic hairs found in these rooms
were clean and moist. If the hairs had been there since the time Anthony was living there, the shafts would have
been dry and collected dirt. -When a hair is deposited, especially on the floor,
in the carpet of a residence, over time the hair can exhibit chew marks from beetle larva
that tend to eat on the hairs. The hairs will accumulate dirt or debris on the surface.
The hairs that were found on the body of Melissa and on Angie, all three of those hairs,
pubic hairs, like Kirby Anthony's did not have any dirt on them. And they had, actually, what looked like fresh blood
on the surface of the hairs. And that, I thought, was very significant. NARRATOR: Next, Deedrick examined the damp wash rag
found in the Newman's sink after the murders. On the wash rag were some green wool fibers
which matched the pair of gloves found in Nancy Newman's bedroom. Also on the wash rag were traces of the victims' blood.
Finally, Deedrick made a startling discovery. On the wash rag were pubic hairs with partial egg casings
from pubic lice-- an extremely rare finding. The hairs were microscopically similar to Kirby Anthony.
And investigators discovered that Anthony had recently been treated for pubic lice.
And there was more evidence linking Kirby Anthony to the Newman crime scene. One was the location of Kirby Anthony's palm print
in a particularly unusual location. -Above Melissa's bed on the wall, an entire left hand print was developed.
NARRATOR: Melissa had been sexually assaulted. The print, only 10 inches above her head, was telling.
Anthony's fingerprints were also found on the container that Nancy Newman used to hold the cash
tips from the restaurant. Kirby Anthony's roommate told police that on the morning of the murders
Anthony had walked into their apartment with blood on his clothing and immediately
washed everything he was wearing. The roommate also revealed that Anthony was counting
a large amount of change later that same day. Police were still missing two important pieces
of evidence-- the murder weapon and a motive. As the investigation into the murders of Nancy Newman
and her two daughters continued, more and more evidence pointed to the Newmans' nephew Kirby Anthony.
When the Anchorage police searched for a motive, they learned that Kirby Anthony's departure
from the Newman apartment was not as amicable as he first admitted. -John, Kirby is making me very uncomfortable.
Now he's-- NARRATOR: John Newman told police that his wife had called him in California.
She said Anthony was behaving inappropriately, and, on at least one occasion, had struck the children.
-Kirby was acting inappropriate. He was starting to physically discipline the girls,
get angry at them. Um, it was very uncomfortable for Nancy and the girls. And Nancy had relayed this information to John.
And John had told Nancy to tell him to leave, get him out of the apartment. NARRATOR: Police believe that it was an angry Kirby Anthony who
moved into this dilapidated apartment just 10 days before the murders. Investigators had one last piece of physical evidence
to examine-- the vacuum cleaner Nancy Newman used to clean her apartment. A neighbor told police Nancy Newman vacuumed
her apartment shortly before the murders. -I wouldn't call her exactly a clean freak,
not obsessively a clean freak, but for somebody with two little kids-- and I had two little kids--
it was a very neat, well-ordered place. NARRATOR: When Doug Deedrick looked inside the vacuum
cleaner bag, he saw many separate layers of dirt, each layer was different. The top layer was the most recent layer of dirt.
In it, Deedrick could find only one pubic hair from Kirby Anthony. The absence of Kirby Anthony's pubic hairs in the top layer
of dirt in the vacuum bag along with the presence of a great deal of his pubic hair at the murder scene
indicated that Kirby Anthony had been inside the apartment between the time it was last vacuumed
and the time of the murders. -If I saw Kirby today, I'd shoot him, run over him with a car.
Just whatever. And you know that that would ruin my life. This man has scarred so many people.
What he did to Nancy and the girls was unthinkable. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe that the microscopic trail
of evidence Kirby Anthony left behind clearly shows his path on the morning of the murders.
The theory was that Anthony was angry after he was forced to vacate the Newmans' apartment
and sought revenge. The night before the murders, friends said Kirby was using cocaine and alcohol.
GIRL: Mom, this meal stinks. NANCY NEWMAN: That's enough, girls. NARRATOR: The next morning, Anthony
entered the Newmans' apartment. The children were sent to their rooms. -John and I asked you to leave.
You shouldn't even be here. You're not welcome. NARRATOR: At some point, Anthony grabbed the kitchen knife
and forced Nancy Newman into her bedroom. [music playing] Wearing wool gloves he found in the bedroom,
he raped and strangled Nancy Newman with a pillowcase. Then, he entered Melissa's bedroom,
assaulting and killing her too, leaving his palm print above her bed. The evidence suggests Anthony cleaned himself
in the bathroom, leaving the damp washcloth complete with his pubic hair lice, the green wool
fibers, and the victims' blood in the sink. He then killed three-year-old Angie, the only remaining
person who could place him at the scene. Anthony left his fingerprints on the cookie tin
as it took Nancy's tips. He also took Nancy's purse, camera, and the knife he used in the murders.
The purse and the knife were never recovered. The camera was later found in his possession.
-It was a crime of opportunity. Kirby was a very disorganized killer. He just walked over there for whatever reason,
became out of control, and continued down this path of destruction. NARRATOR: At the trial, Kirby Anthony pleaded not guilty
and acted as his own lawyer. His defense was that he was framed by police, but he had no explanation for the washcloth
and the wealth of evidence it contained. -The courtroom was packed pretty much every day.
While they were waiting for the judge to come into the chambers, Kirby Anthony turned and looked over
at John Newman who was in the gallery there, and he said, "You're a fool, John."
And I can remember our cameras capturing John's reaction. He was crying. He was in tears.
He was so angry. -I would say the stupidest thing that Kirby Anthony did was to have himself declared co-counsel
and try and represent himself. And the other stupidest thing is actually get on the witness stand.
I'd say the other stupidest thing he did was he turned around to John Newman in court that was filled with people and called him a fool.
NARRATOR: After two hours of deliberation, Kirby Anthony was found guilty and sentenced
to 357 years in prison. Detective Mike Grimes has difficulty forgetting the unspeakable violence that took the lives of a loving
mother and her two young children. -We can scenario this and try and figure out why people do
things, you never can get inside their head. There was a sexual motivation there.
I have theories that the reason he was asked to move out, I think, something happened between him
and one of the little girls. I think he was very resentful of it. Kirby was a drug abuser, you know, particularly cocaine.
And I think knowing his psychopathic personality fueled by cocaine, I think, he went over there in a rage.
NARRATOR: Nancy Newman's camera, the one found in Kirby Anthony's possession after the murders,
contained family photos taken during happier times, pictures of the lives destroyed by a senseless act of revenge.
[theme music]

Nancy Newman and her two daughters are found brutally murdered. The crime scene has no shortage of evidence, but investigators cannot find a conclusive link to their prime suspect. To solve the puzzle, an FBI analyst designs a unique experiment.

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

The 1987 murders of Nancy Newman and her daughters led to Kirby Anthony's conviction through overwhelming evidence linking him to the crime scene.

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