Forensic Files - Season 6, Episode 1 - Missing in Time - Full Episode | Forensic Files

in 1995 carolyn killeby of vancouver washington got into a heated argument with her
husband she then went to a local bar alone no one has seen or heard from her since
but some saliva from an envelope and a speck of blood on a wristwatch helps solve the mystery of her disappearance
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in 1990 carolyn and dan kilby were married each for the second time
dan managed the furniture store carolyn was a medical technician employed by the u.s military
carolyn and dan each had a daughter from their previous marriages and they moved into this home in
vancouver washington my mom was basically the backbone of my whole family i mean she was very
strong-willed and she just like she held everybody together she was the problem solver she was the supporters she was
the happiness the joy she was just like everything you could ask for [Music] on saturday night november 11 1995
carolyn and dan got into an argument she'd been in a fight with her husband because her husband had decided instead
of doing something with her that night that she'd counted on they were going to go out he was going to go out with his
brother and have some food and drink and she objected significantly to that and i
don't know whether she stomped out of the house and drove over there or how that transpired but she ended up at
omar's and she was doing some serious drinking there a waitress said carolyn was dancing but
was there alone and was obviously intoxicated the other indication was that she was
alone at the table and that her head was down and that she had her head on the table and was basically passed
out at the table not functioning not talking to anyone very very clear to everyone in the bar
that she was highly intoxicated that night around 11 o'clock witnesses said they saw carolyn leave the bar
and she was never seen again i came home sunday morning and she was gone the next day dan killaby called police
to report carolyn missing family members friends and volunteers searched the surrounding area without
success i knew that she would not leave unless somebody made her there was no way she would have left us
[Music] she is the really the light of the family her personality her uh her kindness
[Music] sorry carolyn's car was found in the bar's parking lot the killerby family hired their own
search dogs the dogs tracked carolyn's scent from the bar directly back to her home
the police believed this might be evidence that carolyn returned home from the bar before she disappeared
no one else was home that night dan and the two girls spent saturday night elsewhere
they were concerned about whether or not dan's alibi that he was out drinking with his brother was solid
and i think that they stayed out real late and got real drunk and so the police were not 100 percent
convinced that that could have been the case creating further suspicions was the fact that
carolyn had a 230 000 life insurance policy payable to her husband i always stood behind dan
there was no doubt that he had i could never conceive the idea that he had actually done something like this
dan kilby denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance but police discovered there were problems in the
marriage we found out that it wasn't the uh perfect marriage by any stretch of the
imagination i think we figured that there were some difficulties and some strains in the
marriage two hours after carolyn left the bar the police received two calls from
people who said they heard a woman screaming for help in a field about a mile from omar's lounge
police searched the area using night vision goggles but they found nothing with no solid leads
the killerby family offered a ten thousand dollar reward for any information on carolyn's whereabouts
and then a bombshell a customer at omar's lounge said he saw dan kilby with carolyn in the parking
lot on the night she disappeared [Music] when 34 year old carolyn killeby didn't
return home after spending a night drinking at a local bar her husband dan was an immediate suspect
prosecutor david seeley says there's an old saying in missing persons cases before you look at outlaws you have to
look at the in-laws one of the things they look at to begin with is a husband um
in a missing person case like this because i think a large percentage of the crimes are committed by family
members police found no evidence of foul play in the killerby home but in carolyn's bedroom they found some
potent pain killers vicotin my sister was having some problems with prescription drug medication
and i had confronted her and talked to her about that she had to acknowledge the problem and was
working on that we were the whole family was being supportive of that my understanding of the mixture of
alcohol and vicodin is it makes you comatose and that's exactly what happened to
carolyn when she was in the bar witnesses at omar's lounge say that carolyn passed out at her table
one of the regular customers dennis smith helped her to her car what smith told police
was disturbing [Music] he said that he and carolyn left the bar and engaged in consensual sex in his
truck [Music] as he walked her to her car a man approached them hit smith with a bat
called carolyn a [ __ ] and forced her to leave with him [Music] when shown a photographic lineup
smith identified carolyn's husband dan as the culprit dan killerby angrily denied this he
offered to take a lie detector test and passed dan kiloby said he and his brother were
out drinking together that night in a bar which the bartender there confirmed when police looked closer into dennis
smith's background they discovered that smith had been convicted for the murder of his sister
patricia ann johnson in 1982. smith served 10 years of that sentence and had recently been released on parole
and the witness told police that she saw mud on smith's truck on the night carolyn disappeared
he came to a shell station and clark county his truck was all dirty he asked the attendant there who was a
friend whether or not he could go to her parents house and wash his car the employee also thought she saw a
blood smear on smith's shirt with this new information smith's truck was confiscated
and police noticed that the inside of the truck had been wiped clean no fingerprints hairs or fibers even though
smith said carolyn had been in the truck for consensual sex investigators did find
a tiny speck of blood on the steering wheel and there was evidence of a recent fire
smith said a cigarette butt accidentally ignited the upholstery an alert homicide investigator also
confiscated smith's wristwatch in the forensics lab scientists found a tiny speck of what appeared to be blood
in the crevice of the wristband tests indicated it was human but whose was it since we get half of our dna from our
mother and half from our father scientists could identify whether it was carolyn's blood in the truck by
analyzing dna samples from carolyn's parents but carolyn's mother delivered some
shocking news despite raising carolyn as his own the man carolyn called dad wasn't her
biological father a fact withheld from carolyn during her upbringing carolyn's biological father had died
years earlier this made the blood stain analysis much more difficult we didn't have any solid dna we didn't
have a a piece of skin or a blood sample from her from her body that we could compare to the blood stain so we are a
little up in the air about what to do without a body scientists would have to improvise
when dennis smith learned that he was a suspect in carol and killaby's disappearance he fled and the nationwide
manhunt was underway we didn't know who she'd left with we had the thought that maybe she was in a
hotel and angry and then we found out that she had been seen leaving with this guy dennis and so
we didn't know what that meant and then we found out that he was a murderer that
had been out on parole and so that took away some hope while the fbi searched for smith
forensic scientists analyzed his truck arson experts discovered hydrocarbons on the upholstery of smith's truck
hydrocarbons are present when an accelerant or flammable liquid is used to start a fire
a clue that the fire was intentionally set the damage was extensive and smith's story didn't match the evidence
we got a similar car seat we tried to recreate the fire in three or four different ways
and each time we couldn't come up with that type of damage that we saw in his car
in a small crack in the steering wheel a phenolphthalein test identified a tiny stain
as blood and on dennis smith's wristband scientists found another speck of blood
but without carolyn's body scientists had no dna sample for comparison so detectives searched for a sample of
carolyn's dna and they found it in alaska ten years earlier carolyn mailed a letter to her
girlfriend in alaska and her friend had never thrown it away on the envelope flap and stamps was
carolyn's saliva still a rich source of dna even after 10 years the samples were too badly degraded for
traditional dna testing so scientists used a newer and less exact dna test called mitochondrial dna
traditional dna testing analyzes the nucleus of the cell but outside the cell nucleus are what
are known as mitochondria cells that can be identified although not as precisely as in traditional dna
testing mitochondrial dna is inherited from a mother to her children and therefore if
you want to make a match between a sample of evidence from a missing person as as was in this case blood stains from
someone whose body was not available you need only go to a maternal relative the dna from the envelope flap and
stamps matched the dna from the blood found in smith's truck and with dna samples from carolyn
killeby's mother and daughter dr melton concluded that the mitochondrial dna in dennis smith's
truck was that of carolyn kiloby it was a dna profile that existed in only one out of two hundred 000
caucasians because there was no body found in this case and i believe the remains of miss
kilby are still missing it was very important to place her in the presence of mr smith and of
course a blood stain on his watch band that comes back to her would be very powerful evidence
on the one year anniversary of carolyn's disappearance friends and relatives gathered for a
candlelight vigil outside of omar's lounge the last place she was seen alive then i'm glad they're here and i'm glad
they want to show that they cared too for over a year dennis smith had been on the run
then the television series unsolved mysteries profiled the case asking viewers for help in bringing smith to
justice four days later an anonymous tip revealed smith was living in florida the trick now
was to find him and i turned to drugs and my stepdad turned to alcohol and my sister turned away from all of us
and my whole family just fell apart everything that i'd known for 15 almost 16 years
in one night was all unraveled for 15 months carolyn's family waited for some word on the search for dennis
smith law enforcement searched all over the country and an informant said smith was
living in florida police there stopped the vehicle on the suspicion it was stolen
the man driving the car was dennis smith smith tried to get away there was a fight and smith was shot in
the scuffle i was hoping that he was in a lot of pain i wanted him to hurt i crossed my fingers though that he
didn't die as much as i hate him and do not want him in this world if he were to die there was really no
hope of finding my mom's body or for him having to suffer in prison smith survived the gunshot wound and
returned to washington state to stand trial for kidnapping rape and the murder of carolyn killeby
even though police still hadn't found her body smith pleaded not guilty and stood by his story that he was
attacked by carolyn's husband in the parking lot of the bar and that carolyn left with her husband
the defense reminded the jury that smith identified dan kiloby from a photographic lineup
but prosecutors said smith probably recognized dan kilby from television news reports about his wife's
disappearance and it's just amazed me and i see other i mean on tv on court shows on
anything real or not how the defense always tries to twist the victims into this horrible person
when they never did anything to ask for what they got and they didn't deserve it
prosecutors believe that carolyn killeby was inebriated in omar's lounge and that
smith offered to drive her home somewhere along the way smith raped and murdered carolyn killeby
in the cab of his truck her blood spattered onto the steering wheel smith's watch and probably on the
upholstery prosecutors suspect that smith buried carolyn's body somewhere near larch mountain
a few hours later a gas station attendant said she saw a blood stain on smith's shirt and that his truck was
full of mud smith attempted to remove the blood inside his truck with detergents
and when he couldn't remove it all from the upholstery he set it on fire but he missed a tiny speck of blood on
his wristband and a tiny speck of blood on the steering wheel proof that carol and killiby had been
bleeding inside his truck some of his friends happen to be nurses he went into a great detail with
his nurse friends about what is dna how do you get rid of dna i used pine sol and lysol and other cleaning agents in
my car is that going to get rid of dna and the nurses said hey i don't think so prosecutors also discovered that when
smith was in prison for killing his sister he told his cellmate how he would get away with murder the next time
mr smith told an inmate that if he would ever committed another murder he would dispose of the body by digging a hole
placing the body in it recovering the hole and planting a tree on top of it so that no one would know that a body is
under there and wherever she is it's out in most likely a dark cold place where we
can't go and visit her physically where her remains are he also told the inmate that he would dispose of the other
evidence by burning it the only scientific evidence in this case was the mitochondrial dna taken from two
tiny specks of blood dennis smith was found guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced to life
in prison without parole after his conviction dennis smith offered to disclose the
location of carolyn's body in return for some taco bell burritos and ten thousand dollars in cash
we obviously all know that he knows where the body is and now he's trying to get something
for him when he should do the right thing and give up carolyn's body to to give closure to this family i think it's
pathetic what he's trying to do now he's not he's not getting any money he already
has more things in prison that we have i mean he has free cable he has free pay-per-view i mean i have to pay for my
cable i have to go rent movies and then he wants extra spending money i mean he just
there's no way that i would give him a cent i wouldn't give him a penny [Music] the killabee family
may never recover carolyn's body for a proper burial but they've purchased a burial plot with
a headstone anyway for carolyn's daughter gina not a day goes by when she doesn't think of her mother
she has this beautiful new granddaughter that she never got the chance to meet and be a
grandmother too but that her granddaughter her granddaughter will always know who
she is and that she will always be a part of this family and that we love her and
miss her very very much [Music] [Music] [Music] you

A woman was reported missing after a fight with her husband. Police were suspicious of a suspect who reported a fire in his car. Two tiny drops of blood were found in the interior. A tiny clue inside the suspect's watchband helped solve the case.

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

Carolyn Killeby vanished in 1995; evidence linked Dennis Smith to her murder, but her body was never found.

Key points

Carolyn's Disappearance. In 1995, Carolyn Killeby vanished after a night out, leading to a complex investigation.
Suspicion Falls on Dan. Carolyn's husband Dan becomes a suspect after her mysterious disappearance.
Dennis Smith's Arrest. Dennis Smith, a key suspect, was captured after a nationwide manhunt.
Trial and Conviction. Dennis Smith was found guilty of Carolyn's murder despite the absence of her body.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was the problem solver, the supporters, the happiness.

Describing Carolyn's role in the family

1:22WatchNov 18, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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