Forensic Files - Season 6, Episode 16 - Skin of Her Teeth - Full Episode | Forensic Files

in 1996 two young boys fishing in an ohio lake found what looked like a human skull
[Music] all of its teeth were missing and markings on the skull told a tale of unspeakable violence
police had no idea who this person was or how long the skull had been in the water
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Music] hamilton ohio is an industrial city of
about 62 000 people in the southwestern part of the state it's an area blessed with natural beauty
residents enjoyed the many rivers streams and lakes that dot the landscape on august 7 1996
12 year old tim lyons and his friend tj dijon headed to linden lake for an afternoon of fishing
but instead of a bluegill or catfish the boys reeled in what looked like a skull
it's hard to believe that you find somebody's head down there that you're just fishing and mind your own business and
you reel in somebody's head they're just unbelievable the boys left the skull on the bank
uncertain of what to do i know my mom and dad they didn't believe me they thought i was just
goofing off like a whole day passed before we even we went back down there and it was still
there this time the boys contacted the police first cop down there was pretty much a prick he came down there
and we were showing him and everything he threw a rocket and said yeah it's real now you guys have opened up a big
investigation just kept going on and on and like we did something wrong 20 minutes later the whole police force
was down there and they had boats and everything people scooped it down there searching for
other clues and it was crazy went nuts from there the police scuba divers could not find
any other body parts in the lake and the search of the immediate area was also fruitless
the local coroner examined the skull and determined that the individual hadn't been in the lake long perhaps only a few
weeks because there was still some soft tissue clinging to it but investigators were faced with a
mystery you know when we have a skull turn up what does that tell you it doesn't really tell you a whole lot
it could be that somebody robbed a grave out in the country and then got rid of parts of the body
it could be a homeless person who passed away and part of the remains got dragged
you know an animal a varmint dragged part of the remains someplace so it doesn't really tell you that there's a
homicide or foul play who was this person how did he or she die and where was the rest of the body
to assist in the identification the coroner sent the skull to the college of mount saint joseph outside cincinnati to
dr beth murray one of only 63 board-certified forensic anthropologists in the united states
this case was one of the most challenging fascinating personally rewarding but also
at the same time personally terrifying cases that i think i've worked dr murray noticed a deep indentation on
the top of the skull which suggested the killer used a machete or a cleaver on the top of the
victim's head and dr murray found other cuts and scratches all over the skull and they were signs of trying to get the
flesh off of the skull and it gave me chills to realize that someone had sat with this skull in their
hands and defleshed it this skull had a nose cavity indicative of a caucasian a battery of nearly two dozen
measurements fed into a computer program confirmed this was the skull of a woman
dr murray estimated that the victim was under 35 years of age the sutures of the skull the
lines where the individual skull bones knit together those were still very open and they
typically will tend to close with age evidence suggested someone had used many different types of
tools in an extraordinary effort to conceal the woman's identity a series of jagged parallel marks
indicated a serrated knife the size of a kitchen steak knife had been dragged along the sides of the skull
cut marks on the cheekbones indicated the jaw had been forcefully removed with a small single edged blade like a pocket
knife and there were several puncture wounds in the eye sockets an indication that the killer removed the victim's
eyes the teeth were also missing in the upper jaw was a broken tooth root which told dr murray that the teeth had
been deliberately pulled and when you held the skull at just the right angle you could see that the
weapon that was used was a needle nose pliers you could actually see marks in the bone where the pliers had been
inserted and the teeth snapped out dr murray hesitated to tell homicide investigators about her suspicions
and i thought they're not going to believe me they're not going to believe that this
is true and so i took the skull to two other experts before i made that phone call
because i had never seen anything like this before in my life it would be the most difficult murder
investigation local officials had ever encountered although investigators knew the skull
found in linden lake was that of a caucasian woman under the age of 35 they knew nothing else
marks found on the skull indicated that the flesh had been removed as had her teeth in an attempt to hide the woman's
identity i've seen a lot of criminals try to hide their crime and conceal their activity
it's almost expected but i've never seen anybody go to this length of activity to conceal a crime
hamilton police discovered that only four individuals had recently been reported missing one was 21 year old
tina mott reported missing just two months before the skull was found in the lake
tina mott was the single mother of an 18 month old son johnny she had been living
here on a quiet residential street in an upstairs apartment with her 24 year old
boyfriend tim bradford tinamott was originally from new york she met her boyfriend tim while she was
selling magazines door to door they settled in tim's home town of hamilton where tina worked as a clerk at a local
store tim was a framer at this art shop he was he was in his mid-20s so he pretty much enjoyed doing the things
that people in their mid-20s like to do go out hang out with friends go to concerts things like that
when questioned by police tim said the tina had gone back to new york to visit her family and left the
baby behind police soon discovered that tina mott never reached new york tina was reported missing not by her
family but by tim's mother elizabeth bradford so at first she didn't really think
anything about it but then when she started calling new york to see if she was up there and she wasn't
she knew she wasn't away on her own will because she knew she wouldn't leave the baby alone
elizabeth bradford also told police she was afraid of her son and his temper armed with a warrant
police searched the storage locker bradford rented shortly after tina disappeared
inside they found this set of 19 kitchen knives with small medium and large serrated
blades police also found a book on how to kill with your bare hands and a notebook on satanic rituals
tim bradford's mother told police her son practiced devil worship also suspicious was tim bradford's
behavior during tina's disappearance an atm security camera captured pictures showing tim bradford withdrawing money
from tinamot's bank account after she disappeared investigators also learned that tim
bradford occasionally used drugs we know from some statements that tina supposedly had told people she worked
with that she was afraid of tim because of his drug usage now i'm speculating here but i think what that means is is
that when he's using drugs his violent temper is a little bit more flammable you know that he erupts a
little bit quicker has a shorter fuse and maybe that's why she's afraid of him next
police searched the couple's apartment inside they conducted a luminol test a chemical is sprayed on a surface it
can reveal blood that has been cleaned up with water and detergents on the living room carpet
investigators found an area believed to be human blood they also found blood on the bathroom
floor in the crevice between the floor and the tub and also near the toilet police suspected the linden lake skull
was that of tinamot but they needed scientific proof to be certain when a human skull was recovered from
linden lake in ohio investigators needed to find some forensic technique to make
a conclusive identification the most effective means of identification is by analyzing the teeth of the victim
and comparing those to known dental x-rays since no two sets of teeth are exactly alike
but in this case the lower jaw of the skull was missing and the upper teeth had all been pulled
another method of identification is called skull photograph superimposition an anthropologist takes a photograph of
the skull then superimposes it over a photograph of the missing person in hopes of matching the
facial characteristics other techniques attempt to put a face on the skull by using facial
reconstruction and forensic sculpture [Music] forensic have had only a 70 success rate with these techniques
because features like the eyelids the mouth lips and ears are not necessarily indicated by the shape of the skull
it's a technique usually used when all other means of identification have failed
but in the case of the linden lake skull scientists got a genetic break they discovered that the killer removed
all but two of the wisdom teeth which had been embedded in the gum which the killer may not have seen
when the perpetrator pulled the teeth he didn't realize that those molars were up underneath the gum line so those were
protected and preserved dr murray extracted tooth pulp from the wisdom teeth and sent it for dna testing
along with a blood sample from tina's 18 month old son but scientists could not obtain a usable
dna profile from the tooth pulp it's possible that the reason is that the teeth were still unformed and when teeth
are still forming their roots are open open cavities it was also possible the tiny single cell microorganisms in the
lake called diatoms damaged or altered the cells in the tooth pulp as a last resort
dr murray tried to extract dna from the skull itself with a surgical drill she carefully removed six bone samples
from the thickest part of the skull with sterile techniques the middle section of
that core that i took out had never touched anything but that sterile drill the skull bone fragments were sent for
mitochondrial dna testing which is used in cases where the biological sample is either degraded or small in quantity
and the mitochondrial dna is unique because it is passed through the maternal bloodline you receive it only
from your mother so any maternal relative you have can be tested against the sample
mitochondria are found in the cell cytoplasm outside the nucleus each cell contains hundreds of
mitochondria [Music] scientists have isolated two regions of the mitochondrial dna where differences
within the human population appear and they will look for exact matches between the mitochondrial dna and the sample
they have and the maternal blood relative that they have the mitochondrial dna from the skull was
the same as the mitochondrial dna from 18 month old johnny mott which meant the skull was that of his mother tina
and one of the long knives found in the storage shed rented by tina's live-in boyfriend tested positive for human
protein with this news police brought tim bradford in for questioning once more i asked him if he knew how to hunt yes
did you know how to to dissect an animal and skin it prepared for food yes how to dispose of
the internals of an animal yes he learned that all through his childhood and upbringing
finally tim bradford told police a story of almost unspeakable violence and horror
it was the story of tina mott's last moments alive when dna testing concluded that the
linden lake skull was out of tinamot police confronted her live-in boyfriend tim bradford with the forensic evidence
against him after several hours bradford confessed [Music] bradford led investigators to a nature
preserve less than a mile from where the couple lived and in the deep brush were tina's bones
scattered throughout the area after 14 months animals had gotten to the remains and
only about half of tina's body was recovered every bone found had been cut either by
a hacksaw or a knife tim said that on the night of the murder he and tina were playing a game of
monopoly bradford admitted using drugs that night at some point the couple got into an
argument tempers flared and tim admitted hitting tina bloodying her nose tina went to the bathroom to clean up
and bradford said he started to put away the fishing gear he had used earlier in
the day bradford said tina came running out of the bathroom to continue the argument
bradford said he had a fish fillet knife in his hand and in the ensuing scuffle tim admitted
that he slipped tina's throat bradford said he left the apartment and when he returned
tina's lifeless body was in the bathtub how she got there was a mystery to him bradford said he worked through the
night to dismember the body he flushed her internal organs down the toilet it's unbelievable that a
human can do this to another human that he loved and fathered a child with i cannot grasp that
bradford admitted using each of the 19 kitchen knives in the process and bradford confirmed using needle nose
pliers to remove the teeth in an effort to prevent a dental identification of the remains
cut into the flesh to begin with is hard enough then to cut the head off hold it
in my arms or my hands and pull the teeth out it's unbelievable bradford carried the bones from the
apartment in his backpack and in a trash bag to a deserted field where he dumped them
later he said he went to linden lake and threw the skull into the water if that skull never appeared
this case would have never been solved it would have never proceeded as a homicide i'd just gone down as a missing
person and been in missing persons forever townspeople were stunned by the news bradford's former boss couldn't believe
she had worked side by side with a cold-blooded killer he did he did want out of that relationship
with tina and unfortunately he picked a very permanent way out of that relationship
and he's also out of his son's life as well which is a real shame tim bradford had no explanation for why
he killed tina other than to say he loved her and was sorry tim bradford was convicted of voluntary
manslaughter and of abuse of a corpse he was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in prison
tim bradford acknowledged his guilt in this exclusive letter he wrote to the producers of this program
bradford says quote i have committed an atrocity in the eyes of god and of man and for that i accept
full responsibility my actions belie my true feelings for tina i truly loved her with every fiber of my
being end quote bradford claims the pain of his own actions go well beyond those imposed by
his prison sentence quote the nightmares i have had since that night the dreams i have where i wake up with
tina's name on my lips those will stay with me forever and they should it is a burden i must carry in my heart
until the end of my days in this case mr brantford the way he treated the corpse
of the person that he supposedly loved tells you that they're almost that there's almost two parts to this person
one where he really loves this woman and can't deal with the fact of losing her and wants to talk about what he did to
her because he feels guilty about it but another side of him that could detach himself from all emotion to lean over a
bathtub and de-flesh the body of somebody that you love it's just humanly impossible
if he could do this to somebody that he loves what could he do to somebody that he doesn't even know or doesn't care
about i just hope that through law enforcement officers and young detectives maybe seeing this case be
aired that they realize don't give up you know when you get these little clues and when you have gut
instincts telling you something's not right keep on pushing the envelope a little bit keep on going after the
evidence because that's what happened in this case and it resulted in us walking
through a field and maybe we got our shoes all muddy and got a little dirtied and everything but
we found the last of her remains and were able to put a final conclusion to this case and i'm very proud
to be a part of that quite frankly [Music] [Music] you

In 1994, a human skull retrieved from an Ohio pond reveals a ghastly crime. Markings on the skull indicate that the victim had been stabbed multiple times and that the teeth had been removed with needle-nose pliers.

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

A skull found in Ohio leads to the murder confession of Tim Bradford regarding his girlfriend Tina Mott.

Key points

The Discovery of a Skull. In 1996, two boys fishing in Ohio reel in a human skull, leading to a chilling investigation.
Forensic Breakthrough. DNA testing reveals the skull belongs to missing mother Tina Mott, leading to a confession.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's hard to believe that you find somebody's head down there.

Boys fishing discover a skull.

1:40WatchNov 24, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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