Forensic Files - Season 6, Episode 29 - Treading Not So Lightly - Full Episode | Forensic Files

in 1980 4-year-old Vicky Lions was found in a parking lot unconscious and near death there were no Witnesses no one
knew what really [Music] happened but Vicki's mother was determined to find out [Music]
[Music] [Applause] West Texas is far removed from big cities like Dallas and Houston the land is flat and
dry dotted with the occasional oil well or cotton field at the crossroads of Interstate 20
and Route 87 is a little town called Big Spring out here when the local high school marching band is invited to the
state tournament it's front page news that front page belongs to the Big Spring Herald newspaper which Chronicles
all the town's activities no matter how big or small I worked in circulation department and it was very nice I knew
all the people there I'd known them for a long time in 1980 Crystal Lions was living in Big Spring with her husband
Bill and four-year-old daughter Vicky very quiet baby she didn't like getting her hands dirty or her feet dirty she if
you took her shoes off she would walk and take one step dust off her foot dust off her hands and take another step she
was very very into being clean like all working mothers Crystal was often pulled in two
[Music] directions one day when the babysitter didn't show up Crystal's supervisor gave
her a tough choice I told my boss that I didn't have anyone to take care of Vicky
that day and she he told me that if I didn't bother to come in I didn't have a job since Crystal had taken Vicki into
work before she decided to do it again hi Vicki how are you today good her co-workers liked the little
girl and Crystal kept her eye on Vicki as best she could while Crystal was moving papers to
the loading dock for afternoon delivery Reverend JB Cardman drove up I go up there every
day when I was in town I'd go there every then pick me up with the paper here to be there when they started
running them as the delivery vehicles were preparing to leave the loading dock Crystal heard her supervisor tell Vicki
to go outside and play in the parking lot and I was just fixing to tell him you know I don't feel comfortable about
any of this so I'm just going to go home and you can make your decision but before she could say
anything the supervisor saw Vicki lying on the ground not moving she could tell from even the
distance that you know she'd been hit oh God when Crystal got there Vicki was unconscious and not breathing
no one else was there and there was no indication what happened where are they Vicki was rushed by ambulance to the
adessa hospital about an hour away Crystal followed in her car as if Crystal and Vicki hadn't already been
through enough the ambulance broke down along the way we almost hit it we were right
behind the ambulance and we almost hit the ambulance because it just slowed down and to such a point that we had to
get out of the way eventually the ambulance got to the hospital and Vicki was rushed to intensive care that's when
it really hit me that her condition was pretty severe that she may not make it she was mine and
Bill's only child it was hard they finally took me and Bill in to see Vicki uh she was in a
[Music] coma and then she started what they thought throwing up blood and uh so they asked us to leave
we hadn't even been in there maybe 2 minutes as they left the room they noticed unusual marks on Vicki's face so
those are ti marks on her face and he said yes they're yes they are Crystal had the presence of mind to get her
camera and take pictures of these marks on Vicki's face before they disappeared had she not taken this
important step the story that follows might never have happened while Vicki lay in a coma with
her mother by her side police questioned everyone at the newspaper but no one had
seen the incident police issued an all points bulletin for JB Hardeman the man seen
leaving the parking lot in a hurry just minutes before Vicki was found I was late leaving hadn't had no my wife
didn't fix no lunch and I went by the chicken plate and got me a box of chicken come back down there they were
running the papers I got me a paper and take off Hardman was a minister but made
his living pedling fish from the back of his truck police caught up with him in the nearby town of
Snyder well we got a re for your arrest so for what for running over a girl in be spring leaving the scene of the
accident no girl in big spr Snider police put Hardman in a jail cell where he overheard officers talking on the
phone I heard him talking to Big Spain he told I went that chuck with a scientif com and I can't find nothing
but one little spot I did find one see one little spot of blood and I that kind of shook me up when he said that after
almost 3 weeks in a coma Vicki regain Consciousness she suffered severe damage to her skull and one eye she could not
walk or even speak as time went by Vicki's condition slowly improved [Music] hi Crystal one day Crystal took Vicki to
the newspaper office to see everyone who had been concerned about her when are you coming back still not talking when
one of the employees leaned into the car to say hello Vicki reacted violently be
a couple times a week it was the first time Vicki had spoken since the accident and Vicki just started kicking
and screaming you know um what little voice could come out you know that was a first sign of a voice actually was just
this um um it wasn't even a clear voice it was just more of a screech type thing
but Vicki was not well enough to explain her reaction Crystal decided to conduct her
own investigation Crystal believed the answer to the mystery of what happened to
Vicki were those marks on Vicki's face marks which hospital employees identified as tire
marks I just started thinking you know what would the police do crystal made a list of all vehicles
she could remember seeing in the newspaper parking lot prior to Vicki's accident then she needed to find a way
to compare the marks on Vicki's face to the tires of those vehicles Crystal rub black shoe polish on each
[Music] tire and then pressed plain white paper against it she kept careful records of which
Tire impression came from each vehicle in all she took nine Tire Impressions from two Vans and a pickup
truck then she showed detective work to the police I said you arrested the wrong
person I said you've harassed a black man who was just a sweet harmless old man who never done anything wrong to
anybody and I said you need to you know fix this the grand jury questioned Reverend
Hardeman but did not indict him the spot of Blood on the truck turned out to be fish
blood Crystal did not believe Reverend Hardeman was the one who ran over ick but police refused to investigate
further saying it was a civil matter not a criminal one at the time the newspaper's parking
lot was unpaved and bumpy it was possible that a driver may have driven over Vicki and mistaken the bump for a
pothole by the time they got out there all they had was an empty parking lot uh they didn't really have any eyewitnesses
in in fact there were no eyewitnesses and for the next 3 years as she nursed Vicki back to health no one
in the small town of Big Spring was willing to help her one day while reading a magazine
crystal saw an article about a man known as the Sherlock Holmes of tire marks this was the break that Crystal
had been praying for Peter McDonald literally wrote the book on P impression evidence he was formerly
the chief designer for the Firestone Tire Company he also assisted numerous police agencies and taught at the FBI
Academy after reading the magazine article about McDonald Crystal lions called him in
Ohio she explained the case as best she could and told him about the pictures had taken which appeared to show a tire
mark luckily for the Lion's family McDonald was no stranger to Tire impressions in human flesh uh my heart
went out to her with this almost like tattoo on her forehead with the evidence Crystal had
gathered McDonald thought he could help I think it's amazing that she had the foresight to make rubbings of suspect
tires I don't always get that sort of work from police on a major homicide case Crystal had labeled each of the
tire Impressions with the date and its position on the vehicle two of the vehicles I could
eliminate very quickly one was a big snow tire type design another was a passenger design but it had major
grooves that were kind of lightning shaped which was different than the imprint on Vicki's
forehead but the last three imprints were interesting they were golden Sonic 78s a relatively rare tire no longer
manufactur the imprint on Vicki's face looked similar but McDonald wasn't sure that the size matched the same tread
pattern appears in as normally about 12 different sizes so it's important to me to confirm that it's not only the same
manufacturer the same brand but that it has exactly the same size but crystals photographs did not
contain a size reference how could McDonald determine the size of a tire impression on Vicki's
face Taken 3 years earlier another photograph was taken this time with a scale reference the
human skull grows most rapidly in the first 3 years of life but between the ages of 4 and seven the distance between
the eye sockets and mouth usually remained the same this knowledge helped McDonald to
compare these two photographs with a scale of reference on Vicki's forehead McDonald saw tiny
lines made by Tire cyes which are narrow Cuts put in the tire to improve traction
and they are a forensic scientist greatest tool because I can help determine the wear of the
tire cyes are made by small metal blades placed in the tire mold to make the tire
stronger the blades sometimes have a small indentation creating a raised area of rubber called a tie bar as the tread
wears the tie bar is exposed and the tire's imprint changes in Vicki's skin McDonald found
interruptions in the cypes caused by the exposed tie bar he determined the tire had worn down about 51 100s of an
inch two of the Sonic 78 m imprints could now be eliminated since they had very little
wear but the last imprint showed the same degree of wear and matched in size McDonald believ that the right
front tire of the newspaper truck driven by an employee we'll call Bob Jones had
run over Vicki Jones was the man who said hello to Vicki after the accident when Vicki
had reacted violently in 1985 Crystal Lions filed suit against the Big Spring Herald claiming that
Jones hadn't taken the proper precautions while backing his truck out of the parking
lot the unfortunate accident would mean a lifetime of neurological difficulties for Vicki and Crystal wanted
Justice Vicky lions needed dozens of surgical procedures because the accident damaged her hearing vision and sense of
balance but she was able to attend school they just um asked me if I'm like mentally
or if I had a stroke but I don't mind people asking give me cuz I'd rather them ask me what
happened than like sit there and stare at me there was no way to just do what the
doctors had suggested which is put her in a wheelchair and just forget her I couldn't do that she's my child I love
her Christal lion says she didn't sue the Big Spring Herald just for financial motives she wanted them to take
responsibility for the accident that left her daughter permanently disabled I wanted everybody to know the
truth and it came down to the point where uh in order for Vicky to get the the appropriate medical attention and to
stay where she was at and get good medical attention and and have a life that money was going to be
involved Vicky Lions tries not to think about the accident but she remembers it I remember my mom's bus tell me to go
play in the parking lot and I had some toy dishes with me and I went behind this truck I was
just playing in the sand on the day of the accident the driver of the vehicle in a rush backed
out over Vicki in the unpaid bumpy parking lot apparently without realizing it I saw him like look in this rivy
mirror but but I guess well I was four years old I didn't know what to do even before the lawsuit Janes suspected
he might have been the one who ran over Vicki the driver made comment to Crystal that he did not think he did it
but if he did it that he was sorry that it happened all I can say is it's done it's over
with I don't like they did that but but I'm willing to forgive him cuz I'm no person to
[Music] judge so and he's got to live with way done the herald wanted to settle the
case the newspaper offered to pay $750,000 towards the care Vicki would need for the rest of her life Crystal
accepted but demanded one more thing 15 minutes in the judge's Chambers for her and Vicki to meet with a representative
of the herald alone Vicki I asked her if she had anything to say to him and uh she told
him you destroyed my life that was pretty much well the end of the lawsuit right then and there the
Big Spring heral did not report the news of this settlement the paper now has new
owners and a completely different staff Crystal had the insight to take the photographs she had the insight to
get the tire imprints she had the insight to tear out this uh piece of paper in the magazine that had Peter
McDonald's uh name on it uh without her having done all of that obviously I don't think any any of this would have
gotten done Peter McDonald is is more than a forensic specialist he's also an artist
and his paintings and sketches cover the walls of his home some of his works are inspired by
the many cases he has helped to solve one is based on the photo of a young girl he never met over the past 20
years he has wondered what happened to her in a case like this you do get emotion
involved Crystal was able to arrange for the best medical care for Vicki and Vicki has learned to speak and walk
again although Vicky tries to put the accident in the past she lives with its Legacy every
day I like getting out but I don't always get out that much because I don't like how people make me feel
when I go out somewhere but Vicki is thinking about getting out more she's finished high
school and is considering College her mother now divorced is already attending college in Denver
studying forensic science I really applaud that I bet she'll be really good in the ction on
how to make imprints [Music] [Music]

A fan of murder mysteries and forensic science shows uses what she learned from TV to determine who was responsible for the accident which permanently injured her 4-year-old daughter.

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

Vicky Lions was struck by a vehicle in 1980, leading her mother to investigate and sue the newspaper involved in the accident.

Key points

The Accident. In 1980, four-year-old Vicky Lions was found unconscious in a parking lot, leading to a desperate search for answers.
The Tire Marks. Crystal's investigation leads her to discover tire marks on Vicky's face, prompting a deeper inquiry.
A Mother's Determination. Crystal Lions took it upon herself to investigate the circumstances surrounding her daughter's accident.
The Settlement. After years of struggle, Crystal accepted a settlement from the newspaper but demanded a personal meeting.
Vicki's Recovery. Despite severe injuries, Vicki slowly regained her abilities and is now considering college.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You destroyed my life.

Vicki's powerful statement to the representative of the newspaper.

19:47WatchNov 24, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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