Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 13 - A Touching Recollection - Full Episode | Forensic Files

when a young woman walked outside her home to investigate a strange noise she was abducted at gunpoint
but the victim knew something about forensic evidence and she was determined to prove she had
been inside the assailant's truck the clue she left behind and her recollection of detail led police
straight to the criminal's front door [Music] [Music] jackson township is just north of canton
ohio home to the pro football hall of fame [Music] it's an upscale bedroom community
much of the area is undeveloped especially along the old erie canal we have even areas where there's cows
and we get calls for cows and livestock in the roadway the mckernon family lived just two
blocks from the canal eighteen-year-old stephanie mckernan shared the home with her husband jamie
and his 18 year old sister whom we'll call megan [Music] on saturday night may 6 2000
stephanie and megan were outside when two men in a pickup truck stopped to talk asked us both we were single and how old
we were and we both said that we were not available the men were polite and when rebuffed
drove off a few hours later after the women returned home they heard a noise outside
megan grabbed a flashlight stephanie picked up a can of spray paint and both went outside to investigate
[Music] hey girl they were met by a man with a rifle he claimed to be a police officer and
ordered the girls to get into his truck and we were like no so we put the gun in
both of our faces numerous times and asked us do you want to die do you want to die do you want to die you want to
die in the scuffle the assailant hit stephanie with his rifle [Music] megan hit the man in the face with the
flashlight [Music] he then grabbed megan dragged her down a hill to his pickup truck and drove off
when stephanie regained consciousness she called police [Music] [Applause] [Music]
[Music] when police arrived stephanie was hysterical and she was unable to provide
much detail about the crime police were skeptical since the mckernan boys had numerous prior run-ins with
police they're always running their motorcycles through the yards up and down the street
they're always having a party they're always doing something we're always down here for something there's got to
definitely be more to this than what's than what we know but there was evidence at the scene to
corroborate stephanie's story [Music] officers found megan's sweatshirt and sandals
along with the cover for the scope of a rifle [Music] there were shoe prints leading in the
direction the assailant was headed [Music] at the bottom of the driveway police found tire impressions
and near the road was a purple glove and an ice scraper my concern was i knew megan i knew her
family i feared for the worst i feared that we were going to find her floating somewhere and if we didn't act fast
that you know my fears might become a reality over the next few hours megan's family and the police searched
the streets and parking lots of jackson county but she was nowhere to be found eighteen-year-old megan mckernan was
kidnapped at gunpoint from the backyard of her home evidence left at the scene showed signs
of a struggle but revealed little about the kidnapper's identity this was obviously someone that megan
had no knowledge of that they were not familiar with and that this was actually a legitimate thing that had happened to
megan while investigators interviewed megan's family and friends a police officer kept
watch at the crime scene [Music] suddenly the officer saw a woman running towards
him it was megan mckernan her first words was i have been raped although battered megan was fortunate to
have survived her two-hour ordeal an hour before we're looking for her in a ditch so to see her come running
towards me was [Music] definitely a happy moment police rushed megan to a nearby hospital
which had a special unit to treat rape victims and preserve crucial forensic evidence
nurses carefully collected and documented all of the evidence they could find and also preserved her
blood-stained clothing police photographed scratches on megan's face and other injuries including cuts
and scrapes to her back and arms she did what she needed to do to get through the situation and that is the
success in itself is to make it out alive megan told police the assailant drove her to boyd's corner a remote location
about five miles from her home and assaulted her in his truck i was trying to push him off of me but
he had my hands above my head with one arm and then he was holding like himself up on the seat with the other
he said he'd like to have a girl like me like to get married to a girl like me that i am so
pretty and that he is so sorry for beating me up megan pleaded with the man to let her
walk home he told me that he wouldn't let me walk because i didn't have no shoes on and it
was pretty far distance from my house instead he offered to drive her she actually gave him better directions
to get her back home there were two ways to get there and she actually talked to
him about don't go this way go this way it's faster he dropped her off a block from her home
macon was able to recall many important details about her assailant and his truck
she said the truck was a chevy s10 blue with a dark cap there was an air freshener with the
tweety bird cartoon character hanging from the rear view mirror the interior was muddy with holes in the
bench seat megan remembered grabbing the truck frame in a desperate attempt to resist
her attacker she definitely wanted to leave some type of sign or some type of calling card if
you will that this that she was there that this had taken place just in case she didn't make it out alive she also
said the back end of the truck may have been dented because when we went down the boyd's
corner and he turned around he backed up the guard round he hit the guardrail pretty hard
megan described her assailant as a stocky blonde man with facial hair about six feet tall with piercing blue eyes
between his eyes was a crescent-shaped cut caused when megan struck him with the flashlight
she kept her eyes open and she looked at his face and his body so she was able to
just you know describe portions of the man that a reasonable stranger wouldn't know
actually [Music] forensic scientists measured and photographed the shoe and tire
impressions outside the mckernan's home several of the shoe impressions belonged
to megan's family but there were a number of unidentified shoe impressions presumably those of the
assailant at boyd's corner where the assault took place police found more tire impressions and
scuff marks on a guard rail boyd's corner is an isolated area on an abandoned road leading to a cul-de-sac
because it was a gathering spot for teenagers police assumed the assailant was a local man familiar with the area
the use of a weapon also suggested this wasn't his first crime we wanted to make sure that the person
who did this to her wasn't out there hunting someone else so we wanted to make sure the community was aware of the
information police appealed to the community for help a newspaper article appeared three days
after megan's assault asking if anyone recognized the description of the assailant or his truck
that same day police received an anonymous telephone call [Music] jackson police department how may i help
you an anonymous caller told police where they could find a truck similar to the
one they were looking for in the megan mckernan assault case we go to the address that was given to
us by the anonymous caller there's the suspect vehicle it matches perfectly it's a blue chevy truck with a black cap
[Music] the truck was owned by douglas bailey thomas this is detective green the police immediately ran into two
problems bayley didn't match the victim's physical description you want to die sat in my chair and he
didn't have the cut on his forehead made by megan's flashlight is that your truck in the driveway
yes sir i'll be taking a peek on the way out but then police saw the tweety bird air freshener
the same one megan had described hanging from the rear view mirror and behind the front seat was a rifle
similar to the one the girls described [Music] criminalists dusted the truck for
fingerprints they discovered prints on the frame by the passenger door by using a special adhesive strip
they lifted those prints for analysis they were found next to the passenger's door and were in a smeared condition
which would in my opinion indicate that that someone had been forced into the vehicle or attempted to
be forced into the vehicle floria then compared those prints to megan's looking specifically for
individual ridge characteristics no two different people have ever been found to have the same fingerprints
that's based upon the individual ridge characteristics the bifurcations the ridge endings the enclosures the
short ridges which we find in a known fingerprint megan's fingerprints had the same ridge
characteristics and spacing as the fingerprints on the truck those fingerprint impressions were made
by the right index finger the right middle finger the right ring finger and the right little finger
of megan mckernan with a search warrant police confiscated a pair of boots from the bailey home to see if they matched
footwear impressions found at the crime scene they can be like a fingerprint insofar
as they can be individualized uh as having been made by a specific shoe to the exclusion of all others
[Music] floria says shoe souls develop tiny cuts from stepping on objects such as glass
or stones these accidental characteristics are unique to each shoe using fingerprint dusting powder
floria covered the sole then used a sheet of adhesive tape and a roller to create a copy of that sole
[Music] next floria compared the size shape and accidental characteristics to the
footwear impressions lifted from the crime scene they were a match tires also have accidental
characteristics like footwear when the tire impressions from the crime scene were compared to the bailey's
pickup truck tires they were found to be consistent [Music] there was a glove that was left at the
scene the other match was inside the the vehicle itself the truck belonged to douglas bailey
but the shoes did not they belonged to his 28 year old son craig who had recently been released from prison after
serving seven years of a 25-year sentence for burglary doug bailey wasn't surprised to hear his
son might again be in trouble [Music] craig bailey was attending alcohol abuse recovery meetings at this local
treatment center they came out to the detectives and said by the way craig's done at uh
an alcohol recovery service and if you want to go get him that's where he's at and that's just where the police found
him without saying a word he turned around put his hands behind his back we handcuffed him and took him out to the
car he never said a word and never questioned us as to why we were there to take him into custody to me that was a
sure sign of someone who had committed the crime or certainly was guilty of something and it wasn't long before
police discovered that the anonymous callers were craig's father doug and his girlfriend
[Music] suspected 28-year-old craig bailey a career criminal was the man who kidnapped and assaulted 18-year-old
megan mckernan megan's description of her assailant fit craig bailey perfectly even the crescent
shape cut between his eyes megan selected craig bailey out of a photo lineup of six people
she did not hesitate when she selected the person that did this crime to her doug bailey told police that he and
craig were on their way to a movie when craig stopped to speak with megan and her sister-in-law stephanie
later that night craig dropped his father off at home and said he was going out to meet some friends his father had
no idea his plan was to return to the girl's house despite overwhelming forensic evidence
against him craig bailey refused to accept a plea bargain and pleaded not guilty at the preliminary hearing
[Music] meanwhile investigators worked to strengthen their case against him forensic scientist jennifer blank
analyzed megan's rape test kit with a chemical called brenteman's reagent if i get a nice bright purple color
change reaction then i know that i possibly have semen on that swab [Music] which is what she found
blink also tested the samples with theta-based tablets which react when coming into contact with amylase a
digestive enzyme found in saliva what a fatabas tablet is is basically a starch that is chemically connected to a
dye the test turned deep blue meaning saliva was present [Music] those samples were subjected to a dq
alpha dna test test strips analyze six specific locations on the dna strand craig bailey's dna matched the semen and
saliva samples from the rape test kit only one person out of 3 000 people would have the dna profile
that we detected from the semen on the thigh if all of those individuals happen to be caucasian
and finally a blood stain found in the pickup truck matched megan's dna there was a literal mountain of evidence
to suggest and to prove that he in fact did commit the crimes of felonious assault rape and kidnapping
megan's blood inside the truck and her fingerprints positioned in a way that clearly demonstrated she was forced into
the vehicle all proved these points to the jury the forensics to this case put the icing on the cake
it allowed us to to conclusively link the suspect to the scene and to the victim herself
craig bailey was convicted of first degree kidnapping and rape and two counts of felonious assault
[Music] he was sentenced to 46 years in prison since bayley was on parole when he
committed the crime the judge reinstated the 18 years remaining on bailey's previous sentence
he didn't show any anger he didn't show any remorse he didn't show any incredulity i believe by the time he
would get out would be approximately 81 years old if it wasn't for megan we might not have
had a conviction there could have been a dynamic attorney in there that would have um
maybe confused or polluted the the issue of was it you know a real crime you know these these girls asked
him to come back or just enough to put a little bit of reasonable doubt into the mind of the jury so it was
megan and her articulation and her conviction and her willingness to survive and make it through
that made the case hey girl investigators say everyone can learn from megan mckernan's
quick thinking and amazing recall leave pieces and parts of whatever you can behind rip clothing you know hair
fingernails dig in have at it don't don't don't go away and leave us nothing because what we might find will be just
what's left over of you [Music] [Music] [Music] you

The investigation into the kidnapping and rape of an 18-year-old Ohio woman is aided when the victim returns hours after the incident occurred. With her help, the police are able to track the assailant Craig Bailey to his front door.

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

Megan McKernan was abducted in Ohio but used forensic evidence to help capture her assailant, Craig Bailey, who was later convicted.

Key points

Megan's Abduction. Eighteen-year-old Megan McKernan was kidnapped at gunpoint from her backyard.
Megan's Escape. After two hours of captivity, Megan bravely escaped and ran to the police.
Forensic Breakthrough. Forensic evidence linked Craig Bailey to the crime, leading to his conviction.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I have been raped.

Megan's first words upon returning to the police after her ordeal

6:21WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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