Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 20 - Telltale Tracks - Full Episode | Forensic Files

in philadelphia a woman's car was found abandoned on the side of a busy highway still running
but the driver was missing at the scene police found several clues but was there enough forensic evidence
to solve the mystery [Music] [Music] [Music] route 476 is one of several highways
that links philadelphia to the suburbs [Music] hundreds of thousands of commuters
travel that road every day on june 20th 1996 at two o'clock in the morning an off-duty ambulance crew
spotted an abandoned car along an exit ramp of 476. the engine was running the lights were
on the radio was blaring the driver's door was open but no one was inside there was a tire iron found in front of
the car i found some blood in front of the car i found a stone with blood on in front of the car and on the guardrail
there appeared to be some blood splatter next to the car we later had an interpretation done of
the blood pattern in front of the car and we learned that it appeared as though someone had
been laying on the ground for a brief time in front of the car the crime scene says that this person was violently
attacked in a very fast mode meaning that they were hit very quickly as far as the violence was concerned and
then they were extricated from that site very quickly this person didn't stay around long
next to the car was a tire impression which was photographed for analysis a forensic expert then made a cast of
the impression which was sent to the state crime lab [Music] the automobile was registered to gail
willard but had been driven that night by her daughter 22 year old amy willard a star soccer and lacrosse player at
george mason university in virginia [Applause] amy was spending the summer at home with
her family who lived just a few miles from where the car was discovered amy told her mother she was going to
smokey joe's bar and a friend said amy left the bar alone at 1 30 in the morning
she had never been to smokey joe's before when she came home she very rarely went out and met people because
of the fact the time constraints on when she was home when she was home she kind
of stayed around here and we hung out together and things like that damage to the vehicle led police to
think that amy may have been the victim of a carjacking there was an abrasion on the back bumper
that was not there when amy drove off in the car i noticed it because it was my car and i knew everything about my car
and i had pointed it out to the police possibly at that traffic light right where she's going to turn off the 476
off ramp onto the route one on-ramp there's a traffic light right there i believe that that's where he would have
bumped her car she immediately pulls over onto the ramp gets out of her car to exchange information
the next morning about a half mile from where amy's car was abandoned police found a pair of panties and
sneakers they brought them down for me to identify them and they definitely were
her sneakers and panties they definitely were the panties weren't soiled with dirt
they weren't wet they were dry as were the shoes it appeared to me as though those items
had been brought back after the rain which would have meant that they were brought back after
her car was found an indication the abductor had returned to the scene of the crime to dispose of
the items detectives screened video surveillance tapes from stores and bank atms near
smokey joe's bar but amy had not stopped at any of these locations [Music] then an unexpected lead fell right into
investigators laps amy willard's car was found abandoned on a blue route off ramp in marvel township
after amy willard disappeared police appealed to the community asking anyone with information to come forward
one of those who responded was 23 year old andrew kobach who said he had been driving on route 476 on the night amy
disappeared and saw something suspicious in the vicinity of amy's car police knew kobach
years earlier he had been accused of impersonating a police officer [Music] police say kobach would turn a siren on
instruct the driver to pull over and then show the driver a badge a motorist turned him in but he was
never charged kobach immediately became a suspect since investigators now thought he might
have done the same thing with amy willard by virtue of placing himself back at the
scene it was consistent with what is oftentimes a characteristic of people who commit crimes
that are being investigated is out of curiosity or some other kind of motivation
they return to the vicinity of the crime in essence to get a feel for what's going on
less than 24 hours after amy willard disappeared children playing in a deserted lot in
north philadelphia discovered the nude body of a woman i snitched and i smelled something and
then i i'm sorry and i ran there was a nike logo tattooed on her ankle which amy's parents
identified that was the hardest day of the whole thing not knowing where she was
there was more of a relief when they found her body in philadelphia that i had her back
that we could find out help to find out what happened to her no one could bring her back to life but at least i had her
an autopsy revealed that the five foot two 120 pound woman died from multiple blunt force injuries to her head and
face the medical examiner estimated she died at seven o'clock in the morning about
five hours after she was abducted this is a crime of momentary passion or crime between two people that know each other
but somebody that actually hunted down stalk somebody committed the murder the crime and then went to
another location to try to deposit the evidence and throw the authorities off the trail
the examiner determined that amy had been sexually assaulted dna evidence from the rape test kit was
sent to the forensics lab for testing we had essentially the genetic fingerprint of our
of our murderer and we just needed to identify that person [Music] the coroner also described
an unusual pattern on amy's upper body but police weren't sure what caused the mark
meanwhile forensic experts completed their analysis of the tire impressions found at the crime scene
they were from a firestone 440 13-inch tire often found on small compact cars kobach's automobile did not have those
tires and the search of his home turned up nothing kobach was officially eliminated as a
suspect when his dna profile did not match the semen from the rape test kit with no other leads
the killer's trail turned cold then one year after amy willard's death 19-year-old patty jordan reported an
attempted carjacking to police she said it was a man who had followed her after she left a local nightclub
and at the next light that car must have made the light and i didn't and that's where he hit my car
i just went and he motioned for me to pull over and i was like you hit my car and he was
just like pull over pull over and it turned green and i just kept on going and my headlights shown on his license
plate and that's how i got his license plate fortunately patty had memorized the
license plate number [Music] the vehicle was registered the 38-year-old arthur beaumar
20 years earlier in 1978 beaumar had been convicted of second degree murder in nevada and was
sentenced to life in prison unbelievably he was released on parole after serving only 11 years
where the mentality was and all that by the parole board in the state he came from i really don't know let me tell you
something there are people that cannot be reformed and no matter what you do they will not change
and arthur bulmar is one of those people beaumar had a 20-year history of problems with the law including several
assaults on young women this is a guy who really hates women and despises them and
wants to punish them and wants to feel virile and feels that he deserves this this is his way of getting back
investigators learned that the day amy willard disappeared philadelphia police pulled bomar over for questioning on an
unrelated matter he had been stopped roughly six blocks away from the scene where her body was found so he
was someone that we we certainly wanted to talk to and we were attempting to locate
police went to interview bulmar about the amy willard case but they couldn't find him
so the search was on a year after amy willard's murder there had been another attempted carjacking in
philadelphia information provided by the victim identified the culprit as an ex-convict
arthur beaumar but police couldn't find him not long afterwards another woman called
police to report a man trying to break into her third floor apartment the man was arrested and identified
himself as peter thomas love in his pocket was a set of car keys to a honda automobile
they determined that there was a honda nearby they ran that tag and they learned that that tag belonged
to arthur beaumar assigned to a 1993 ford escort owned by arthur beaumar police also discovered that peter thomas
love was an alias he was in fact arthur beaumar but why was bomar's license plate on a
honda and not on his 1993 ford escort the answer was simple the car was stolen it belonged to maria cobuenos a 25 year
old woman who had been missing for three months maria cabuenos was a young woman who
lived in the city of philadelphia who was reported missing by her family she was supposed to appear at work one
morning and failed to appear investigators believe that cabuenos was abducted while driving on route 476 the
same highway where amy willard had been attacked dried blood was found in the trunk on
maria's car which beaumar was driving both bumpers were slightly scraped like amy willard's car
bulmar immediately became a suspect in maria's disappearance now more than ever police believed he might have been
involved in amy willard's murder come to the prison i'll tell you all what you want to know but i don't think
it's fair to put me on tv and i'm not being charged with it his alibi was that he was president of the birthday party
and not outside the bar that amy was that evening he had been with a family it was not a family it was a young woman
that he was seeing this woman had a child but beaumar's fiance contradicted that
she said bulmar was at smokey joe's bar on the night amy willard disappeared police re-examined the evidence looking
for any clues that would tie bulmar to the murder one year after her daughter's death
gail willard who worked as an emergency room nurse asked to see pictures of amy's injuries
i looked at the picture of what they were calling a diamond shaped pattern and i said this isn't a
diamond shaped pattern this is a burn that was not a burn from a flame it was either a burn that her body came in
contact with something that had the ridges on it but it was a burn imprint and it was uneven
investigators immediately searched for bulmar's ford escort the car he was driving at the time amy disappeared but
they got bad news the car had been involved in an automobile accident a few months after
amy's disappearance so they tracked the towing company and asked where that car was towed to they
went to a location and found a car that was the green ford escort that had been actually sitting in a field next to
this tow truck company for almost a year's time so it had been there's a potential piece
of great evidence that has not had the chance to be forensically analyzed an external examination of the escort
showed slight damage to the front bumper at least one of the car's tires was a firestone 440 13-inch tire the same type
of tire which made the impression found at the crime scene our latent print examiner in harrisburg
was able to say that the tire was not only consistent in make model size but also in wear which is which is helpful
it's another piece to the puzzle so the forensics in our case were absolutely critical
omar's car had been exposed to the elements without its roof for almost a year so it was no surprise that police could
find no trace of blood inside the car in previous employment he had worked in a hospital in an operating room where
he had learned all of the techniques of cleaning up blood until police took a much closer look
we literally took the car apart we removed the seats we removed the carpeting we did vacuumings for trace
evidence we literally took the car apart we took the door panel apart and behind
the door panel we found some blood tests later showed that the blood found on the passenger's door
was amy willard's [Music] but the most shocking discovery was something police noticed underneath the
vehicle as it was being towed as the sun was shining down underneath the car it was illuminating the oil pan
and looking at the oil pan we were both in agreement right then and there that that was the same mark that was left on
amy willard's body the pattern of x's and does on the oil pan was eerily similar to the marks on amy's
body an expert at the armed forces institute of pathology confirmed that the pattern
on the oil pan was consistent with the marks on amy's body all rapists and to a certain degree serial killers
pick their victims based on a fantasy they have a fantasy in their head of of what they all crime all violent crime
starts with a fantasy prosecutors believe that amy willard first caught arthur bulmar's attention
in smokey joe's bar i'm sorry from there they believe bulmar followed amy out of
the bar and along route 476 as she drove home when amy was about to exit the highway
prosecutors believe bulmar bumped her car causing her to pull over [Music] the contact left marks on the bumpers of
both cars as she left her vehicle bomar struck her with the tire iron causing the blood spatter on the
guardrail [Music] then dragged her to his car where he took amy from there no one knows
but the forensic evidence clearly shows that beaumars firestone tire left the tire impression at the crime scene
and that bomar ran over amy with his vehicle burning her skin leaving the imprint of the car's oil pan
on her torso he then left her body in the deserted lot and returned to the scene of the crime
to dispose of amy's clothing [Music] ironically bomar himself provided the most damning
piece of evidence the semen from amy's rape test kit matched arthur bomar's dna profile
[Music] before bomar's murder trial police found the skeletal remains of maria cubanos in nearby bucks county
pennsylvania when beaumar was arrested he was driving kobanus's automobile maria's body was found less than 20
miles from arthur bulmar's residence and 30 miles from where amy was abducted like amy maria died from head injuries
caused by a blunt instrument i know that he's still clearly suspected of the disappearance and murder of
mariko buenos it's been publicly reported and authorities look at other things but i can't
you know there's no i really shouldn't say any more than that during the trial the defense argued that
bulmar was neglected as a child and had a low iq omar had to be restrained several times
during the trial because of violent outbursts outside the courthouse beaumar's family
took their frustrations out on the just talk we'll stay median from you we'll stay awake
his step brother and his mother lashed out at news crews covering the trial miss ganges ma'am man ma'am don't hit
him arthur beaumar was convicted of rape and first degree murder and was sentenced to
death omar's reaction when he was convicted and sentenced to death he turned around
and threatened me with both fingers in the air telling you to do mrs wilber down your two kids
he was just a stone cold killer and a real predator i have in my career never really faced anybody that i felt
was as dangerous as remorseless and as cold as arthur beaumar he doesn't deserve for anyone to ever
think about him again he is just a vile evil man i think in the end without the dna
without the tire impression without the oil pan impression i think we would have
been very hard-pressed to uh to have the success that we did [Music] [Music] [Music]
you

The disappearance of Philadelphia college athlete Aimee Willard is investigated after her car was found on the roadside. When her body is found, the police find unusual marks on her body and DNA evidence that eventually lead to her killer.

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

Amy Willard was murdered in 1996; Arthur Beaumar was convicted using forensic evidence linking him to the crime.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearance. A woman's car is found abandoned, but the driver is missing. What happened?
The Gruesome Discovery. The nude body of a woman is found, leading to a shocking identification.
The Conviction of a Predator. Arthur Beaumar is convicted of rape and murder, sentenced to death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This person was violently attacked in a very fast mode.

Description of the crime scene analysis.

1:55WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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