Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 22 - Frozen in Time - Full Episode | Forensic Files

a young woman stopped her car along a busy highway in California she was never seen
again for 3 years the search for her whereabouts continued but the trail eventually turned cold so cold that
forensic scientists needed new techniques to solve it [Music] [Applause] [Music]
[Music] 23-year-old Denise Huber lived with her parents in Newport Beach col California an upscale suburb outside of
Los Angeles she just got graduated from college and I think she just wanted to have have fun and uh before she'd
settled down into a job Denise worked as a waitress and a part-time sales assistant at
Bloomingdales she was very trusting she just say Dad don't worry I'm all right nobody's going to
harm me at 5'9 the Striking blue-eyed brunette had no trouble attracting dates her most recent boyfriend was Steve
horx he's a friendly outgoing person likes to have fun I know she that's what she would always say Steve was so much
fun she he made her laugh on Sunday night June 2nd 1991 Steve and Denise planned to see the
morsy rock band perform in Englewood but at the last minute Steve couldn't get off from work disappointed
but undeterred Denise asked a casual friend Robert Calbert to go with her she said I'll be home late and I remember
saying well don't be too late you know cuz I always worry when you're not home on time oh you know we'll be fine the
night she left she poked her head in the door and said Di and I we were watching
television just that with that lovely smile uh you know bye I love you both after the concert Denise and Rob stopped
at the El Paso Cantina for a drink where Denise met an old acquaintance whom we'll call Ross Ross
had had a romantic feelings for her in the past he did ask her to go with him that
night he wanted her to go home with him which she did not do Denise and Rob left the restaurant
around 1:00 in the morning and Denise dropped Rob off at his home there was no kiss between the two of them she dropped
him off and he went in the house and she left on her way home Rob was the last known person to
see Denise Huber I think in the morning when she was there obviously was there was some
concern but we didn't keep that close of tabs on her either I mean she was 23 years old and and an adult and uh
totally trustworthy her abandoned car was found along the Costa Mesa freeway 3 mil from home with
a flat tire it didn't look like anything had occurred at the vehicle it was parked
between two call boxes that were never used that night in my mind I just knew something horrible had happened because
Denise wasn't the kind of person that would just disappear without telling us the Costa Mesa police dispatched in
instigators to the scene inside of the car itself appeared to be clean there was no blood there
there didn't appear to be any Windows broken there didn't appear to be any damage to the car her purse and shoes
were gone like she'd gotten out of her car and left the flashers were on on the car like she the car had broken down and
she was going to get out and go walk for help search dogs picked up a scent on the side of the freeway but soon lost it
police then canvased the neighborhoods near the highway but no one had seen her it appeared
Denise Huber had simply [Music] vanished it's worse than if I think I was afraid of for my own
death cuz I was so afraid of what happened to Denise she was so precious police used search helicopters
and all other means to look for 23-year-old Denise Huber after her abandoned car was found along a busy
highway you could hear them from our house and you know what they're looking for and you you pray they don't find
what they're looking for because it's got to be obviously got to be a body that they're looking
for and uh it's it's horrible it's the most horrible feeling you could ever have it's like I couldn't breathe for I
don't know how long police examined the interior of Denise's car and found no foreign
fingerprints an analysis of the flat tire revealed it had not been tampered with it just blew out from being
underinflated got too hot and the sidewall failed I just went flat wild the the physical evidence LED
nowhere police interviewed the last known person to see Denise her date from the night before Robert
Calbert Rob could have been infatuated with her and could have been upset because there was no romantic contact
between the two of them police also looked into Denise's relationship with Steve horox the boyfriend who was
supposed to accompany Denise to the concert but back out at the last minute Steve HX was again Cooperative any
information we needed from him he was always willing to give it police also Tracked Down Ross the
acquaintance Denise met at the El Cantina restaurant Ross was able to put himself
in a alibi situation um to show that he did not go follow her after she dropped a Rob off I never gave up hope that
she'd be found alive uh we did everything from thinking that she might have had a boyfriend that the
folks didn't know about and maybe uh left the state left the city eloped desperate for leads investigators
and Denise's family turned to the media all I knew was get a picture in front of
people get the story out and the news media they were wonderful because every time we have anything going on they
would be there and they'd show it so the community really it was like it was their
daughter we made buttons with Denise's picture that said pray for Denise we had bumper stickers that all of our police
units carried and were available all over the community there was a large Banner that was placed along the 73
freeway here in Costa Mesa the media attention produced hundreds of tips most were well-intentioned some were not we'
hear from psychics who never did know anything I mean that's that's baloney they they
don't they did not know anything in that case we'd hear from crackpots we'd hear
from people that would try and get money from us for three long years the Hubers lived
in agony waiting to hear something anything about their daughter one thing I always remember Linda gisler our lead
Detective I always remember she would call us cuz you sit there every time the phone would ring you jump 10 ft in the
air because you think it's that that phone call and uh that's the one thing that I
always appreciated from Linda she'd say we're going home now there won't be another phone call we'll talk to you
tomorrow and they always she would always touch base with us 350 M away in Prescott Arizona a man
living in a well-to-do neighborhood called local police to report something suspicious in his neighbor's
driveway it was a rider truck with California license plates it had an extension cord coming
out of the back of the truck the neighbor said it was plugged into an electrical socket on the side of
the house whatever was inside the truck was running 24 hours a day a search of the truck revealed it had been stolen in
[Music] California inside was an industrialized freezer in the cargo area and inside the
freezer was a large black garbage bag uh and and they felt it and believed uh what they felt was was an arm of a of a
person I recall seeing uh two arms coming back with the hands handcuffed and a ring I remember seeing jewelry and
uh I was I was really shocked and for the medical examiner it would be the most difficult case she had
ever [Music] encountered for the past year a stolen Rider Truck containing a freezer with a
human body inside had been parked at the home of 39-year-old John famalaro a handyman and painter Mr famalaro was
very calm he was very polite um and he just really didn't have much to say about it uh but he seemed
kind of indifferent to the whole thing the contents of the freezer were sent to the Maricopa County coroner's
office Dr Anne buckolz handled the case obviously it's a homicide or at least a hidden body for some reason and because
if it's clandestine nature you're like okay so we got an evur thing here let's think homicide let's think the worst and
I said yes it's a female she also had some female jewelry evidence and long fingernails the handcuffs were evident
and we didn't see much in the way of clothing she appeared to be naked thawing the body would cause rapid
decomposition so Dr buckolz needed to CCT evidence quickly or lose it forever I took a clean scalpel handle and
actually scraped some of the watery fluid into jars and held it that way I thought well at least we can collect the
specimens it was a sheer luck that we even got any sperm at all in a woman who's Frozen 3
years Dr buckolz removed the handcuffs and defrosted the hands slowly when they're frozen the skin is
fairly symmetrical and intact until she starts losing the fluids and then the skin will start shriveling even in the
fingertips in fact that's where it starts one of the first we got all the prints that first
day and they're actually rolled onto a fingerprint C just as if they were a person who's being arrested it's the
same process on a dead person when they entered the prince into their computer database of missing
persons they immediately found a match it was Denise Huber who had been missing for 3
years they were able to do the fingerprints and that's something I never even thought of imag I never
imagined that we would have that kind of evidence after 3 years you have this hole in you know
that in your inside you through your heart or whatever and that hole will never go
away it heals up around it the healing happens but there's no closure meanwhile John famalaro refused
to explain why Denise's body was in his freezer 350 Mi away from where she disappeared so police searched falo's
home and the the home of his mother who lived next door she was quite taken back
that we uh had also secured what we found to be her home she knew nothing about John having girlfriends or who it
might be and basically sat up a lawn chair across the street and just sat there and watched us for for
days police found a box marked Christmas on a shelf in famalaro garage inside was Denise's bloody
clothing her driver's license and her high heeled shoes the shoes were scuffed and damaged
as if she had been dragged across Highway Paving and police found credit card receipts that showed famalaro had bought
the freezer just days after Denise's disappearance they also discovered blood stained clothing belonging to John
famalaro they didn't know whose blood it was they didn't know if it was Denise's
some other persons a mixture Mr famalaro so they needed a sample of Denise's blood well we didn't have blood
so we ended up sending them some bone marrow the DNA extracted from Denise Huber's bone marrow matched the DNA in
the blood on falo's clothes in famalaro basement police found a police officer's
uniform and a dungeon I think that all showed me he was just that type of person not the
mild mannered person he was when I spoke to him he had that very dark violent other side and uh it was becoming more
and more parent as as the case progressed on one of his girlfriends that we talked to said that yeah he had
some weird sexual fantasies one of the girls had been handcuffed um and left exposed uh naked in handcuff
left exposed to an open window the evidence implicated famalaro in The Disappearance and death of Denise Huber
but it did not explain how she died we took off two or three black plastic bags that had encased the whole body and
inside that were some smaller white plastic bags which covered the head and when we removed that and we started
defrosting her we actually found a a gag type device over her face and over her mouth area uh was a piece of duct tape
that had been taped over her upper mouth nose area Dr buckholtz discovered that Denise's skull had been severely
damaged Dr Laura ful Genetti a forensic anthropologist was asked to reconstruct the skull for further analysis you look
for parts that go together naturally and you start with the Vault or the top round part of the head and then you
proceed towards the face and the reason I do it that way is because the face typically has the smallest most
complicated pieces and you want to have your framework built so that when you get to the face you have something to
put the face back onto the forensic analysis would reveal not only how Denise Huber died but
[Music] where after a three-year search Denise Huber's body was found in a freezer in
Arizona forensic investigators reconstructed her skull in an effort to understand how she
died you can see pattern injuries of two different varieties indicating two different weapons were used and you can
also see little pieces of plastic that are caught in those fractures that told us that the bags were in place when she
received the blows to the head and Dr F janetti discovered Denise had been hit 31
times it's horrifying and if I stopped too long to think about what how she felt when she was by the freeway I'm
paralyzed and I can't do my job so I don't I don't think about that until it's all over and done with for me
it's a matter of here's the puzzle my job is to put the puzzle together and interpret the puzzle and then I can go
home and and cry in the shower the Seaman found on Denise's clothing matched John fero's DNA profile
she was innocent an innocent victim and it could have been anybody's sister it could have been you it could have been
your sister your friend and and that's scary it really hurts you emotionally at that point when you
realize that I'll be honest I won't drive on the interstate and and allow anyone to help
me because of this police also discovered that John famalaro was working in Newport Beach
California at the time Denise disappeared he had rented the front portion of this warehouse for his
painting business bu they talked to people who rented the unit after he had uh moved out and abandoned it about what
the unit what condition the unit was in and uh they pointed us to this area in the corner where they found a a large
brown stain that washed out with the hose and we thought well we know dried blood is very solof and water it could
be washed away initial tests revealed nothing investigators decided to wait until dark
and use luminol which flues or glows when it comes into contact with the iron component in blood we sprayed it out of
a little hand sprayer eventually we checked the whole warehouse and the only thing we ever found was just that blood
in the corner of the warehouse the DNA from those blood stains matched Denise Huber's
DNA and the nail gun found in the warehouse matched the indent ations in Denise's
skull based on the forensic evidence prosecutors believe that when Denise's tire went flat famalaro stopped and
offered to help what happened there I don't know I I think I have a flat tire I don't know
see if I can [Music] help at some point he over powered her and took her to his Warehouse a few
miles away there he killed her he stored the body in a freezer he bought a few days after he killed
Denise 2 years later he stole the ryer truck and took the freezer with Denise's body in it with him when he moved to
Arizona he kept the truck in his driveway with the freezer running running constantly he's kind of a sick guy
that's his that's his thing John has uh been violent to other people and it's it's escalated up to the point of murder
but uh I don't think Denise has been the only one on June 20th 1997 6 years after Denise disappeared
John famalaro was tried and convicted of first deegree murder he was sentenced to
death forensics were it was challenged every step of the way here in court even before court I think a lot of it went to
the state supreme court but every challenge was beat back because of great forensics and great police work I wanted
to know the truth and some of it was horrible but I'd rather have the answers than just be wondering in my mind
because sometimes you imagine things as bad or worse than what they were this really is the way it's
supposed to be done and then it makes you work harder on the next one and when you're about to throw your hands up in
despair you think Denise Huber you did that case you got it reconstructed keep at it there is an answer here
[Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

Denise Huber vanished in 1991; her body was found in a freezer three years later, leading to John Famalaro's conviction for murder.

Key points

Denise Huber's Disappearance. Denise Huber vanished after a night out, leading to a three-year search.
Discovery of Denise's Body. Three years later, Denise's body was found in a freezer, shocking investigators.
John Famalaro's Arrest. John Famalaro was arrested after evidence linked him to Denise's murder.
Conviction of John Famalaro. Famalaro was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I always worry when you’re not home on time.

Denise's friend expresses concern before she goes out.

2:14WatchSep 16, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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