Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 26 - Palm Print Conviction - Full Episode | Forensic Files

one summer's evening a woman left a bar in anchorage alaska and staggered into the street
she was drunk she was defenseless and soon she was dead the killer left this unusual clue at the
crime scene it was evidence that could be visualized with a simple tube of glue [Music]
[Applause] [Music] [Music] august 8 1996 was a beautiful summer morning in anchorage alaska
but on this day workers entering a downtown office building saw something different
the first time i've ever experienced anything like this i never want to experience it again this
is horrible it was a body laying near a wooded area and she didn't appear to be breathing
the woman's checked jacket and clothing were strewn over a 30-foot area a clear indication of a life-and-death
struggle it was an extended assault it wasn't he just hit her in the face once there were multiple blows to her head
and her upper chest area she had been so badly beaten a visual identification would be impossible
she didn't match missing persons reports and apparently there had been no witnesses
anytime you have a witnessless crime you have difficulties you don't have anybody telling you where
to go where to look who to ask and what to do the victim hadn't been moved or touched
since she was discovered and the body had been protected from the sunlight because of where the victim was found
and the circumstances surrounding her death captain bill gifford made an unusual
decision i made the decision that we would go ahead and try to get clayton prince off
the body for the last six years gifford had been experimenting with a special technique
to find hidden fingerprints on human skin super glue fuming is usually done with
non-porous surfaces like glass or metal in the early 80s a gluing factory in japan
the employees had noticed that as they were gluing various items together that the vapors which were materializing
from the glue were turning the fingerprints their actual prints on an item a whitish color
subsequently they brought the information to the attention of the japanese crime lab and from that with
various organizational meetings they pass the information on to do it with skin the following
conditions must be in place no emergency personnel can have handled the body they would wipe prints off and
also leave their own if the victim is dead for a long period of time decay will destroy any prince
any precipitation even dew can wash away prints and the temperature must be right if
it's too hot the prints will melt if it's too cold they'll disintegrate [Music] gifford ordered technicians to build a
tent around the body using plastic tarp and pvc pipe [Music] inside gifford heated a pan of water to
increase the humidity in the tent [Music] using a heat gun a massive amount of super glue was blown into the airtight
container around the body gifford's secret technique was to use more super glue than forensic scientists
usually recommend in this case probably three or four hundred times the amount of what we'd
normally use on skin and this time we got the right amount the heated glue attaches itself to the
biological oils left by someone's fingers or hands the glue then hardens on the print and
can be photographed this isn't a technique that can be redone fortunately in this case it worked
on the victim's left thigh was a fragment of a palm print from the killer's left hand
we were ecstatic and this was the second latent print off of human skin that had been
confirmed so to finally get one quite a milestone the palm print itself was of excellent
condition i could tell based on the slope of the terrain and the location of the the print
and injuries that were afflicted to the victim exactly which hand it was because the
individual had steady themselves by placing their hand on the thigh area while they were conducting whatever
injuries they were sustaining to the victim above the body on some low hanging branches
police discovered 35 head hairs which did not come from the victim it appeared the branches became
entangled in the assailant's hair during the assault police now had the palm print and
possibly a hair sample from the killer all they needed now was to identify the victim
and find the suspect when the body of the victim was taken to the morgue in anchorage alaska the
medical examiner determined that she was an alaska native between 30 and 40 years
old five foot two inches tall and weighing a hundred pounds he found a bite mark on the woman's
breast and signs she had been sexually assaulted there were some bloody boot impressions
on the victim's torso but they weren't clear enough to identify in this particular case the violence
didn't indicate whether they would be known to one another but what it did tell us is that the
suspect spent considerable time with the victim both before and after death the toxicology report indicated
that the victim had a blood alcohol level of .308 over four times the legal limit
anchorage police checked missing persons reports but found no one resembling their victim
at the crime scene above the body in some low-hanging branches police found human hair
the hairs presumably the assailants were analyzed and identified as [ __ ] [ __ ] hairs are from asian races
native americans would be included in this category [ __ ] hairs tend to have very dark
pigmentation the hairs almost look black visually and they tend to be very straight
the hairs were very long between 18 and 20 inches and they were highly unusual this is one of the most distinctive hair
samples that i've ever seen the long hairs had been bleached and because [ __ ] hairs are so dark in
color this type of chemical treatment has a distinct effect when they add bleach to it it pulls some
of the pigment out and if it's incomplete the hair almost looks orangish police were now looking for a native
velasque male with long black hair down to his waist with an uneven orange tint we didn't know who the assailant was we
had no idea what that person was going to do whether this was going to be a series of crimes
and for the first week or so we certainly had concerns that we had a person or persons capable of committing
such a heinous crime walking around our community without us able to identify who that person was
since the victim had a high alcohol content at the time of her death police canvassed bars in downtown
anchorage many of which are popular with the native community many of the bars have extensive video
surveillance systems for liability purposes this way bar owners can prove they haven't served anyone who is visibly
intoxicated bar owners decide whether they want to have these videotaped systems or not and
then they install them their own so there's no mandate for it they do this on a voluntary basis
police collected the surveillance tapes from every downtown bar that had a video
system and looked through the hours of footage one videotape was from an outside
surveillance camera taken on the night of the murder fortunately the picture was relatively
clear for a night scene why [Music] even at nine or ten o'clock at night the sun is still shining in alaska since
it's so far north this is why alaska is called the land of the midnight sun on this one tape was a clear image of a
woman wearing a checked jacket like the one found at the crime scene she was walking down the street
arm-in-arm with a man with long black hair i would say the video image of the individual was fair it wasn't real clear
but it was fair enough that we could felt comfortable go out and begin searching for the person who was enough
that we could get an idea of who he might be the trick now was to find out the individual's
identity anchorage police uncovered this video surveillance image thought to be their
victim and the killer taken on the night of the murder the videotape was from a surveillance
system at a bar in downtown anchorage called the avenue the bar had nine tiny video surveillance
cameras in operation at all times almost every square foot of the bar and the entrance and exit are all covered
the bar owner john patty says the surveillance is not a luxury it's a necessity video surveillance gives me another body
it gives you the opportunity to have maybe a couple fewer employees and yet you can monitor you know seven or eight
different locations within the bar when police showed the surveillance picture to john patty
he could not identify the man in the image but he knew the woman her name was martha hansen
everyone called her marty she was a regular customer since i've been here i've known her but
just as a customer a tiny little girl you know never caused a problem a background check revealed martha
hansen was a 48 year old divorced mother of six children and was unemployed she was just very trusting very open with
people and it didn't matter who you were to reach out to you i think that was probably what the downfall was here
she'd been gone for two days before her children reported her missing which is why police had not connected her to
their victim pat t said that on the night of the murder martha hansen was in his bar and
was denied service the bartender's first engagement with her that bartending determined that she was too intoxicated
to be in here so we asked her to leave and then she left martha was inside for less than five
minutes patrons remembered her but did not remember seeing the man in the surveillance image
it appeared that the man never entered the bar so there was no clear shot of his face
the best images unfortunately were martha hansen and the suspect walking away from the bar so we have the back of
the subject as opposed to the front the image showed martha and the man walking arm and arm which suggested the
two knew one another we're canvassing the area again going back to the businesses going back to the
retailers going back to people saying do you know who this person is when police put the photograph in the
local newspaper a concerned citizen called with some information [Music] she said that a week after the murder of
martha hansen one of her friends blurted out that he'd killed someone when she asked him how
he held up his hands indicating that he'd either hit or strangled his victim or both
her initial instinct was he's just bragging he's intoxicated he couldn't do something like this
the man's name was evans lee curtis with hair so long it fell almost to his waist
curtis was unemployed with no prior arrest evans curtis fit the photo that we received from the
videotape to a t curtis had left his pants in this woman's bedroom they appeared to be similar to those in
the surveillance image when police analyzed those pants they discovered they were spattered with
blood evans lee curtis was interrogated by police but he denied any involvement in
martha hansen's murder so having your own rights in mind that we talked about do you want to talk to us about this
police had the surveillance image the hairs and the palm print of the killer the question now
was whether the forensic evidence would match evans lee curtis league curtis said he had nothing to do
with the murder of martha hansen he claimed the man in the video image was someone else that he certainly wasn't
the only man in anchorage with long hair but his long hair was distinctive it had the same unusual orange color as
the hairs found at the crime scene the suspect's hair was also chemically treated was very long in length and the
chemical treatment was irregular along the length the same as what i found in the in the hairs from the scene
investigators wanted something more conclusive they wanted to know if the partial palm
print found on martha hanson's thigh belonged to curtis police took impressions of his hands
focusing more on his palms than his fingertips investigators were looking for the
distinctive crease between the index and middle fingers they found on martha hansen's thigh
when compared there was no mistaking it the print on the body was from evans lee
curtis that presents him with a serious problem and that problem is how does he explain
why his palm print is on a dead woman the print evidence while significant was subject to defense attack
the super glue fuming process was so unusual investigators were concerned whether it
would be allowed as evidence so they conducted dna testing of the blood found on curtis's pants
when the blood on the pants was compared to dna from martha hansen's blood dna it was a match we have no idea why he
left his pants behind but we're glad he did [Music] but perhaps the most damning clue was found on the
boots curtis was wearing at the time of his arrest they were given to forensic analyst jim
wolfe [Music] in a crevice on the boot soul created by simple wear and tear he found
what looked to be a small pocket of blood what really caught my eye what was on the victim's body appeared to be a heel
impression was some possible blood stains on the heel of the boot actually inside a heel that was or inside a hole
that was worn into the heel wolf swabbed the area extracting the blood the dna from the shoe was compared to
martha hansen's dna it matched prosecutor david wallace had one of the best cases of his career
in this case it was forensically solid mr curtis would have had a lot of explaining to do how all of these pieces
of the puzzle were not him when i had multiple experts going to take the stand and say it was in fact mr curtis that
killed martha hansen police discovered that curtis knew martha hansen's daughter and had
actually met martha at a dinner party a few weeks before her murder she had trusted evans she had apparently
been an acquaintance with him he had been invited over to the house a couple of times and
i guess she had actually had fed him [Music] prosecutors believe that when martha
left the avenue bar she just happened to run into curtis recognizing one another they walked down
the street arm and arm possibly on their way to another night spot but instead curtis took martha to a secluded area
and made a sexual advance when she rejected him curtis attacked her in the ensuing fight
curtis caught some of his hair in a tree branch hair which had a distinct orange
bleaching curtis got blood on his pants the most unusual piece of forensic evidence was his partial palm print
on martha's left thigh and when he stepped on martha's torso her blood became embedded in the sole of
his boot since he left the body under the trees protected from the sunlight and excessive moisture the conditions were
perfect to preserve the print for hours after she died providing one final clue in a mosaic of
evidence that ultimately identified evans lee curtis not aware of any other case in alaska
where a palm print fingerprint or any type of print has been lifted from a deceased person
when faced with the overwhelming amount of forensic evidence evans lee curtis decided to plead guilty
is a brutal the appearance of the victim's face is shocking evans lee curtis was sentenced
to 99 years in prison his conviction a combination of old-fashioned police work high-tech forensic science
and a little bit of luck the video tape evidence in conjunction with the palm prints and
other evidence at the scene were just over and above what we could have hoped for
with what we have in technology give something a shot and that doesn't work modify it give
something else a shot but there's untold things out there that will eventually be employed
where we will be making identifications that people today would think impossible
forensic technology is extremely important in many many cases whether it's homicide to simple thefts
because if you don't have a confession if you don't have an eyewitness to the crime you have nothing
so with forensic evidence we are able to circumstantially piece together a puzzle
that may never have been pieced together before [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

An investigation into murder is helped by a legal requirement that bars have video cameras installed on the premises. Video, hair and blood lead to the murderer.

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

Forensic evidence leads to the arrest of Evans Lee Curtis for the murder of Martha Hansen in Anchorage, Alaska.

Key points

A Woman's Tragic End. In Anchorage, Alaska, a woman leaves a bar and is later found dead.
Breakthrough Forensic Technique. Captain Bill Gifford uses a unique super glue technique to uncover fingerprints.
Curtis's Distinctive Hair. Investigators find unusual hair samples linking the suspect to the crime scene.
The Shocking Discovery. A palm print and hair samples lead police to the suspect, Evans Lee Curtis.
The Conviction. Evans Lee Curtis pleads guilty after overwhelming forensic evidence is presented.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was drunk, she was defenseless.

Describing the victim's state before the crime.

0:13WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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