Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 29 - A Bag of Evidence - Full Episode | Forensic Files

9-1-1 did you please fire medical an anonymous telephone call told police where they could find the body of a
missing nine-year-old girl the recording of that call had too much static and background noise for voice
identification until forensic scientists worked their magic which led investigators to a factory a
supermarket and straight to the front door of a suspect [Music] [Music] on the friday before easter in 1996
nine-year-old jessica knott spent the day playing reading and drawing the kids were home from school i spent
the day packing up clothes and getting ready for a trip that we had planned to make to my husband's parents house to
spend the easter weekend with them eventually jessica wanted to go outside to play and wait for her father to come
home she said i'd like to go downstairs and wait for dad because my husband was out shopping for
easter goodies i said fine you know don't go anywhere else a couple of hours later
kevin not walked in the front door but without jessica and it was starting to get dark
and he said where's jessica i said didn't you see her she was she said she was right out front he said no
kevin and peggy not searched everywhere one neighbor said she saw jessica sitting outside reading a few hours
earlier but hadn't seen her since police were notified of jessica's disappearance they instituted a
parameter search of the area [Music] but their first real lead was an anonymous telephone call saying that
jessica could be found not far from her home on montgomery road i have a message jessica from los alamos
the call originated from a pay phone at a gas station on montgomery road [Applause]
no one was there when police arrived crime scene investigator deanna tominski was called to the area
while i was in route to the mobile gas station they called me and informed me they had found a body of a juvenile
female the body was in a dark isolated area near a water system pomp house a quarter mile from where the telephone
call was made she was partially covered with a dark plastic garbage bag and there were a couple of magazines a
mirror around her it was jessica knott i think it was detective rodriguez i was sitting on the sofa in my living room
and he came in he's and i just knew he said i found your daughter and i knew that she was gone at that
point so [Music] that was uh that was the worst night of my life it was like a nightmare
for any parent you know i still have a hard time accepting it deanna tominski searched the area for
possible forensic evidence jessica's clothing was intact except for one missing shoe
it appeared that she'd been placed there that she was not killed there because there were items underneath her
as well as on top of her and there was a drag mark in the sand that corresponded
with her left shoulder there was a tire impression nearby which police photographed then cast with
plaster for future evaluation the body was carefully removed for an autopsy along with the plastic garbage
bag in which the body was found the first thing you try to do is you try to eliminate people who know her how
could she have gotten away from there without raising a ruckus you have to wonder how in the world did it even
happen that no one could see it so the first thing to do obviously is to look at family
when questioned by police neither jessica's mother peggy nor her husband kevin were able to provide an alibi for
the time of jessica's disappearance kevin said he was shopping peggy said she was inside cleaning her house but
neither could provide any independent corroboration in kevin knott's vehicle police found a roll of garbage bags
which were confiscated for forensic analysis and there was something else suspicious
an analysis of the anonymous call to police revealed the tone of the caller's voice as sympathetic suggesting
that the caller knew jessica personally if investigators could identify the caller
they most likely had their killer [Applause] the autopsy of nine-year-old jessica
knott revealed bruising on her neck and the inside of her mouth indicating someone had cupped a hand over her mouth
and suffocated her we couldn't be sure whether it was strangulation or whether it was
suffocation because of a hand over the mouth probably a combination of the two actually
and the contents of her stomach revealed she had eaten a fast food hamburger shortly before she was killed
how can you treat a human life like a piece of trash i mean literally he put her in a garbage pick and dumped
her on under a tree i think it was they found her i mean that really makes me angry
extremely angry scott ryland analyzed the bag covering jessica he found no fingerprints on it and also
determined that the bag was different from the type found in jessica's father's truck
this eliminated kevin not as a possible suspect they asked to interview me right off the
bat which i understood and it was pretty hard but it had to be done the trace evidence found on jessica's
body hairs fibers and other materials were sent to forensic scientist max houck he immediately identified important
information about the killer the foreign hair found on jessica's body was caucasian
and there were two different types of fibers both were matte finished very thick and rough not the type used in
clothing there's a certain look to carpet fibers and there's a certain look to automotive fibers and if you look at
enough of them you can eventually get a hunch if you will that it may be in fact from an automobile
either the carpeting or maybe the floor mats the fibers were from two different carpets suggesting that jessica had been
in two different locations and there was another telling piece of trace evidence
and then there was the overwhelming number of animal hairs the animal hairs were distinctive
as to what type of animal they were from a dog dogs have what's called a spade shaped
root it also kind of looks like a small christmas tree sort of folded up and triangular in
shape hauck then compared that dog hair to reference samples from the fbi laboratory
i knew it wasn't going to be a malamute or you know some alaskan husky so i went
to short-haired dogs black labs sharpays boston terriers dogs like that that have very short sleek coats
and then started comparing the characteristics all the other dogs dropped out except for sharpay
all of this evidence told investigators that the killer was caucasian and that he took jessica in his automobile to a
fast food restaurant later jessica was in another location where she came into contact with a
sharpie dog police then turned their attention to the anonymous telephone call the 911 tape obviously a key piece of
evidence everyone was convinced the person on that tape was the murderer and we wanted to be able to identify that
voice the call had been made from a public telephone at a gas station and had quite a bit of background noise
and static [Music] [Applause] [Music] police sent the tape to nasa asking scientists there to use the same audio
techniques they employ to clean up audio transmissions from space after that was complete the tape was
sent to dr harry holine a renowned forensic audio analyst who literally wrote the book on forensic audio
analysis dr holin felt certain he could identify the voice on the telephone call all he
needed was a suspect's voice for comparison the tone of the caller's voice sounded
to investigators as sympathetic as if he knew jessica personally on a hunch police played the tape for
jessica's mother and her reaction was immediate my first reaction was this voice is very
familiar to me and i think i had to listen to it a few times before i realized this
oh it it was like a bell ringing my head ah that's it it's the guy with the dog the guy with the dog
was a neighbor she just couldn't recall his name [Music] in their grief friends and neighbors left lilies and
toy rabbits where jessica knott's body was found on easter weekend meanwhile jessica's mother had provided
police with a suspect she said the man who called police pointing them to jessica's body sounded
like a neighbor who walked his dog in the area police identified the man as 35 year old
james edward crowe who had no prior arrests crowe lived with his wife who was a nurse
he was unemployed and spent quite a bit of time walking his dog pumpkin he stayed home and watched the house and
the dog and walked the dog around and talked to all the kids now that's not the worst thing in the
world in some situations but it certainly makes you wonder something about him made me feel
uncomfortable but it's not a thought that i dwelled on pumpkin was a sharp pay similar to the
breed whose hair was found on jessica's body a neighbor had seen crow talking to
jessica outside the apartment building shortly before she disappeared crowe admitted talking to her but denied
having anything to do with her disappearance investigators searched crowe's vehicle
amid the debris they found a bag for a kid's meal from a nearby fast food restaurant
remnants of a fast food hamburger had been found in jessica's stomach and crowe had brand new tires on his
truck police discovered that crowe had replaced them just after jessica's death and in crow's apartment police found a
box of black garbage bags the same size and brand as the bag found with jessica's body
could they link the garbage bag from the crime scene to the garbage bags and crow's apartment
there are a huge number of garbage bags produced typically on the order of nine and a half million bags in one month
time so the question is how many of those nine million bags could be like this bag found on jessica
knott's body to find out investigators turned to noel roberts as a quality control expert for the
manufacturer he knows garbage bags robert said that the number stamped on the box indicated where the bag had been
made the bags and crow's apartment had been made in virginia the goal of mass production is to
quickly make an identical product over and over again but roberts knew that not every trash
bag was truly identical he invited scott ryland and prosecutor chris white to the plant to understand
how the manufacturing process worked how plastic is recycled melted blown into a huge tube that cools as it
ascends and then made into rolls of thin sheets that are cut and folded into bags
manufacturers use a variety of materials to make the bags including scraps you're taking a random amount of white
plastic bags of yellow ties that have iron in them the white plastic bags are very rich in
titanium dioxide so what you have depending on this random variation in the scrap that's
being used a change in the concentration of the iron and the titanium and in fact
it turns out from day to day to reveal the elements in the plastic scott ryland focused a high intensity
x-ray beam on samples of the bags found in crow's apartment a fluorescent spectrometer reveals the
elements in the plastic and their relative concentrations the bag found with jessica was virtually
identical to the bags in crow's apartment indicating they had been from the same batch of plastic
another characteristic was visible to the naked eye when the plastic is made bits of debris
will get lodged in the machinery this produces imperfections in the plastic called dye lines
because the obstructions causing the lines come and go the pattern on the bags is unique to a specific window of
time and it almost gives you a fingerprint type identification where you can take
one bag and really match it up with the next bag in a carton and be pretty sure that it is a consecutive bag and from
the same batch the dye lines and the bags found in crow's apartment lined up with the dye
lines in the bag from the crime scene meaning all the bags were manufactured within
hours of each other often the bags are not folded evenly the amount of overlap in the edges called an
offset varies over time and with each machine used the offset in crow's bags and the bag
with jessica's body also matched i think most people would say wow we're not dealing with 32 to 34 potential
boxes but it narrows it down to half that number it's probably realistically 16 to 17 boxes of bags out there as
potential sources of the bag found in jessica's body meaning that there was a 1 in 17 chance
that the garbage bag came from crowe's apartment james edward crowe was arrested
and charged with the murder of nine-year-old jessica knott [Music] forensic scientists were able to
determine that the carpet fibers found on jessica's body were consistent with the carpet fibers in james crowe's
apartment and in his automobile and the dog hair on jessica's body was consistent with crow's dog
the garbage bags in crow's home had the same striations and offset overlaps as the bag with jessica's body
this meant that crow owned one of the 17 boxes of bags that the bag from the crime scene could have come from
finally dr harry hollen compared a sample of crow's voice to the voice on the anonymous telephone call
and he came to a conclusion somewhere in the 90 percent range that this was in fact the same
voice based on the forensic evidence prosecutors believe that crowe used his dog to start a conversation with jessica
while she waited outside for her father do you like dogs yeah do you want to try to take them for a
walk yes yeah it'd be really fun from there he coaxed her into his car with the promise of a fast food
hamburger afterwards the forensic evidence suggests crow took her back to his apartment where she picked up the
apartment carpet fibers and the hairs from his dog [Music] for reasons unknown crow apparently
suffocated jessica in his apartment he then hid the body in a garbage bag and placed it in the back of his car
without creating suspicion after dumping the body in the deserted location he placed a call to police
probably out of guilt which dr holin matched with his audio expertise james crowe maintained his innocence and
his defense attorneys challenged the forensic evidence in a separate hearing to determine the
admissibility of this forensic evidence in the upcoming trial prosecutors had to
prove that the scientific analysis of the garbage bags met general scientific standards
in the end the judge said i find it admissible not only do i find it admissible i think it's some of the best
forensic testimony that i've ever seen and the jury is going to be very very interested in this testimony
well you don't get those kind of compliments from judges every day faced with the overwhelming forensic
evidence james crowe decided to plead no contest to second-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of 40 years in
prison with no chance for parole in so doing crow avoided a possible death sentence
all i can say is the man upstairs is waiting for him but possibly the man downstairs too
the family was spared the ordeal of a trial but in the courtroom they showed crow
how much he hurt them when kevin read a poem he had written [Music] dare you to swift justice to meet your
omega to face your guard until israel the sooner the better the knots never before realized the
complexity of forensic evidence and the full measure of its power with all the dna testing that goes on
and just all the science scientific technology that's available today i think just helps everybody
get closer to the truth of crimes it wasn't available like say 20 30 years ago and
it pretty much cut to the core of what happened the forensic capabilities of our local
department of law enforcement lab and the fbi lab are what made this case possible
in the sense of made it possible for us to prosecute it successfully if we had not had the capabilities of those labs i
think james crowe would still be on the street [Music] [Music] [Music] you

The murder of 9-year-old Jessica Knott is investigated. Investigators use a garbage bag to connect suspect James Edward Crow, Jr. to the crime.

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

The case of Jessica Knott reveals how forensic evidence led to her neighbor's conviction for murder.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jessica Knott. Nine-year-old Jessica Knott goes missing, leading to a frantic search.
The Discovery. A body is found after an anonymous call, leading to a tragic revelation.
A Mother's Grief. Jessica's mother identifies a familiar voice from the anonymous call.
Forensic Breakthroughs. Forensic evidence links the suspect to the crime, revealing crucial details.
The Plea Deal. Facing overwhelming evidence, Crowe pleads no contest to avoid a death sentence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

That was the worst night of my life.

A mother reflects on her daughter's tragic fate.

3:50WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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