Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 5 - The Alibi - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In 1991, a high school girl vanished after attending a party. Her abandoned vehicle was found in a school
parking lot near her home. The prime suspect had not one, but two alibi witnesses
for the night she disappeared. A solid alibi can often overcome much circumstantial evidence,
but forensic evidence is another matter. On a Saturday night in November of 1991,
17-year-old Crystal Faye Todd was dropped off in a mall parking lot after attending a party.
Since Crystal didn't have to be home for another hour, she said she was going to get something
to eat before heading home. It was the last time Crystal was seen alive. When she wasn't home by 1:00 AM, her mother contacted police.
-Horry County Police. May I help you? NARRATOR: She also called Crystal's best friend,
Ken Register, who said he hadn't seen Crystal all night. -After I talked to Ken Register, I called one of my friends,
and he got up out the bed and come. We went all over Conway hunting her, to see if we could find her car anywhere.
NARRATOR: They found her car the next morning in a nearby school parking lot. Her purse and coat were inside.
-I don't know why-- I mean, I had the feeling. Just something come over me that somebody had Crystal.
NARRATOR: 17-year-old Crystal Faye Todd was a senior in high school living in the small tobacco
farming town of Conway, South Carolina. -I was 39 when she was born. She was a miracle to me, and I just
couldn't believe I had her. I was proud of her, too. NARRATOR: Crystal's dad died when she was very young.
But she grew up as a happy child-- active in her church, sun in the youth group choir, and dreamt of going to college.
-Shew as very lively, good personality, good humor, very outgoing. She just loved to be with her friends
hanging out and having a good time. NARRATOR: Just a few hours after Crystal's abandoned car was
found in a school parking lot, two hunters in a remote field noticed a trail of blood.
It led to a nearby ditch. There lay a woman's body, with multiple stab wounds and partially disrobed.
-It was brutal, and it was, uh-- it's a scene that will be with me for a long time.
-It was sexual in nature. I mean, it wasn't a murder just to murder someone. It was sexual gratification.
NARRATOR: On the victim's finger was a high school ring. Engraved on the inside was the name Crystal Todd.
-I just wish it could have been me instead of her. I've lived a long time. She hadn't lived no time.
NARRATOR: Investigators thought the perpetrator might have been from outside the area.
But forensic evidence at the crime scene pointed much closer to home. -Well, I don't really have a life anymore.
I just exist. I go from one day to the next. And I don't even get up out of the bed and face another day.
It's just hard, but it don't get any better. NARRATOR: Residents of Conway, South Carolina
were appalled by Crystal Faye Todd's senseless murder. Medical examiner Dr. Jamie Downs performed the autopsy.
-She did have the defense injury to the left hand. Because we thought that odd at the time.
Why would someone have defended themself with their left hand? She was right-handed.
Why not use your right hand or dominant hand? NARRATOR: The answer was discovered soon enough.
One of the stab wounds penetrated the left side of her skull, which would have immediately
paralyzed her right side. -What does a defense would tell you? It tells you the victim was conscious.
It tells you the victim was not bound. It tells you the victim was cognizant of danger.
NARRATOR: Some of the wounds didn't cause bleeding-- an indication they were made after death.
-The victim is completely dead. The victim is there is no longer struggling, yet the offender still had enough anger
that he incised or cut the body after death. NARRATOR: In all, she was stabbed 31 times.
-The term that we use is overkill. That's more wounding than is necessary to take
someone's life. NARRATOR: When Dr. Downs measured the wounds, he concluded that the murder weapon was a three and a half
inch knife-- the type with a blade that locks in place. It would have had to be a locking blade,
or it couldn't have penetrated the skull. Forensic evidence confirmed she had been sexually assaulted,
and that she was murdered on one side of the road and the body dumped on the other.
-Well, what it told me is that he was panicking and he simply wanted to disassociate
himself from the crime. It told me that he probably had never killed before and he was inexperienced in this type of crime.
NARRATOR: In search for suspects, investigators first looked through Crystal's personal papers.
On one of Crystal's school notebooks was the name Andy Tyndall, written on the cover.
Friends say Crystal met Tyndall through a mutual acquaintance. Tyndall was a 31-year-old convicted thief,
wanted in Alabama for a parole violation. Police also discovered that he had a taste for high school girls.
-No doubt about it, we thought we had our man. He fit what we were looking for. NARRATOR: Forensic scientists evaluated the rape test kit
from Crystal's autopsy and discovered that the killer had Type-O blood with an extremely rare blood
subtype characterized by the enzyme PGM. -It stands phosphoglycerate mutase. That is an enzyme that is stable in body
fluids from individuals. The blood type, the secreter status, and the PGM subtype
made him approximately 2% of the popular. NARRATOR: And the DNA profile of the perpetrator
was highly unusual, as well. -We found that the profile was, in fact, rare, and occurred with a frequency of approximately 1
in 250 million Caucasians and one and 1.5 billion blacks. NARRATOR: Surprisingly, this forensic information
exonerated their prime suspect, Andy Tyndall. More than 1,000 people attended Crystal Faye Todd's funeral.
Crystal's best friend served as her pallbearers. Her grieving mother and police appealed to the community
for any information about the crime. In response, a resident of Conway came forward to say he had driven by the school parking
lot on the night Crystal disappeared, and saw Crystal's car with a man and a woman standing beside it.
Now police had another lead. A police sketch of his description looked too many like Crystal's mother
Bonnie and her boyfriend. -There is no question in my mind, as I sit here today, that the individual in this sketch
was Bonnie Faye Todd's boyfriend. NARRATOR: Police wondered just how much Crystal's mother knew about the murder.
A witnesses told police that on the night Crystal disappeared, he had seen two people standing near Crystal's
car in the parking lot. His description matched Crystal's mother and her mother's boyfriend.
But when questioned further, the witness admitted he had been drinking that night
and may have seen Crystal's mother on Sunday morning, when she and her boyfriend found Crystal's car.
-I thought it was awful, that, much as I love my daughter, to even try to blame it on me.
NARRATOR: With Bonnie no longer a suspect and their previous suspect, Andy Tyndell,
exonerated by DNA testing, investigators had no other leads. So police commissioned a behavioral profile
of the killer. -Well, criminal behavior profiling is when you have an unsolved case
and you study the crime and the behavior of the offender during the commission of the crime,
and you arrive at characteristics. It's a subjective opinion. You arrive at characteristics and traits
of the unidentified offender, such as age, race, marital status, arrest history, educational level--
things of that nature. NARRATOR: The profile suggested that Crystal's killer was
a white male in his early 20s, and was a friend of Crystal's who lived within three miles of her home.
The young man was angry, and probably had a police record. He was physically strong.
Above all, the profile suggested that he was confident he would never be considered a suspect.
Since the profile suggested that the killer was one of Crystal's friends, police asked her male classmates and acquaintances
to voluntarily give blood samples for DNA testing. Despite the challenge to their civil liberties,
52 men complied. -It wasn't-- well, anything's voluntary. But they still had a pool of names
that they were pulling from. And then when they pulled the name, then they would ask if you would go down and give the DNA test--
or give the specimen. And everybody volunteered. I haven't heard of anybody not doing it.
NARRATOR: Incredibly, one of those DNA profiles matched the DNA of the perpetrator, donor number 44.
When investigators asked Crystal's mother to name the one person she would least expect to hurt
her daughter, she identified the same man. -He says who do you trust her with, day or night, anytime, anywhere, that she won't date?
And I said Ken Register. NARRATOR: Ken Register and Crystal Todd had known each other since childhood.
Their relationship wasn't romantic. There was simply very good friends. They spoke together almost every day.
And it was Ken who Mrs. Todd first called for help on the night Crystal disappeared.
Ken has also been one of Crystal's pallbearers. When police checked Ken Register's background,
they discovered two troubling pieces of information. First, he had an explosive temper,
and he also had a criminal record. Two months earlier, two local college students
accused Register of exposing himself when he stopped to ask for directions. -I'm lost.
I'm looking for the library. Can you help me out here? -Ew, you asshole. -Ew! What the hell?
NARRATOR: Three years before that, as a 15-year-old, Register was caught making obscene telephone calls
to this woman, in which he described in detail how he wanted to assault and murder her.
-He said he would slit me wide open, and many other graphic descriptions. NARRATOR: The murder registered described in these calls
was identical to the murder of Crystal Faye Todd. -Exactly where were you the night that Crystal died?
NARRATOR: But Ken Register was flabbergasted when told his blood DNA matched Crystal's killer.
He asked police, rhetorically, why he would have agreed to a blood test if he was the killer.
When police search Register's car, they could find no evidence linking him to the crime scene.
Register also had an alibi. His girlfriend said he was with her at this go kart track
that night, and his mother said Ken was home by 12:30. -That alibi was about as strong as you're
going to get-- very surprising to me. And it's always compelling evidence. -I know where I was at, when I was at there
that night-- right here at my house. And I know when he came home. NARRATOR: Although Ken Register's mother
was his alibi witness, she would later play a key role in solving Crystal Todd's murder.
Crystal Todd's best friend, Ken Register, was now the prime suspect in her murder.
His DNA matched the DNA found at the crime scene, but he insisted he was innocent, and provided
two alibi witnesses-- his girlfriend and his mother. Ken had been a regular guest in Crystal's home,
but Mrs. Todd said she knew nothing about his criminal past. -If I had known about indecent exposure and threatening phone
calls, Ken Register would never have put his foot in my house. But I didn't find out about it until it was too late.
NARRATOR: And Mrs. Todd now reveals something her daughter told her, which may hint at the motive.
-In the week and a half before she was killed, she said, Mama, Ken's still wanting me to date him.
I said, well, he must think a lot of you, having a girlfriend. And she said that's all he wanted was sex.
And I said, well, don't go with him, then. -OK, Ken. Let's go over this again. NARRATOR: During police questioning,
Ken Register denied any involvement in the murder. But towards the end of a six-hour interrogation,
police told him his mother had sent him a message. -Thank you. -Thank you. Ken, here's a note from your mother.
Your mother says to tell us exactly what happened, and to be truthful about it. And if you do, your mother says everything will be OK.
NARRATOR: And with that, Ken Register confessed. -I did it. NARRATOR: He said he saw Crystal around midnight at a traffic
light near the school parking lot. -Hey, Crystal. -Hey. -Hey, what's up? -Hey. -How are you?
-Good. -Hey, listen. You want to go hang out or do something for a little bit? -Yeah, cool. All right.
Wait. Just let me go park. -All right. I'll follow you. NARRATOR: Crystal got into his car.
They drove to a deserted location, where Register said the two had consensual sex.
The forensic evidence suggests it wasn't consensual at all. -What, no condom? What, are you stupid?
Oh my god. Look Ken, I'm telling you right now-- if I get pregnant, I'm telling everybody you raped me.
Don't blow it off. I'm serious. Asshole. NARRATOR: When she got out of the car to get dressed,
Register said he grabbed the hunting knife from the car and killed her. Further sexual activity took place after death.
-I don't think Crystal Faye Todd did anything that night to cause her death, other than the mere fact
she got in the car with him. NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe that Register cleaned his car
sometime after the crime to remove possible evidence. -The evidence had been systematically destroyed
before we realized that he was a suspect. NARRATOR: In Register's home, police found an empty box--
a box for a knife with a locking blade. Forensic scientists determined that the missing knife would
have been similar to the weapon used to inflict Crystal's stab wounds. Before the trial, Register recanted
his confession, saying it was coerced. He said police lied to him about the contents
of his mother's note. But lying to a suspect during a police interrogation is perfectly legal.
-There's no doubt in my mind that Mr. register brutally and viciously killed Crystal Faye Todd.
And there's also no doubt in my mind that he enjoyed doing it. -I mean, there was just too much time unaccounted for.
He had plenty, . Ample time to do everything that he was accused of and still be home when he said he got home.
NARRATOR: But why did Register willingly give a blood sample for DNA testing if he was the perpetrator?
Published reports say that when police requested a DNA sample, Ken register asked, what is DNA?
At the time, DNA testing had been used in criminal cases for about five years, but Register was apparently
unfamiliar with it, since it hadn't yet been used in the state of South Carolina.
His case was the first. Ken register was convicted of murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault.
He was sentenced to life in prison plus 35 years. -They found him guilty. And I was glad they found him guilty now.
I was proud of that. But I want him to get the electric chair. -A mental job, psycho.
I don't know what's wrong, but something's not clicking to where it's supposed to be clicking.
NARRATOR: Ken Register and his family still say he is innocent, but several subsequent DNA tests
have all confirmed the original findings. -I know what I know because I know I was home that night,
and I know when he came home. I can't explain the DNA. I wish I could. There's so many questions in this that you can't explain.
-Based on everything that I know about the violence of this crime is that when he left the scene of that murder,
he would have been a bloody mess. -I think there's a lot of covering up going on in that house.
She seen him covered in blood all over, and I know he was covered in blood all over.
He had to be. And she helped clean him up. She got Crystal's blood on her hands, too.
NARRATOR: Bonne Faye Todd visits Crystal's grave faithfully. And she thanks science for bringing
Crystal's killer to justice. -I love you more than I do my own life. -Without the DNA and the blood, we
would have never gotten to first base-- probably never even made an arrest. INTERVIEWER: That's scary. -Yeah.
[theme music]

In 1991, a high school girl vanishes after attending a party. The prime suspect had not one but two alibi witnesses for the night she disappeared. A solid alibi can often overcome much circumstantial evidence. But forensic evidence is another matter.

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 episode details Crystal Todd's murder and the investigation leading to her friend Ken Register's conviction.

Key points

The Disappearance of Crystal Todd. In 1991, high school senior Crystal Faye Todd vanished after a party, leading to a tragic investigation.
Brutal Discovery. Crystal's body was found with multiple stab wounds, indicating a violent crime.
DNA Evidence Exonerates Suspect. Forensic evidence cleared the initial suspect, leading to a shocking twist in the case.
Ken Register's Confession. Crystal's best friend, Ken Register, confessed to her murder after a lengthy interrogation.
Justice for Crystal Todd. Ken Register was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, but claims innocence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I love you more than I do my own life.

A mother's enduring love for her daughter.

21:57WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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