Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 13 - When the Dust Settled - Full Episode | Forensic Files

a union official was executed in his home not long after a strike by union membership
no one in the neighborhood heard any gunshots it would take a forensic sound test an electron
microscope and a nightgown to explain why [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thirty-nine-year-old joe doyle was an
official of the local afscme a union representing government employees it could be the most bitter cold day in
the world and if he thought you were cold he'd take his shirt off and give it to you even if he didn't know you
now he also as big as he was he wasn't afraid to tell you exactly what he thought
he got into people's faces he was a wonderful guy they either either loved him or they might have hated him joe and his
wife katie had been married for about eight years on july 30th 1998 the couple went to a
private club after work for drinks [Music] early the next morning katie phoned police in a panic
[Music] did you hear him fall or anything no he's laying in bed on his stomach i went
in to wake him up for work you okay all right we'll get somebody right there don't touch anything all right
joe doyle had been shot at close range it was an execution-style killing when someone's dead with four
four gunshot wounds to the head the first question that anyone is going to ask is did this person have enemies
because obviously it wasn't a friend that did this there was no sign of forced entry
and joe's empty money clip was on the floor which according to katie had contained approximately eighteen hundred
dollars the first suspect in a murder like this is always the surviving spouse katie's hands were tested for gunshot
residue which would have been present had she fired a gun the test was negative katie told police that they got home
from the club around 8 30 had dinner then went to bed around midnight katie said she went to
sleep in an adjacent bedroom it was because of joe's really really really loud snoring that she couldn't
take it she tried to get to sleep and she lay there for an hour or so but she finally had to leave and go into this
next door bedroom because of the snoring the next morning when katie went in to wake her husband
she found him dead under the covers katie insisted she didn't hear any gunshots neither did any of her neighbors
one of the funniest things in the case was that no one heard the gunshots no one we really did not have any good
evidence of any uh any hearing of gunshots that night it's possible a silencer could have been
used it could be a professional type of silencer that is affixed to the gun police couldn't help but notice
the amount of dust in the doyle's home and wondered whether this might help track the killer's movements and
ultimately reveal his identity [Music] after the murder of 39 year old joe doyle
friends and family told police that his marriage to wife katie seemed solid the couple were building an addition to
their house and planning for the future katie is telling the police that joe was
the love of her life that she loved them more than you could love anyone that everything was perfect in their marriage
that they just had sex the night before he was killed and katie both worked at the same
hospital and their co-workers gave police a different picture of their relationship
kate was having a brazen brazen affair with a co-worker that she was basically flaunting that
relationship that she told people that she was obsessed with jordan that she wanted nothing to do with her husband
her husband was controlling that george was the love of her life george lewis was a groundskeeper at the
hospital and police found evidence the two were more than just lovers she purchases jewelry form she gives
them a thousand dollar down payment for a vehicle she purchases clothing for him
she does everything for him really katie admitted the affair but her lawyer says it meant nothing
it was a fling it was not brief but it was not a motive for murder at the crime scene
police found a clue in the nightstand next to the bed in the nightstand was a lock box marks
in the dust indicated the box had recently been moved but no fingerprints were found
missing from the box was joe doyle's nine millimeter makarov pistol this is one of the four bullets
recovered from doyle's body deformed by impact when a handgun is fired the bullet spins as it travels through
the barrel the soft outer shell is scored by a corkscrew line cut into the barrel
a process known as rifling it causes the bullet to rotate on its longitudinal axis given an aerodynamic
stability while it's in flight the line cut into the bullet is called a groove the spaces between the grooves
are called lands these lands and grooves are different for each make of gun investigators wanted to know whether
this bullet was from a pistol like the one owned by joe doyle using a comparison microscope forensic
scientists compared the bullet from joe doyle's body to one fired from a makarov
pistol on the macro it has four lanes and grooves with the right twist and there are not many firearms that
have that those class characteristics the results were clear joe had been killed with the same model
nine millimeter pistol that he had once owned but was now missing the bullets were consistent with
being fired from this model so that was the evidence with the gun that's what they started with and on the
defense side we established that there were at least 3 000 other guns of this make and model alone
that existed in in our state about 14 000 in the country police then looked into joe's union ties
there recently had been a strike with the union and the the victim was involved in some of the activities
regarding that strike it was a strike by state employees joe had the potentially dangerous task
of repossessing the state-owned cars driven by the striking members people can be volatile tempers flare up during
a strike situation one person against another there could have been some problems
between him and one of the people whose cars he repossessed joe in some sense was viewed as this type of tyrant he had
to confiscate vehicles uh tangents ran high um you know arguments occurred that sort of
thing and that's it's a typical union scenario at the same time katie told investigators that her
husband was involved in project children an organization which brings children from northern ireland to the united
states for summer vacations here's a guy who travels to another country to a to a hot spot in the world
a a bed of terrorism a bed of strife is this a i mean i i think anyone with common sense would look into this and
and see if there's a connection here well the fact that he was uh executed in his own bed uh most likely at night
while he was sleeping and uh no one uh seemed to have heard shots uh let people believe geez they might
have used a silencer that you know it's an execution this could be as a result of his ties with the ira
if he had ties the investigation took forensic scientists from the united states all
the way to northern ireland but the real evidence was right in joe doyle's backyard
police investigating the murder of 39 year old union official joe doyle pursued every possible lead looking into
his union activities over the past several years as well as his involvement with the charity in northern ireland
[Music] police couldn't identify anyone angry enough with doyle to want him dead
[Music] so they looked once again at his wife katie and her lover george lewis research into katie's background found
evidence of substance abuse and financial disagreements joe was tough on katie katie had a drug problem years before
joe carter joe didn't trust katie anymore didn't trust her with the money no relationships perfect
this one certainly wasn't a perfect relationship they're going to take a microscope and
examine the spouse their entire life and they're going to try to dig up any piece of dirt possible
her boyfriend george lewis had an alibi for the night of joe doyle's murder george basically was a a real lover
he had other girlfriends besides katie apparently and so he was out with one of his
girlfriends that night two people alibide him the first one which would be for the earlier part of
the evening was with the other woman with whom he was having an affair and then for the later part of the evening
was with his wife as for katie doyle she said that she had sex with her husband that night and
later left to sleep in an adjacent bedroom because of joe's snoring the door was shut and the air
conditioner was running and she claimed she never heard the shots the head of her bed
would be resting against a wall that wall is the same wall that separates her room
from the bedroom where the victim is sleeping which puts them in extremely close proximity to each other a matter
of feet the distance was 15 feet separated by a 5-inch wall and a closet investigators brought in dr harry
holleen a forensic audio expert to test katie's claims on a shooting range pauline fired a
makarov nine millimeter pistol and recorded the sounds when you fire a gun you explode some
gunpowder in a cartridge in a barrel and that explosion is very rapid so the acoustic signal coming out of the
barrel is the bullet comes out of the barrel very rapidly the acoustic signal also is is uh one
that's very abrupt the makarov generated between 118 and 120 decibels of sound and it would be comparable to a
motorcycle a heavy bus close by uh power lawnmower uh chainsaw things such as that
but the sound created by a gun is of short duration would katie doyle have heard it
to find out holine used two adjacent bedrooms in his house he then put the recording he had made of
the makarov pistol in one bedroom and the sound meter in the other bedroom if the shot was 118 decibels 60 of that
sound approximately 70 decibels reached the other bedroom if you're asleep there's a very good
chance that it would wake you up and forensic scientists found another discrepancy in katie's story
katie said she left joe's bedroom around midnight and that she found him dead at
6am but forensic scientists found alcohol in joe's stomach the alcohol he consumed at
the club would all have been absorbed in his body had he been killed after midnight
the medical examiner estimated the time of death was closer to 10 p.m this could easily explain
why neighbors didn't hear the shots the ambient sounds of televisions radios and
stereos at that time of night could easily have muffled them next investigators wanted to test katie's
nightgown that was found on the floor next to joe's body pulling the trigger creates a small
explosion when the primer ignites the gunpowder which in turn propels the bullet
gases from that explosion create a small cloud about three to five feet in diameter that usually wafts back over
the shooter the gases from the primer escape from the firearm through any available opening
in the form of a gas or a vapor it then solidifies into tiny particles which are deposited on the hands
clothing or the immediate proximity of the discharge using an aluminum disc with a permanent
adhesive scientist skip schwabel lifted samples from the surface of the nightgown
next he removed the stud from its plastic holder and placed it inside a scanning electron microscope
the particles are magnified and scanned to reveal their chemical makeup on katie doyle's gown with thousands of
particles seen here magnified four thousand times they were made up of lead antimony and
barium the chemical components of gunpowder it's not natural in the environment when it's when those three particles are
fused together that's unique to gunshot residue schwabel also found gunshot residue on
the bedding next to the body gunshot residue is going to get on the bed and on items on the bed
katie said that before she left that room and went to the other room to go to sleep she took her nightgown off
threw it on the bed she doesn't recall where she threw it on the bed it was dark
with no gunshot residue on katie's hands and gunshot residue on the bedding as well as her nightgown
prosecutors had no forensic evidence katie doyle fired the pistol and without forensic evidence
prosecutors had plenty of suspicions but very little proof [Music] police believe katie doyle lied when she
told them her husband was alive when she left his bedroom around midnight an analysis of his stomach contents put
the murder closer to 10 p.m according to their home phone records someone called for joe shortly
after 10 pm and what katie told the caller was revealing she said that the victim couldn't come
to the phone because he was toast in other words he was intoxicated and that's why he couldn't talk on the
phone there was no gunshot residue on katie's hands but her nightgown found on the floor did
test positive for gunshot residue and so did the covers on the bed so skip schwabel decided to analyze the
nightgown to study the exact concentrations and placement of the residue 20 years ago when we didn't have the
automated analysis by scanning electron microscope a sample could take 12-13 hours looking at it manually today
we're able to look at many thousands of particles in a short period of time those tests revealed
large amounts of residue on both the right and left front chest area consistent with where a gun would be
positioned [Music] that was all the evidence police needed the significance of the gown
is the reason why i arrested the victim's wife for the murder of her husband prosecutors think they know
the motive for the murder she was head over heels over the sky she didn't want joe anymore i mean this is
your standard one spouse not wanting to be married the forensic evidence shows that joe doyle was in bed sometime
before 10 p.m prosecutors believe katie went into the bedroom took her husband's nine millimeter
pistol from the lock box then fired four shots into his head at close range the invisible gunshot vapor
drifted backwards towards her and settled on her nightgown katie took off her nightgown and threw
it on the floor to show police the two had slept together but it was proof of something else proof
that she had worn it while killing her husband katie had seven or eight hours to leave
home and get rid of the pistol [Music] the next morning neighbors said katie's car was in a
different parking spot from where it was the night before [Music] according to telephone records
katie called her boyfriend three times on the night of the murder prosecutors don't believe the boyfriend
was involved if she even acknowledged and admitted that she had gotten in touch with george
that night if he had any role in it we have no proof of it katie doyle was convicted of first
degree murder and sentenced to life in prison her lawyer maintains katie is innocent
but he has no idea who killed joe doyle why are we looking at kate because she's
the wife because the police don't want to get outside the house because that's their mode of investigation and they're
stuck there and they're stuck there to this day investigators say science leaves no doubt about the
killer's identity it's much harder to get away with a crime today than it was years ago
we have instrumentation preparation techniques that are much more advanced now we can do particle extractions from
clothing from hands and it doesn't have to be specifically gunshot residue if it wouldn't have been
again with the work that skip schwabel did with the micro particles that were found on the
uh the night shirt that she had been wearing uh the night that this uh this occurred
we probably would have never had enough information to make an arrest let alone to get a conviction i'd rather
rely on science in every case than on a human being science especially when you can get
different areas of science all pointing to the same suspect is key to any prosecution
[Music] [Music] [Music] you

A union official is executed in his home not long after a strike by the union membership. Neither his wife nor anyone in the neighborhood heard any gunshots. It would take a forensic sound test, an electron microscope, and a nightgown to explain why.

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.

#truecrime #forensicfiles #fullepisodes Click here to watch full episodes from Forensic Files - Season 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gAB0hcY3Z0&list=PLC4mqmKvz1IbdnLKfCt8--pOV0xEpMIP5 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

Joe Doyle was murdered; forensic evidence convicted his wife Katie of the crime.

Key points

The Execution of Joe Doyle. Union official Joe Doyle is found shot dead in his home, leading to a tense investigation.
Katie's Alibi Unravels. Katie Doyle claims she was asleep during the murder, but evidence suggests otherwise.
Forensic Evidence Points to Katie. Gunshot residue found on Katie's nightgown leads to her arrest for Joe's murder.
Conviction of Katie Doyle. Katie Doyle is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He'd take his shirt off and give it to you.

Describing Joe Doyle's generosity.

1:00WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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