Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 30 - Flower Power - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] two different men called police to report the same murder apparently neither one knew that the
other had called the investigation uncovered even more unusual circumstances but a few tiny seeds and a discarded
candy wrapper were more than just insignificant clues they told a story of revenge
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] like many divorced people pamela sweeney
hoped she'd find someone to share her life with construction worker larry fleck was the
man she set her sights on we were planning on getting married we're talking about probably moving out
of minneapolis at one time i don't know we're just just having a good time the two of us
she was a little kid full of life and uh i don't know how really how to explain it she just
made the house light up pamela worked as a secretary for a computer company outside minneapolis
the most important thing in her life was her five-year-old son tony on the friday before memorial day in
1991 pam told her parents she wasn't feeling well and asked if they could take care
of her son overnight she told them she was just going to take a bath and go to bed but before she did
she spoke with her boyfriend she says what time are you getting off tonight i was well i got to work pretty late
it's going to be late she says well i want you to come over i said it's going to be really late
she says i want you to come over tonight flex says he arrived at pam's house around three o'clock in the morning
when he looked into pam's bedroom he knew something was terribly wrong i seen [Music]
spot of blood up on the headboard uh oh my goodness and and the bed she was laying across the
crossways all wrapped up rolled up in a blanket i didn't want to do it but i took the
covers i rolled him back and there she was laying fleck ran to a neighbor's house to call
police she's cut all the hell okay hold on just a second less than two minutes later as police
were on their way they got another telephone call this one from one of pam's co-workers
patrick walsh okay what's the problem [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
we had two males calling in stating that a female they had known something terrible had happened to her
and they needed the police when questioned both men had unusual stories to tell larry fleck said pam invited him and
that he ran from her house because he thought the killer was still inside [Music]
patrick walsh said he drove by pam's house on his way home from a local bar he said the lights were on and he wanted
to check on her because she had been out sick that day at work police now had a dead woman and two men
at the house at three o'clock in the morning [Music] investigators hope forensic evidence
would sort through what was to become a very complicated tale when pam sweeney was found murdered in
her own bed police had to deal with a highly unusual situation two men were at the scene they didn't
know each other but both knew the victim everybody's a suspect and when they got
out there they had patrick walsh he's a suspect he's secured he's handcuffed they processed the scene larry fleck was
at the neighbor's house another officer went there to secure him pam sweeney had been shot four times
stabbed four times and her clothing had been partially removed you go numb you just
you a thug like your heart hits the bottom your stomach and you don't know what's
you it's just like there's a humming going on in your head you don't know what's going on around you
pam's parents were asked who they thought might have killed their daughter and they had a ready answer
you know i thought her ex-husband was the one that done it he had 30-something weapons in the house
he tried to he tried to be a big gun collector and he had some big guns so we i first thing i thought was well since
it's pam it's got to be mike at pam's home there were no signs of forced entry and there was another clue
that pam knew her killer we believe after he completed the final blow and she was dead and he saw the
dead body he in an act of contrition covered the body completely it was completely covered we think he did that
so as not to see what he did to cover it up out of sight out of mind the murder weapons could not be found in
the house but as the sun rose investigators saw a path in the dew that had settled on the
lawn it led to a wooded area behind the house officers got on their hands and knees
and went through that backwoods inch by inch back there was found a knife which had
been stuck into the ground right to the handle and a small revolver was found lodged
under some loose boards that were laying behind the shed the knife matched a set of kitchen
knives inside the house the pistol was the same caliber as the one used in the crime
both had been wiped clean of blood and fingerprints in front of pam's home investigators found the clue first
thought to be insignificant in patrick walsh's truck police found a candy wrapper the same
candy was found in pam sweeney's kitchen but this brand of candy had a lot number
on the wrapper when police compared the lot number on the candy and pam's house with the
rapper in walsh's truck it was a match so we drew an inference from that that this guy while he was there was calm
enough actually to take one of those bags of candy out of the drawer needed but this was inconsistent with walsh's
story he said after he found pam's body he called police then ran outside to his
car to try to get help if this were true would he have stopped on his way out of
the house to grab a piece of candy [Music] perhaps the most bizarre incident in the
case was that walsh's car was stuck in a ditch next to pam's driveway walt said he accidentally drove into the ditch
when going for help both patrick walsh and pam's boyfriend fleck had what appeared to be
bloodstains on their trousers and they both had plausible explanations both men said they were close to pam's
body when each discovered she was dead but walsh's clothing held a possible clue
during the time that patrick walsh was being processed at the jail they of course removed all of his clothing and
his shoes and socks and we on the back of his shirt located a leaf and in his shoes we located a number of
different types of vegetation investigators wondered whether this vegetation was enough
to identify a killer while investigating the murder of 35 year old pamela sweeney police had three
suspects pam's ex-husband her boyfriend and her co-worker police learned that pam's ex-husband was
with friends on the night of the murder and was eliminated as a suspect pam's boyfriend also denied any
involvement they asked questions like how long i knew her if i always come over there that time of
night you know why so late in the evening i show up this person's house and basically asked me if i did and i
said no you know i'm in love with this person why would anybody want to do something like that to someone you know
[Music] when patrick walsh's name came up as a suspect in pam's murder her family and friends said they weren't
surprised he did harass her on the job he harassed her on the telephone for six months
night and day she did call the police but there was nothing they could do her pastor thomas braun
got a call from her a few months before the murder there was great amount of fear in her
voice she was she was beyond herself she couldn't think straight um emotionally physically she was she was a wreck
walsh was married and worked as a supervisor in the same company as pam she told friends that walsh asked her
out on numerous occasions and wouldn't take no for an answer he also stopped by her home unannounced
and performed various household chores without being asked in an attempt to win her affections he had been stalking her
for months obsessed with her physically and in his mind and his entire being she's never talked to me about she's
never said somebody was taunting her following her things like that she'd never said a word
to me pam did however go to the police but they told her walsh hadn't broken the
law and there was nothing they could do in their search for evidence investigators focused on the vegetation
found on walsh's clothes and shoes walsh said it probably got there when he walked across pam's front lawn towards
his car this gave police an idea we did something i had never done before we contacted the university of minnesota
and we asked for a taxonomist a forensic taxonomist a taxonomist is an expert in living
organisms dr anita chalowa examined the various bits of leaves grass and other vegetation from walsh's clothing
there was lawn grass there was crab grass and the oddball things there were some seeds of quackgrass
quackgrass is a common weed and it rarely produces seed since people usually mow it before it gets to the
flowering stage this meant that the cracked grass seeds on walsh's clothing were rare and
unusual dr challawa also discovered another species on walsh's clothes seeds from an
aspen tree which are called bracts aspen is fairly common in minnesota but it's not the sort of thing that you'd
see in someone's backyard the combination of an aspen seed and quack grass told dr chalawa that patrick
walsh had been in a wooded area with high weeds dr chalawood didn't find any quack grass
or aspen bracks around walsh's home [Music] dr chalowa discovered an area behind
pamela's shed that was untended and overgrown there was a lot of quack grass in there
a number of other things too but the quack grass was and it had clearly been flowering and
fruiting in that woodlot she also found numerous aspen brats the area dr chalua identified was the
exact spot where investigators found the murder weapons [Music] she was convinced the specimens on
washer's clothing were relatively fresh it wouldn't have attached itself to him for long periods of time that it had to
be something real recent in order to still be attached to his pants and stuck in his
shoes but this was far from conclusive evidence so police turned to a more traditional
crime science they analyzed the blood spatter at the crime scene walsh said he briefly shook pam's body
to see if she was alive before he ran from her room but the blood on his clothing told a
different story the staining was consistent with him coming in contact with a large amount of
her blood on his pants leg and stains consistent with spatter being found on him which would indicate that he had
been in close proximity when she was being stabbed and the size and shape of the spatter
indicated the blood hit walsh's pants from a blood-covered object that had been in motion
investigators found similar blood spatter on the ceiling above the bed these were perfectly circular indicating
the blood went straight up from the impact site the blood spatters give us a fairly good
idea of where she may have been and also the nature of the tank and how violent it was how brutal it was and how the
knife was wielded i could look at the blood stain patterns on the walls and determine the site where
this impact took place and this was right on the bed where she was found and it indicated that that's exactly where
she was attacked on the bed she was stabbed in the bedroom but shot elsewhere there was a blood trail leading to the
bedroom from the foyer and bullets were found in the floor this was where pam sweeney was shot
we believe she was probably shot first in the lower levels of the house and dragged her carried upstairs
and then stabbed in her bedroom and died most likely from from the stab wounds not the gunshot wounds
a blood stain on walsh's pants was consistent with carrying a bleeding person the forensic evidence also explained why
patrick walsh called police to report the murder patrick walsh in a panic attempting to
leave the scene of this killing got in his pickup truck miscalculated the driveway and drove
into the ditch it's now three o'clock in the morning he just murdered a young woman and his
pickup truck is hopelessly stuck in a ditch what do you do a week before her death
pam sweeney told her family she couldn't find a set of house keys and was considering changing her locks
on the day of her murder the keys resurfaced in the front seat of patrick walsh's
black pickup truck lo and behold was pamela sweeney's stolen keys so there was a direct connection he never really
explained how it got there police believe walsh stole the keys while he and pam were at work proof they said
that he planned the attack about a week before the killing he had called up an ex-girlfriend and
wanted to get his 22 caliber handgun returned he had loaned it to her earlier he
wanted it back he claimed it was for an elk hunting trip he was going to make but that was
we found out later not planned for eight months down the road so we believe he was actively engaged in
planning this well before the day of the killing [Applause] inside walsh's home police found a number of 22-caliber
shells those were sent to the fbi laboratory for neutron activation analysis they were able to identify that the lead
compositions in the lead fragments that we found in miss wiene's skull matched the lead
compositions that were in the shells found in mr walsh's apartment a few years earlier
walsh was allegedly involved in eight assault cases with other women and was a suspect in a previous murder
[Applause] [Music] prosecutors believe when pam sweeney rejected walsh's advances
he sought revenge our belief was that that just infuriated him i think he took the view in his sick
twisted psychotic mind how dare you reject me when i have been doing all of these overtly kind acts for
you how dare you the evidence suggests walsh entered pam's home around 11 pm while pam was asleep
but she must have heard someone inside and made her way to the hallway where she confronted walsh there was an
argument walsh fired twice into the floor possibly to scare her the next four shots
hit pamela sweeney walsh carried her to the bedroom then stabbed her to death causing the blood spatter on the ceiling
and on his clothes then covered the body a tell-tale clue that the killer was someone pam knew
the evidence suggests walsh stayed long enough to have a can of soda and grab a piece of candy
and when he went to his car he left the candy wrapper on the seat beside him but he accidentally drove his car into a
ravine on the side of the driveway and couldn't get it out walsh then went back inside the house in
the basement to look for something to get his car free then a surprise [Music] pam's boyfriend larry fleck arrived
after work when fleck discovered the murder he ran to a neighbor's home for help
[Music] walsh had to act quickly he tried again to move his car but couldn't so he had
to remove the evidence the botanical evidence on his pants proved walsh ran into the high grass and
woods behind pam's home to dump the murder weapons when he returned and knowing police
would find his car walsh had no choice but to call police himself to make it appear as if he too had driven by and
found pam dead it was clear to me that the suspect had been in that woodlot i don't see how he
could have acquired that material any other way based on what the investigating officers
knew of where he had been at the time of the crime and the previous 24 hours i guess the irony of it is in
going to that location and and picking up those soil samples and the seeds from the local trees he did put himself right
at the very spot he was trying to hide evidence that he didn't want to be connected to so
i think that's that's fairly significant seven months after pamela sweeney's death
patrick walsh went to trial for first degree murder the sheer volume of forensic evidence
against him was overwhelming it's amazing when you're prosecuting a first-degree murder case and you have a
thousand puzzles and you're convinced that you have the right person it is amazing how those pieces of the puzzle
start to fall together fitting perfectly patrick walsh was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison
patrick walsh is a psychopath and perhaps the most dangerous man i have ever seen
i favor the death penalty but then again from what i hear what's happening to him once in a while in
prison [Music] i think he's probably got a harder time right now being alive than being dead
[Music] [Music] you

Two different men called police to report the same murder. Apparently, neither one knew that the other had called. The investigation uncovered even more unusual circumstances.

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

Patrick Walsh was convicted of murdering Pamela Sweeney after forensic evidence linked him to the crime scene.

Key points

The Unusual Circumstances. Two men reported Pamela's murder without knowing each other had called the police.
Pamela Sweeney's Murder. Pamela Sweeney was found murdered in her own bed, leading to a complex investigation.
Forensic Evidence Unveiled. Investigators uncovered significant forensic evidence linking Patrick Walsh to the crime scene.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think he’s probably got a harder time right now being alive than being dead.

21:36WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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