Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 31 - Past Lives - Full Episode | Forensic Files

a wealthy american executive was found dead in his car in mexico it looked like an accident
until a forensic anthropologist found evidence of a chilling tale of fraud and deceit
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] 34 year old madison rutherford had everything he was ambitious successful
happily married and rich he worked as a financial advisor in connecticut with an uncanny ability to
make money for his clients he also managed money for his friends like brigadier beck i thought since i am
alone in this country i thought it might be wise if anything would happen to me i thought i should have him as my
executor by all accounts madison rutherford and his wife reni lived lavishly and had expensive tastes
so it wasn't unusual for madison to travel outside the united states pursuing his various interests
madison rutherford and his wife had a penchant for various types of of animals including
dogs and part of the reason for supposedly going to mexico was to obtain another exotic dog
[Music] but a few days later mexican police found rutherford's car in a ravine near monterey
it appeared that the car had swerved off the road and caught fire when they got there the car was burnt
beyond recognition everything was gone and he opened up the driver door and found some bone fragments on the
driver's side inside investigators found a medic alert pendant and a wrist watch
on the back of the watch barely legible was the inscription to madison love reni
also inside the car the charred remains of a human all that was left were some bones and
teeth the cause of death was listed as total carbonization meaning that it was just disintegrated
from the heat when rutherford's wife rene got the news she was devastated as i came into the house everybody was
very long faces and sad and i said my goodness i thought what happened and this one person tells me that um
there was something terrible happened last night max madison had an automobile accident and he got killed
i thought this was just this was just awful you know my goodness how terrible fortuitously rennie said she could help
investigators with the identification of her husband she proceeds to tell the insurance carriers that she has one of
rutherford's teeth that was left over from some type of dental work the tooth was extremely helpful
since its hard enamel shell often protects its inner core in a fire that core contains an individual's dna
but one of the forensic scientists in mexico was suspicious particularly when he examined the items
recovered from the car the clasp of the medical alert bracelet was found in the open position he
thought that very odd if somebody had died and that bracelet was on them it would have been in the class
position investigators wondered whether the open clasp was a clue or simply an unimportant detail
[Music] although there was some inconsistencies in the accident scene the mexican authorities ruled that
madison rutherford had burned to death in a car accident mexico wasn't pursuing this there was no
complainant they had a a body and a tragic death and they've closed their case as a financial planner
madison rutherford had planned for his family's future in the event of his death he had purchased an ample amount
of life insurance rutherford had two separate policies with two separate companies he's doubly
insured he's insured for seven million dollars four million from one company and three
million from another company as a routine matter insurance companies like to make sure that a person who dies in a
fire is in fact their client the tooth given to them by rutherford's wife could be used for dna comparison
but it wasn't enough [Music] so they sent the charred remains from the accident to one of the most
respected forensic anthropologists in the world dr william bass the best bone evidence was a small
skull fragment and four teeth dr bass found something highly unusual about the skull fragment
the top outside of the skull wasn't burned now i got a lot of problems with it if you're sitting in your car and it's
on fire the top of your skull is going to burn it's going to burn up little pieces the
size of a quarter now here's a situation in which this doesn't happen dr bass concluded there was only one way
this could have happened the victim's head had to be on the floor of the car at the time of the fire
this tells me then that this is a staged scene that this is not what happened in the normal
crash of a car that this is a body that has been placed in there in a position that was not in
before the skull fragment also provided clues about the victim's age the human skull has 28 different
plate-like bones these bones come together in a process called fusion where they meet often looks like the
stitching on clothes as a person grows older that stitching or fusion tends to disappear
in this case it was almost non-existent it tells me that this is not a 34 year old individual
that this is an individual maybe twice that certainly 50 plus because you don't normally
get that much fusion in a 34 year old white male the teeth also told a story sometimes different races have different
shaped teeth the ones recovered from the car had shovel-shaped incisors not something
associated with a white or caucasian person these teeth had characteristics that are
very specific to this is a japanese chinese or american indian characteristics these are what we call
characteristics in addition the teeth had large unfilled cavities inconsistent with the wealthy man with
access to the best in dental care dr bass informed the insurance companies of his findings
i was told that the individual in his car was a 34 year old white male when i get through the analysis of the
skeletal remains that's not what i see what is in that car is a 50 to 60 plus year old mexican
peasant who has from a lower socioeconomic level obviously with a peasant but had done
manual labor there were even more reasons to be skeptical and more evidence that the
scene might have been staged insurance investigators look more closely at the medic alert pendant and
the watch found in the ashes if the body had burned almost to ashes why did these items remain
relatively intact and witnesses said they saw a bicycle on the back of rutherford's car
earlier in the day but no bicycle was found at the accident site if it wasn't madison rutherford in the
car who was it and where was madison rutherford forensic scientists were certain that
madison rutherford was not the man killed in the car explosion in mexico the focus switched not so much from we
need more proof of death we actually think he's alive and now we want to find out where
the authorities weren't the only ones concerned his neighbor brigade beck had entrusted
madison rutherford with her entire life savings about half a million dollars and she wanted to know where it was
i was uncomfortable about the whole thing i said how is this going to play out where when do i get my money when do i
get when do i have a clear picture of this whole thing brigado went to the rutherford's home
and asked reni for answers she you know said um just i need to speak with you and
just don't make a sound please don't make a sound don't say anything and i said what could what's what's
happening so she leaned over kind of and she whispered he said madison is not dead
i said what and i said what happened where is he and she said he's in hiding i just lost it i just thought this was
just too much i just walked away after a few moments and i just cried i just i just broke down i mean this was too much
for brigadier things soon got even stranger when madison rutherford showed up alive and well
at her house this was all very bizarre and how could he do that and wouldn't he be afraid that he might get you know
picked up but somebody might watch the house rutherford told brigada that his death
had been staged for him by none other than the fbi he said that organized crime members
were after him because he had refused to launder drug money he assured brigitte that her money was
safe but instructed her to tell no one he was alive he asked me would you mind if i could
spend a couple of weeks with you until i find know what i need to do next i said of course i mean the poor guy had
to be hiding from the mob why wouldn't i help somebody without warning madison left brigade's
home and she never heard from him again a few weeks later brigitte got another visit this time
from the fbi their investigation into madison rutherford's financial dealings revealed
he had withdrawn brigadier's entire life savings she was penniless the agent said there is no money and i
thought maybe they made a mistake this cannot be and i realized i had nothing left he had dismantled
everything little by little and i said my god what do i have in my pocket excuse me
i had exactly five hundred dollars in my checking account [Music] investigators had rutherford's home
under surveillance madison never appeared but they finally got a break a check of motor vehicles revealed that
madison owned a car that was being driven by a businessman in massachusetts his name was thomas bay hamilton
he works as a controller for a technology company it's a fairly small company in downtown boston
as investigators were about to question thomas bay hamilton they got a call from mexican authorities
they said they found a bag full of bloody clothes and dna tests concluded the blood was
madison rutherford's [Music] one year after madison rutherford's disappearance mexican police found a bag full of
bloody clothing near the site of his car fire the clothing showed numerous knife holes
all over the chest area dna tests of that blood confirmed it belonged to madison rutherford
but this time investigators didn't believe it they were convinced the man they were following in boston
thomas bay hamilton was in fact madison rutherford stu robinson the agent who arrested him
in boston has these fingerprints with him when thomas hamilton is arrested and we roll
his fingerprints they're the same prince this is our army and this is madison rutherford
the fbi searched his apartment and found books on how to change your identity and
travel brochures on mexico and they found one item that appeared to tie up the case once
and for all in the boston apartment we find um an actual to-do list it says goals for
the year 1999-2000 the very top thing is collects seven million dollars from the insurance
company so that was a pretty good clue we uh we kind of tied them together with just
that one piece of paper right after he was arrested rutherford called his wife from prison
this call may be recorded or monitored the first thing is we have to keep you from getting picked up for anything they
think you did which you didn't okay you got to go somewhere where they don't know the address they'll be for
you tomorrow morning they'll get it they'll get an arrest warrant by then what happens to everything
i don't know let's do this piece by piece i know but we gotta get you out of here
renny originally denied she had anything to do with the attempted fraud but when investigators showed her
evidence that her husband was dating other women while living in boston reni changed her mind
she was not happy she went through a range of emotions in a short period of time
and ending with with anger with rennie's help prosecutors learned that they had been
planning this crime for months while madison was in mexico he drove to a desolate graveyard in the
mexican countryside and removed a body apparently he found a cemetery in mexico near to where the crash site was went in
to an above ground tomb took off the top of a casket and took out the corpse out of the casket
prosecutors believe he positioned his car with the body inside at the bottom of the ravine
doused it with gasoline and started the fire when the flames subsided he threw in his
medic alert bracelet and watch so they would survive the blaze and help identify the corpse
he then took off on his bicycle rutherford returned to the united states and gave his wife the tooth he removed
from the body so it could be used for possible dna testing according to his wife he walks in
i believe with these things in a bag and says to her here's my seven million dollar tooth
to this day no one knows whose bones were inside the car [Music] later when rutherford learned
investigators were on to him he was forced to change his plans according to reni
her husband got into the bathtub fully clothed and cut himself to make it appear that he had been
stabbed then he returned to mexico to plant the evidence rutherford never realized that forensic
anthropology would uncover the true position of the body in the car and that the bones would reveal the man's race
and age madison rutherford thought of every detail but he never thought of the bone
doctor investigators looking for a motive soon discovered that rutherford had gambled heavily in stocks
and lost [Music] he saw himself as a financial guru and he tried to play the stock market as a
day trader he lost a considerable amount of money in the 1995-1996 period and i think that he saw
that faking his death and getting insurance proceeds was a way of recouping losses and providing himself
with a nest egg for future investments investigators learned that rutherford used a number of aliases in the past all
were presidential sounding names madison rutherford and now hamilton his real name was john sankey
i thought it was ironic and quite humorous that he was arrested on election day on november 7th 2000. so he
this man with all these presidential sounding names didn't get a chance to vote for the next president people think
that the fbi doesn't have a sense of humor but i think this proves that we do [Music]
when faced with the evidence against him madison rutherford pleaded guilty to fraud
federal sentencing guidelines limit his sentence to five years his wife rennie was sentenced to 18
months in prison for her part in the attempted fraud since rutherford had withdrawn half a
million dollars from brigadobeck's accounts she has nothing left she confronted him during a telephone
conversation while he was in prison can i ask you one question um [Applause] let's talk next week
why next week only because i can't do anything that let's talk next week and go through
stuff because you know i want to know a few things okay yeah let's talk next week
okay let's talk next week he ruined my life he ruined my my security he couldn't care less
my my wonderful friend heard and i turned into a monster to me and i hope that anybody that would find
themselves in the same or similar situation be careful with so-called friends no criminal charges could be brought
against rutherford for embezzlement since brigade had given him power of attorney
for investigators rutherford was clever but clearly no match for forensic science
this is one of the better cases that we have been able to solve from the use of science and we're able to show
that the actual events do not fit the story that we were told there's an old adage that goes something
like you're only as smart as you are educated and clearly madison rutherford as well educated as he might have been
was not educated in the area of forensics [Music] [Music] you

The body of a wealthy American businessman was found in his rental car. Teeth and bone fragments were the only remains. When the victim's wife files an insurance claim for $7 million, investigators seek the help of a renowned forensic anthropologist.

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

Madison Rutherford faked his death for insurance fraud, but forensic evidence revealed the truth.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Madison Rutherford. A wealthy American executive is found dead in Mexico, but the truth is far darker.
The Forensic Breakthrough. Forensic evidence reveals the truth about the body found in Madison's car.
The Shocking Revelation. Brigade Beck discovers Madison is alive and hiding from the FBI.
The Final Twist. Madison's elaborate scheme to fake his death unravels as investigators close in.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This was just awful, you know?

Reni's reaction to Madison's supposed death.

3:20WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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