Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 33 - Death by a Salesman - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] no one in this quiet residential Community saw or heard anything unusual
on the day a neighbor was brutally attacked but a store's security camera a fingerprint and forensic computer
analysis helped to identify a suspect in another state within 12 hours of the crime
[Music] [Music] in 1997 escaline theard moved to a residential neighborhood in Knoxville
Tennessee she lived just a few blocks away from her daughter and Grandson so as soon as I became pregnant
she moved to Knoxville to be with me she was very family oriented she liked being
with her children the area was virtually Crime Free if you were to match up the different sectors of this County I think
most everybody in KN County would agree with you that it's one of the safest places in our County they were all
families lots of children in their neighborhood nice yards picket fence you know the the the quintessential
American story very nice escaline worked at home using her computer to type medical transcriptions for the
University of Kentucky she spent the rest of her free time with her family my mother saw my
child every day and they talked on the phone numerous times she she would miss him she'd have to walk the two blocks
from her house to to my house because she said I need I you know I need a grant fix I've got to I've got to be
with him late in the afternoon on August 20th 2001 Liz realized she hadn't heard from
her mother since talking to her that morning she always called me around 5 5:30 if she wasn't at my house she would
always at least call around 5 right before dinner 5 or 530 and I hadn't heard from her so around
um 6:30 I began to get concerned calls to eskalene's home went unanswered and weren't picked up by her
answering machine so I got in my car and drove to her house and her door was locked and the blinds were closed my
mother loved light this looks different so I used my key to walk in and that's when I found her on the
floor her mother had been murdered was the door locked when you came in yes things are just all over the
place and her uh wallet is out of her purse and this credit card screwn all over the
floor there like they gone through things the phone was unplugged down here that's why answer Mach to pick up and
they through cabinets and and her back windows closed mama [Applause] mama oh the house had been ransacked and it
appeared as if someone had gone through eskalene's jewelry the bruises and cuts on her
hands and arms were defensive wounds indicating she had fought her attacker eskalene's wallet was empty and
while some of her credit cards were found on the carpet most of them were missing I took everything out of the
wallet took time to look at every little piece of paper in the wallet and found the pin code numbers for the credit
cards investigators found no signs of forced entry it told us it was possibility that she knew the person or
that for some reason they surprised her at the front of the house and that the door was opened for whoever this was
well I really didn't know uh first impression would be someone that she knew uh because of no forced entry but
eskalene's daughter didn't believe it she was so reserved so she was very quiet and again a very very um um
easygoing person I I couldn't I could never imagine anybody knowing her um anybody she knew would want to hurt her
in the kitchen investigators found a soda can a drinking glass and a cigarette butt on the
floor this perpetrator had spent uh a considerable amount of time in uh the residence had taken time to um uh eat
some food and and drink some coal or and just was in control Liz also told detectives her mother's car was missing
we were able to relay to other agencies throughout the area to be on the lookout
for her vehicle because we only could assume that whoever had murdered escal board also had her vehicle investigators
canvased the whole neighborhood but no one had heard or seen anything unusual in a matter of probably 20
minutes of of uh my arriving on the scene uh I had somewhere in neighborhood of 60 to 65 people working on that crime
unfortunately if it's not solved within a 24hour after the fact uh things can happen very quickly evidence can be
destroyed the case is getting cold very quickly in time they would discover an important clue inside escaline the
board's [Music] computer there were no signs of forced entry at escaline De board's home but
her daughter Liz told police that her mother often left her front door unlocked was trying to make it easier
for me if I had something in my hands or I was holding my son I could just come in and not have to fiddle with keys and
thinking about me there were plenty of clues in the town housee we found lighton Prince U on two glasses the
location of the prce on the glasses led us to believe or did confirm that someone had upold of the top of the
glasses carrying those in there the prints were entered into the automated fingerprint identification system known
as aphys and compared to millions of prints in a nationwide database the search did not immediately
produce a match sometimes it takes uh a matter of hours maybe even days cuz you're looking at several million
entries the biological samples from the rape test kit were sent to the forensics
lab for [Music] testing first the sample was placed into a vial with the stain extraction buffer
which breaks down all nonbiological particles and proteins surrounding the [Music]
DNA phenolchloroform was then added allowing the DNA to congeal and this was analyzed using a polymerase
Chain Reaction test the result was believed to be the Killer's DNA profile next forensic analysts examined
eskalene's computer and with the help of her employer's Mainframe computer found
an important clue when we looked at ES de's computer we discovered that she had sent out an
email at 12:21 the day that she uh was found dead that led us to believe that she was
alive and obviously had been working on her computer prior to whoever had entered her home before she had contact
with them and investigators found evidence that eskalene's computer had automatically logged off 3 minutes after
sending that email that meant that the time of her death was sometime after 12:30 we were trying to get a time frame
for uh the death itself uh we were also trying at the same time to learn if there was anything out of uh the normal
in the community neighbors told police there were magazine salesmen going door Todo
on the afternoon of eskalene's murder many people relayed to us that these people had been in their their res
residents or in their subdivision during the time of 11: in the morning up till almost 4:00 p.m. local ordinances
require sales organizations to have permits for each and every salesman selling door Todo but there had been no
permits granted to any sales groups that week Sheriff Tim Hutcherson knew that traveling sales groups from out of state
usually stay at local motels typically a company van would pick them up at the motel in the morning
take them to a neighborhood to sell door too and then take them back to the motel
at the end of the day we've had problems in the past with some of these people uh
being very pushy trying to push themselves in on on women uh and getting in arguments or fights and uh so that
set an alarm Bell off the minute that the word came back to us at the scene that there were some magazine salesmen
in the neighborhood that afternoon detectives canvased several local motels but turned up
nothing back at the crime scene investigators followed another lead eskalene's wallet was empty and her
daughter told them it was normally full of credit cards detectives thought the Intruder
may have stolen them and tried to use them we started looking through um the drawers trying to find past bills which
would have those credit card numbers on them which companies that they were with
and so by doing that uh we found which cards were missing police asked the bank to notify them if anyone tried using one
of those stolen cards they never dreamt that the killer would walk right into their
trap only a few hours after escaline de board's murder officials at her bank told police that someone tried to use
one of her credit cards at an ATM at a local gas station we retrieved about I think $80 or so out of the
ATM detectives checked the ATM surveillance video they saw a tall thin man wearing a white shirt and black tie
standing at the machine for 8 minutes afterwards he picked up a drink and went to the counter to pay for it it
appeared that he was asking the the store clerk for directions whoever used esing de board's
card was dressed wearing the white shirt and black tie led us to believe that it
was one of the mag magazine salesmen who in fact had been in her residence all the neighbors we spoke to said the
magazine salesman that came to the residents were wearing white shirts black ties detectives questioned the
store clerk and she clearly remembered the customer he told her he was from New York City and asked for directions to
the motel on Paper Mill Road police went immediately to the motel and they spotted two Vans similar
to those used to transport the traveling salesman across the street police also saw escaline the board's car which was
immediately processed for fingerprints when we spoke with the magazine salesman that were at the
Super8 we discovered that one of the magazine salesmen didn't show up for their pickup point at 400 p.m.
that salesman was 21-year-old Roger Broadway when we first spoke with the manager of the magazine salesman he was
reluctant to give us information when the sheriff threatened to impound his Vans the supervisor changed his mind he
started telling us that there was one individual that worked for him that was from New York City that had got word
that his relatives were sick and he immediately needed to leave to go back back home the manager admitted that they
recruited salesmen with criminal records but claimed that they were rehabilitated the manager of the
magazine salesman told us that many of the people that they hire are from halfway houses and inner cities just to
give them the opportunity to make some money and get out of the city Roger Broadway told his employer that he had a
family emergency and needed to go back to New York City immediately the manager took Roger
Broadway to the bus station purchased him a bus ticket and sent him on a bus back to New York police knew they needed
to catch Broadway before he got off that bus if he had made it back to New York where it was
from uh it' be really impossible to find him there he's on home turf then and those people if they know you're after
them they can hide out for for long sometime long periods of time he he would have went underground I'm sure a
background check revealed that Roger Broadway had served a prison term for aggravated
robbery detectives checked with the bus company and were told the bus would take
Interstate Highway 81 to New York and they also told police exactly where the bus would be during its
Journey shortly after midnight police asked Sheriff's officers in Virginia to try to intercept that
[Music] bus sheriff's deputies were able to catch up with the bus they believed was
carrying Roger Broadway on Interstate 81 in Virginia when they pulled the bus over and Sheriff's walked on board Roger
Broadway surrendered without incident in his luggage investigate ERS found bloody clothing escaline deo's
engagement ring and her car key he held something in his pocket that my mother wore and it was violating I guess the
experience I had was it was a very violating experience that he would even touch something that was hers that
touched her I suppose Broadway's fingerprints were compared to those on the drinking glass at the crime scene
and on eskalene's car window a computer program identified small shapes within the fingerprints called minutia shown
here in green squares hundreds of these points matched those prints belong to the suspect Roger
Broadway investigators took a blood sample from Broadway for DNA testing as expected Broadway's DNA profile matched
the biological samples at the crime scene [Music] the scientist told us that uh the odds
of this being incorrect the odds were greater than the population of the world based on the forensic evidence
prosecutors believe Broadway entered escaline de board's unlocked townhouse intending to burglarize it not knowing
she was upstairs escaline was working upstairs on her computer and she sent her last email at
12:21 the computer logged off 3 minutes later escaline must have heard someone downstairs and gone to
[Music] investigate think you're doing there no after a scuffle Broadway killed escaline then cut the telephone
cords before he left Broadway helped himself to a soda and cigarettes he took eskalene's credit
cards and her car then drove to the ATM for cash and directions he never realized the store's
security camera normally used to prevent robbery in this case helped solve a murder
Broadway then ditched the car told his supervisor he needed to leave town and took the first bust in New York
City I suspect a number of our more senior citizens that live alone uh would have been terrified uh that there was a
Madman on the loose so uh we we were very fortunate that we didn't have to live through that and Tred to calm the
fears of a number of our citizens here when he saw the amount of forensic evidence Roger Broadway pled guilty to
murder and aggravated robbery in return he was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 50
years Roger Bradway showed no remorse for what he had done and to me I think he received the the best penalty that
was available to him and I hope he has the rest of his life to think about [Music]
that Liz noing wears her mother's engagement ring to keep the memory of her always with
her I love you and I miss [Music] you that's about the only thing I can say to my mom right now or I wish you
were here but she says she will not allow a killer to ruin what remains of her family I don't want my son to remember
him his grandmother that way and I don't want to remember my mother that way I want to remember her how she lived I
don't want to remember her how she died officials in Tennessee have introduced legislation to regulate
companies who use convicted felons as door-to-door salesman no one here knew that that this
convicted violent felon was in our neighborhood uh selling and working and so I we would like to see a law on the
books where the people must register with local law enforcement if they have a criminal
record I would like to feel as though I had something to do with changing the industry and making it safer so if
someone does knock on your door they are licensed and bonded and they have identification with their picture on it
even if those laws were to be passed detectives warn people to be extremely careful when dealing with door-to-door
salesmen you don't know their backgrounds you don't know what they're capable of you really don't know what
their attentions are once they get into your home so I would strongly advise not
allowing people into your residence that you don't know they'll lock your doors I
don't care where you live how safe it is this is a safe Community where uh murders never occur but it did here
forensic computer analysis DNA testing fingerprint analysis and the store security camera all work together to
solve a case within 12 hours of the crime the collection of that evidence the way it was collected here the way it
was preserved maintain uh is a textbook example of how uh any investigation in particularly a
homicide investigation should be run thank goodness thank goodness that we do that we have the technology and the
tools to be able to do that so it's essential that that that the forensics the science is a part of the process
[Music] War [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music]

No one in a quiet residential community saw anything unusual the day one of their neighbors was brutally attacked and murdered. Fingerprints found at the crime scene and surveillance video helped investigators to apprehend the presumed killer.

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

The murder of Eskaline Theard leads to the capture of suspect Roger Broadway through forensic evidence and community investigation.

Key points

Murder in a Quiet Neighborhood. A brutal attack disrupts a seemingly safe community, leading to a shocking discovery.
The Search for Clues. Investigators uncover vital evidence from the victim's computer and a security camera.

Episode highlights

The Search for CluesInvestigators uncover vital evidence from the victim's computer and a security camera.“Forensic computer analysis and DNA testing helped solve a case within 12 hours.”20:52Dec 16, 2021

Episode quotes

I don’t want to remember my mother that way.

Liz reflects on her mother's memory after the tragedy.

19:31WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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