Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 34 - Web of Seduction - Full Episode | Forensic Files

a man was dead in a michigan junkyard [Music] and there were no clues or forensic
evidence at the scene but computer forensic experts found evidence of a crime that had everything
sex lies and a videotape [Music] [Music] on november 8 1999 chuck miller got a frantic call from his sister-in-law his
brother bruce was missing bruce hadn't come home for dinner and he wasn't answering his telephone at work
chuck drove out to his brother's junkyard to look for him the door was shut open the door and
walked in and hollered his name he wouldn't answer and we walked around the corner of the desk and he was laying on
the floor bruce miller was dead of a gunshot wound to his chest the telephone receiver was near his head
bruce normally kept around two thousand dollars in his front shirt pocket to make change for his customers that money
was missing the motive appeared to be robbery two thousand dollars cash in the pocket
would look good to a lot of people in the area we just thought it was just a random someone just walked in and shot
him because he always kept money in his front pocket and took that money it just appeared to be another robbery
another day in flint criminalists from the michigan crime lab used one-sided tape to collect possible
evidence from bruce's shirt the tape lift that i took from this particular victim
only had his his own head here on it there was nothing foreign that was determined on the tape left
and there were other signs that this crime scene was a little too clean we're talking about a business that
hadn't been cleaned and probably since it opened we're talking grease oil everything that leaves a good latent
print a good boot impression so he knew what to touch what not to touch and might have even taken other
protective measures in order for him not to be found it was also troubling that bruce was on the phone when killed
but to whom was he speaking no one's called and said i was on the phone with bruce miller and i heard a
gunshot there's no latent prints that were no bloody prints no money fallen where they were in a hurry
to get it out why the pocket wasn't ripped when they're taking the money out bruce miller was 48 years old
six months earlier he married 28 year old cherie and he was about to adopt her three
children by all accounts seem to be a very hard-working kind of mellow guy who you know took a chance with marrying
sherry miller and her kids and taking on that load as well as having two jobs working at general motors as
well as running a junkyard according to friends and family it was a happy marriage
she would talk to them in length about bruce miller how is the best thing that ever happened
to her how he was a good lover how her kids endeared him this was an older gentleman
that caught the young woman and he treated her like a princess cherie had been at home all day with her
children and several friends and wasn't considered a suspect but she had a pretty good idea
of who might be responsible she told detectives that one of her former boyfriends john hutchinson owed
her husband several thousand dollars bruce had run-ins with john in the past arguing over him
stealing auto parts from the business late at night and they argued just recently over a sale of a twenty dollar
tire to john hutchinson's stepson hutchinson claimed he was at home alone at the time of the murder
it was an alibi that couldn't be corroborated it would take a second death before detectives would get to the truth
[Music] john hutchinson emerged as the key suspect in junkyard owner bruce miller's
murder hutchinson agreed to take a lie detector test he collapsed during the examination
john hutchinson had some kind of episode where he ended up going to the hospital
but apparently he was pretty stressed out by this polygraph which he did not pass
but police needed more evidence than a polygraph the autopsy revealed bruce had been
killed with a 20-gauge shotgun in a search of hutchinson's home police didn't find a 20-gauge shotgun bloody
clothing or the missing money the feeling was he had probably done it we've exhausted all of our leads this is
our best prime suspect what aren't we doing what can we do differently to make it work so we can
get the truth weeks went by then months there had been no new leads in the case but something unusual happened 700 miles
away in kansas city missouri a former homicide investigator named jerry cassaday was found dead in his
home his gun still in his hand there was a bible in his lap divorce papers were on his desk and a report
showing he had recently been treated for depression [Music] in a trash can outside the home
police found a videotape marked for jerry's eyes only it appeared to be a home video of a
woman dancing seductively definitely a seductive tool something you would send a guy
that you're trying to seduce friends told police they thought the woman on the tape was jerry's girlfriend
who lived in flint michigan and that her name was cheree when investigators called police in
flint they knew just who they were talking about it was like getting hit upside they had
a sudden shack it's like you know i can't believe it she duped me sheree miller was brought into police
headquarters for questioning she claimed that she did not even know jerry cassidy
this is an audio recording of the actual interrogation did you ever send naked pictures of
yourself to jerry no did you up some jerry [Music] when we showed her that we had this
videotape of her for jerry cassidy written right on the tape for jerry's eyes only so she
went from not knowing jerry cassidy to turn around i know him but he's crazy isn't it true that you were having a
physical relationship with your maybe i'm mine no i'm talking in person cherie said she met jerry cassaday in a
computer chat room i mean i mess around online all the time just to figure out something new to do
i mean everybody does it computer forensic experts confiscated cherie's computer as well as jerry
cassadays and what they discovered inside answered some important questions but raised many others
this is one of the most bizarre cases i've handled in the 10 years i've been dealing with this subject matter there
was deception there was a love triangle whenever there's an internet connectivity issue that relates to a
murder case of course it's going to be sexy things were starting to get interesting
[Music] police sent cherie miller's computer and the one used by her suspected lover
jerry cassaday to an expert in the new field of computer forensics i get the stuff that's been deleted i
get the space that's unused by the computer i get everything and that's what i examine as a computer forensic
specialist sergeant petrovka was able to mirror the hard drive which means he kept the hard
drive in its original format but makes a mirror image of it that we as investigators can use to download
the information on there without ever tampering with the original best evidence forensic computer specialists can also
gain access to password protected accounts on a hard drive passwords lock documents away from
anyone except the owner investigators easily made their way into jerry's and cherie's private files
i believe we have like three four hundred bookmarks fragments that i had found that
were relevant there were probably thousands of hits on her name on the just a cherie 1013.
investigators found incriminating evidence on jerry's computer and in his private papers
it was an instant message conversation in which jerry and cherie discussed murder i'll call bruce at 5 p.m and tell
him to call when he's leaving jerry i'm scared is the gun loud it's deer hunting season here inside would be
fast muffled pull up to the left of the building right to the door he'll stay at
the desk inside take his wallet take the whole thing there was discussion about pull the car
up i believe it was to the right side of the door of the office to the auto parts
place because then when you open up the driver's side door of the car it would help hide a gun in your hand as
you stepped out and went towards the front door of the business police confronted cherie with this
computer message i'm telling you here i have an email that lays it out right here in front of
me about how you and jerry cassidy planned his murder that's fine okay why would jury even
think about changing that i don't know it doesn't make sense does it i don't have a clue maybe because he was mad
because i wouldn't have nothing to do with him cherie said the instant messages were
forged officials at aol confirmed that this was a possibility we first informed the prosecutors and
investigators that this is an instant message that may not be authentic it possibly could have been edited but i
couldn't say in fact it was authentic and did come through the american online service in its exact form
it was very important for us to forensically back up this instant message and show
that there was a relationship and show how she got jerry cassidy to kill her husband
under court order aol released information regarding cassadays and cherie's computer activity
aol verified the jerry and sheree were both signed onto the aol service on the same day at the same time and for the
same length of time as the instant message indicated sheree also took steps to cover her
tracks a day and a half after the killing of her husband she calls america online to change her
first and last name to change her street address city state and zip code after she learned of the suicide of jerry
cassaday she did the same thing and jerry's home computer showed hundreds of emails from the screen name
cherie 1013 that had been deleted the data is still there until such time as the computer
needs to write something new and the computer says oh that spot's open i'll write it there now
and so the data resides on the card drive until it's overridden among a stack of papers on cherie's
computer desk investigators found the name john o'connor which was misspelled and a
telephone number in cherie's handwriting in the instant message which cherie claimed was a fabrication jerry wrote
if anything happens to me call him john o'connor with the same misspelling and his
telephone number which was also incorrect certainly corroborates the fact that they had been communicating in that
instant message it was one in two quintillion chances that that alone could have happened by coincidence
that's nineteen zeros after the two the forensic computer analysis also revealed the motive for the murder
in a moment how cherie miller managed to fool a seasoned homicide investigator [Music]
forensic computer experts found proof that cherry miller and jerry cassaday conspired to kill cherie's husband bruce
it was like reading a diary of the relationship and it showed her saying things to this guy to really
kind of bring his blood to both a sexual and emotional boil to really bring him in to her and her world
as she was showing it to him only a month after cherie's marriage to bruce miller she met jerry cassaday in
an america online chat room the two struck up a friendship jerry was going through a divorce cherie said she
was unhappy too [Music] eventually they met face to face and became lovers [Music]
when the two were apart cherie kept the spark in their relationship by sending jerry erotic
pictures of herself through email she also recorded the videotape later found by investigators in jerry's
trash [Music] at one point cherie told jerry she was pregnant with twins and the jury was the
father although she had had her tubes tied years earlier cherie emailed a picture of a positive
pregnancy test she had taken from a friend and sonograms of the fetus which were actually taken five years earlier
of her son shuri claimed her husband bruce was a member of organized crime a drug dealer
and was physically abusive towards her there was no evidence that any of this was true
she claimed bruce had beaten her so badly that she miscarried jerry's unborn twins
cherie emailed jerry pictures of her bruised and battered body a feat she accomplished with makeup
this was a situation where a woman very plottingly and purposefully created an artificial universe to cause
this guy to believe that he would be doing the quote unquote right thing to come and murder bruce miller
he couldn't see what the truth was anymore and what was a lie he was going to be the white
knight for sheree miller he was going to kill the dragon and claim his property in an instant message
jerry and cherie made plans for the murder [Music] cherie said she would keep her husband
on the phone while jerry went in to kill him telephone records confirmed this is precisely what happened
[Music] jerry's experience as a homicide detective meant he could commit the crime while leaving no forensic evidence
behind [Music] just a few weeks after bruce's murder cherie double-crossed jury she stopped answering his calls and
emails and she found another boyfriend i think he was grief stricken what have i done
what has she led me to do and for what she didn't give a darn about me among jerry's personal papers
was a suicide note addressed to his parents it was painfully obvious jerry still
believed most of cherie's lies he beat the crap out of her and killed my baby i'm sorry mom
these were my babies i loved them i wanted them i drove there and killed him but jerry finally realized
he had been used i was so blind and so stupid and so much in love little did i know she never
meant any of it she just wanted all her money and no more husband sheree was involved and helped set it up
i have all the proof she'll get what's coming there was no doubt you know jerry said
he did it jerry did it you know there was no making it up you know jerry yeah it
wasn't that type of individual that he'd pull somebody's leg like that especially
in a situation like this he wasn't going to shoot himself and then leave this for
somebody if it wasn't true in december 2000 cherie went on trial for murder and conspiracy
the forensic computer analysis was the state's primary evidence did you kill your husband bruce miller
no i did not did you help anybody kill your husband no i did not did you love your husband yes i did
[Music] cherie continued to maintain the instant messages were a forgery she claimed jerry was the spurned lover
and did this in an attempt to frame her so are you saying this entire instant message
is fake yes i am so when they talk about the discs and the pictures on your back and
legs and whatnot and the bruises it has you never had that conversation no i did not
but the forensic computer analysis proved otherwise and provided a possible motive for the
murder money from bruce's life insurance policies and the sale of his junkyard business
i told my wife that uh i think cherie is grinning from here here thinking the money she's gonna get from this right
here that was my thought the night he got killed because she was that kind of person just
a money hungry person right after the homicide she redid the house she spent a lot of money
even bruce's mother bought her car with some of the money that was left to her so
money may have been a motive we don't know prosecutors do not believe john hutchinson had anything to do
with bruce miller's murder in december of 2000 sheree miller was found guilty of
second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder she was sentenced to life
without the possibility of parole she had no respect for the man she she married she had no respect for my
brother she had no respect for her own kids put them through this she got what she deserved i've seen
gunshot wounds i've seen knife wounds i've seen dismemberment i've seen ax murders i've seen people who've drugged
people by cars killed by autos but i've never seen anyone killed by a computer for investigators the verdict was a
triumph of high-tech detective work and old-fashioned gum shoe investigation if we had been unable to find hard
evidence to back up the printouts the emails the instant messages we would not have had a case by doing
the computer forensics we showed that manipulation of jerry cassidy and what brought him to killing bruce miller and
then taking his own life she thought she had beaten the system she thought she planned the perfect
murder she thought those those things that she typed in would never ever come back to haunt her
but she was wrong [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Bruce Miller was shot to death in the office of the junkyard business he owned. The crime scene was almost pristine. When a computer forensics expert examined the computers owned by the victim's wife and her lover, he found all the evidence needed.

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

Cherie Miller conspired with Jerry Cassaday to murder her husband Bruce, leading to her conviction through computer forensic evidence.

Key points

The Murder of Bruce Miller. Bruce Miller was found dead in his junkyard, leading to a complex investigation.
Cherie's Deception. Cherie Miller's relationship with Jerry Cassaday led to a conspiracy to murder her husband.
The Verdict. Cherie Miller was found guilty of second-degree murder and conspiracy.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was like reading a diary of the relationship.

Describing the evidence found on Jerry's computer.

14:02WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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