Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 4 - Sign Here - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] a young woman walked out of this department store got into a rental car and was never seen again
the signature on the rental car agreement was a forgery forensic scientists hoped that either
the handwriting or the ink from the pen would solve the mystery [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] nestled in the hills 60 miles northwest of los angeles lies ventura california
[Music] may 6 1996 started like most other days for 30 year old sherry dally as she
dropped her two children off at school but on this morning she went shopping before work
[Music] sherry was expected home by noon but she never returned 911 dispatch my wife brought my wife
8 30 this morning and she's been missing what is her first name sherry dallas sherry's van was found in the parking
lot of a local store it was unlocked with her purse and items from the store still inside
at this point we're still trying to figure out where did she go thinking that she might be with a
relative or there might be she might have gone off with some friends for some reason we didn't know
detectives asked the store employees if they had seen anything suspicious a security guard recalled seeing sherry
in the store earlier that morning she stopped and spoke briefly with a friend of hers who was head of security
of the department store at that time [Music] then she went about her business and did
some shopping checked out she walked out of the the department store and walked over towards her van the
surveillance camera shows that cherry left the store at 9 22 a.m i mean sherry's the backbone of our
family and now she's missing today we're going to try and do the base of ventura
river bottom friends and family passed out flyers throughout the community [Music]
television and radio reports asked citizens for information one volunteer says today reminds him of the day they
found another ventura county missing woman many knew sherry dally and her husband
michael since they both grew up in the area he was the first real boyfriend she ever had
she was just so much in love with him that she could see nothing else i mean the sun
rose and said in mike sherry and mike had been married for 12 years and had two small children
mike worked as a manager at a grocery store a background check revealed the couple
had a history of marital problems we know that he represented to her that he wanted to make a go of the marriage
but his actions did not coincide with his expressed reason for going back to the home
why friends said michael had a lover a woman he worked with who was a former model
diana hahn he did not keep it a secret his co-workers knew about it family members knew about it and of course
sherry dally actually learned about it as well the day after sherry's disappearance
investigators decided to question diana hahn at her home she answered the door in a skimpy outfit obviously obviously
been in bed and behind her was michael dally just wearing a pair of shorts naturally police were suspicious
i wouldn't expect a concerned husband to be at his girlfriend's house while his wife is gone has disappeared
soon a witness came forward claiming to have seen sherry dally in the parking lot and said she appeared to be in some
distress just a few days after 30 year old sherry dally disappeared an eyewitness told
police she saw sherry in the store parking lot and it looked as if she was being
arrested she was seen by eyewitnesses standing at her van door opening it and a woman approached her
sherry turned around spoke with her briefly just exchanged some words very briefly
whereupon sherry turned around the woman placed handcuffs on sherry walked her over to the car
put her into the back of the car as a police officer would the person was described
as a female wearing a tan pantsuit blonde hair and sunglasses this didn't resemble diana han who was
michael dally's lover han was a brunette and she didn't own a car like the getaway vehicle
the description was a teal colored car that to me wasn't a common car color to be seen on
the road so my attitude was it's got to be a rental detective burt and his partner visited
all of the local car rental agencies in the area skip was asking the lady behind
the counter did michael dally uh rent a car from you folks and so she gets on the computer and nothing comes up from
michael dally and he asks well what about a diana han and lady goes to the computer and lo and
behold she says yeah diana hahn rented a car on the 5th may 5th may 5th was the day before sherry
disappeared we looked at each other and it was like diana hon denied renting the car
claiming the signature on the rental agreement wasn't hers furthermore no one at the car agency
could positively identify han as the person who rented the car the rental car had recently been
returned we looked in you could just look inside the back windows and you could see on
the rear floorboard a brownish color in the carpeting forensic scientists performed tests on
those brownish stains in the back seat a phenolphthalein test was positive it's a
chemical reagent that turns red when it comes into contact with the hemoglobin content of blood
it appeared as though this was an area in which blood had pooled or puddled an individual sitting in the passenger
back seat had been leaning forward and bleeding producing blood running and dripping into this area on
the floor investigators then used luminol to look for blood that may have been cleaned
from the car and trunk what we were told by the crime lab is that when they luminal the inside of
that car it lit up like a candle i mean there was blood everywhere on the door panels up in the headliner
everywhere with blood samples from sherry's parents forensic scientists concluded that the
blood inside the rental car was that of sherry dally i knew something seriously was wrong
because i knew she would never leave her children i mean she would never ever have left her children on her own
free will and scientists found something else in the back seat of the car were five
long pieces of what looked like human hair when i examined them microscopically i
found that they weren't hairs at all there were unusual arrow head shaped designs on the shafts
an infrared spectrometer identified the molecular structure of the strand not as
a hair but a fiber the type used to make wigs was it possible that the woman who abducted sherry dally
was either in disguise or wasn't a woman at all [Music] 25 days after sherry dally's
disappearance from a store parking lot search volunteers found some bones off of a remote road
just three miles from where sherry was abducted they called about 5 30 that saturday evening
i want to tell you before it hits the six o'clock news because it's going to hit the news that we have found
the remains of a woman and he said kristen is with sherry's friends kristen has positively
identified the clothes as being sherry's sherry dally's dental records were already on hand for identification
purposes the correlation between the dental x-rays i felt at the time sufficient enough to tell the
investigators that even without me taking x-rays of the human remains at the other remains were of sherry dally
and forensic scientists were also able to determine the cause of death forensics experts at the crime lab were
able to map out the different stab wounds different tears in sherry's shirt indicating that there were multiple stab
wounds more in fact than were located in the bones sherry suffered a devastating attack
there was in the right jaw area a piece of metal that was embedded in the bone that was
removed by one of the forensics experts at our crime lab jim roberts roberts analyzed the metal fragment
using an electron microscope which produced a three-dimensional image and a picture he could identify
after some study on the microscopes we became convinced that it was part of a serrated knife blade actually
the tip of one of the teeth of the serrations sherry's husband michael was one of the
two suspects in the murder he said he was at work at the time of her abduction everything pointed to diana and we knew
mike was at work so he has the alibi of not being the hatchet man michael's mistress diana hahn
was the other suspect the car used in cherry dally's abduction was rented by someone who signed diana
hahn's name han denied it was her signature and insisted someone else had rented the car
and forged her name jack harris is a forensic document examiner who specializes in handwriting
analysis so if anyone is going to forge your name they're going to try to make it look
like the signature on the driver's license and yet this had a very visible difference
the capital letters on the rental car agreement were noticeably different than diana hahn's known signature sample and
the writing also had a different slant it's a common way of first step in in disguising a signature
often times the question signature on the budget rental agreement had the little letters and then it went
straight out to the right harris then compared the signature on the car rental agreement to signatures
diana hans signed 10 years earlier and in those signatures harris found a surprise
diana hahn's signatures of a decade earlier were strikingly similar to the signature on the rental car agreement
sure enough every so often she went straight out to the right and didn't curl back again
i concluded that in my best judgment she signed the rental agreement and initialed
the agreement harris believes that in signing the rental car agreement han thought she was
creating a forgery but she was unknowingly using her writing style that she had used years
earlier and investigators found more forensic evidence a lady that worked at a wig store in
oxnard recognized diana hahn as a person who had purchased a wig from her just shortly before sherry dally's
abduction han had paid for the items with a check detectives searched tom's records and
found other checks written shortly before sherry's disappearance the checks were interestingly written in
green ink not too many people carry a green ink pen in their purse when diana hahn was arrested she she was
found in her purse a green ink pen detectives sent the checks and the green pen to a forensic document examiner who
specialized in ink analysis first tests that i perform are non-destructive in nature and they're
intended to evaluate the ink formulations not the pen but the ink formulations the most common technique in ink
comparison is to use a video spectral comparator what this instrument does is evaluate
inks in the ultraviolet visible and infrared portion of the spectra the theory is if it's the same ink
formulation it should react the same under all conditions examined infrared lighting can identify if two
ink samples are the same or different the spectral comparator showed that the ink on the checks was from the same ink
batch as the pen in diana hahn's purse and diana han's checkbook revealed she had made some other unusual
purchases based upon who those checks had been written to the detectives followed up
went to another department store and did in fact learn that diana han had purchased
an ax lighter fluid matches sunglasses various items that would have been used during the abduction
diana hahn was arrested and charged with sherry dally's murder the question now was michael dally involved
narcissistic egotistical sociopath total lack of conscience despicable disgusting human being
witnesses told police they saw a blonde woman abduct sherry dally from a department store parking lot
the prime suspect diana hahn was a brunette in a search of her home investigators
found evidence that han was a master of disguises when we executed a search warrant in her
room we found all kinds of photographs showing her in different get-ups and wigs and
makeup as she posed for its modeling agency we asked diana han's mother if she could
pick out her daughter in any of these photographs and her mother started shaking her head no that this wasn't her
daughter and han's telephone record showed something curious diana and michael spoke by telephone
numerous times immediately before and after the abduction based on the telephone calls and the
forensic evidence prosecutors say diana hahn rented the car under her own name because rental
agencies require a valid driver's license to conceal her identity han attempted to
forge her own signature a forgery detected by the forensic experts han followed sherry dally to the
department store parking lot han was wearing a blonde wig and sunglasses to mask her identity
when sherry left the store han may have posed as a member of law enforcement because witnesses say sherry
was handcuffed and placed into the back seat at some point sherry inevitably recognized diana and knew her husband
and his mistress were going to kill her [Music] the forensic evidence shows that diana
killed sherry in the back seat of the rental car threw her body down the deserted ravine
put the murder weapons in the trunk and drove to ventura marina there she changed out of her bloody
clothes and called michael from the pay phone to say the murder was done from there
han drove to a car wash and attempted to clean the blood from the back seat and trunk
but she was unsuccessful luminol phenothalene and dna testing confirmed the cherry daly was brutally
attacked in han's rental car the five wig fibers confirmed the disguise forensic handwriting and ink analysis
also revealed that it was han's signature on checks used to purchase the wig and the axe
you have to be maniacal you have to be evil you have to have something inherently vicious inside of you
to be able to do what she did to sherry dally and to leave those two young boys without their mother
the telephone calls han placed to michael dally before and after the murder was evidence of his complicity
the night that we arrested michael we did a search warrant on his home and on the bed where he and his wife had slept
was a full-length pillow that you can get probably through some company where you can actually take
somebody's photograph and have it actually printed on this pillow well guess whose
face was on the pillow diana hans and that pillow was there while sherry was still alive
i still got hurt for the betrayal i think he betrayed us and he betrayed sherry in the worst possible way
and the fact that she loved him and he used that love we the jury in the above entitled action
find michael anthony dally guilty diana hahn and michael dally were both convicted of first degree murder and
sentenced to life in prison [Music] church life and upbringing tells me that i should be able to forgive him
unfortunately god is going to have to forgive me for the fact that i will never be able to offer that forgiveness
to him can you describe sherry and diana's relationship not good people hated each other
they both wanted me big fat eagle and he sat there and said i can't help it if two women love me
it's not my fault that two men women love me um and i think it was an eagle trip
i think he knew exactly what he was doing throughout this whole case it's just unfortunate fortunate for him that he
was [Music] stupid one thing that i'll never forget about this case is ken guess saying
when sherry and michael got married i walked cherry down the aisle and i left her there
and gave my daughter to this man and this was the man that killed my daughter and that's something that i'll always
remember him saying and i'm sure it's something that he will never forget though the forensics in this case was
very vital the handwriting analysis on the checks that diana hahn wrote to purchase the
items and the implements that she used to murder sherry that was key we hadn't found sherry dally's
blood in the car that diana hahn had rented i don't see how we would have solved the
case [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

A mother of two vanishes after a shopping trip. Her body is discovered a month later. Witnesses say they saw the victim being forced into a car by an unknown person.

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.

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Brief Summary

Sherry Dally was abducted and murdered; her husband and mistress were convicted based on forensic evidence.

Key points

Sherry Dally's Disappearance. Sherry Dally went missing after leaving a department store, leading to a frantic search.
Forensic Evidence Uncovered. Investigators found blood and hair in the rental car linked to Sherry's disappearance.
The Arrest of Diana Hahn. Diana Hahn was arrested and charged with Sherry Dally's murder after key evidence emerged.
Conviction of Michael Dally. Both Michael Dally and Diana Hahn were convicted of first-degree murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Sherry's the backbone of our family and now she's missing.

2:36WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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