Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 24 - Northern Exposure - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: There were very few clues discovered with the woman's body in the Alaskan wilderness.
But the sheet covering her body looked very different from the bedding sold in department stores.
Was it possible that the fabric could tell a story, one that could lead police to the woman's killer?
Was it po[theme music]he fabric could tell a story, one that When 36-year-old Judy Burgin walked into her favorite bar
at the Samovar Inn, in Anchorage, Alaska, it was apparent that something was terribly wrong.
SHARON ILLSLEY: The bartender, who had known Judy for years, said that when Judyt somcame in that night, uh,ng.
Judy looked as bad as she'd every seen her. NARRATOR: Judy came from an affluent and
politically-connected family, and was something of a free-spirit, working as a cook on a fishing boat.
But Judy told the bartender that she was tired of life in Alaska, and wanted to move away.
DALLAS MASSIE: Judy was upset, distraught. At that time, she had a large amount of money,
and a ticket to Hawaii, and was planning to go to Hawaii. SHARON ILLSLEY: Judy showed her an airline ticket,
andand a substantial sumand was plof money, and saidwaii. she was going to straighten up her life.
NARRATOR: Later, a man approached Judy at the bar. The two shared some drinks, and witnesses
said Judy left with the man, and went to his hotel room. DALLAS MASSIE: Witnesses indicated that Judy had gone
upstairs with that person, allegedly, possibly to do use drugs that day. indicated that Judy had gone
NARRATOR: Later, she returned to the bar, said her goodbyes, and left in a cab. Two weeks passed, and no one had heard from her,
so Judy's family contacted police. PEGGY BURGIN: She would call and just check in,
and, hi, mom, how are you doing? contacted police. And I knew she was around, and I knew that she didn't have
anything to complain about at the time. And And so, when the calls and I knestopped upcoming, have
then I thought something had happened. ANARRATOR: Police interviewedd I employees and customersve
of the Samovar Inn, where Judy was last seen. In particular, they wanted to interview
the man Judy left with. But no one at the bar knew who the man was. the He paid cash forth. is room, did not
register under his real name, and hadn't been in the bar before or since. -All avenues were basically slammed
shut, for one reason or another. We were never able to determine who this person was.
shutNARRATOR: Judy had beenther. living in Anchorage with her boyfriend, Carl Brown, a commercial fisherman.
He told Judy's family that she was fed up with Alaska, and just moved out. PEGGY BURGIN: He said, she told me she's going to Hawaii.
So, I haven't seen her, don't know anything about her. So, that was all. DALLAS MASSIE: He just said their relationship had come
to its end, and she just walked off-- with no explanation for why she would walk off.
NARRATOR: Police checked with the airlines, and discovered that Judy didn't take a flight to Hawaii,
or anywhere else. Four months would pass before police and Judy's family would finally learn where she had gone.
Four months after Judy Burgin's disappearance, several hikers along Grey's Creek-- about 200 miles north
of Anchorage, Alaska-- saw what appeared to be a bundle of clothing. SHARON ILLSLEY: It was wrapped in a sheet,
but they ran over and got their mother. Their mothers came over and discovered that there was
indeed, what appeared to be a human remains-- mostly skeletonized remains-- of a human body out in the woods.
NARRATOR: Police immediately sealed off the area. The badly decomposed body was that of a female,
approximately 5 feet tall, with short, brown hair. DAVID WALLACE: By re-hydrating her mummified fingers,
appand we were able toall, wobtain a fingerprint,. match that fingerprint, and the body that was found
was identified as Judy Burgin. wobtain a fingerprint,. PEGGY BURGIN: I really was not surprised.
I just had a feeling that it could be her. I guess it was just a instinct, mother's
instinct, or something. -Any time a body is found in a manner that Judy was, insit presents a veryg. difficult case.
At this point we have no witnesses, we have no concessions, we have no murder weapon,
we have no knowledge of how she's there. NARRATOR: The medical examiner determined
that Judy's death was clearly a homicide. NSHARON ILLSLEY: Thel skull had been bashed in,
by what he believed to be more than one blow. And substantial force was used, because the entire side
and front of the skull was caved in. NARRATOR: The body was found in an extremely isolated location.
There were several fishing camps in the area, NARRbut most were accessible in an extremonly by plane.ocation.
DAVID WALLACE: It was pretty clear that the body had been killed somewhere else,
brought to the scene, and purposely laid where it was found. -In this kind of investigation, it's very difficult.
You have no idea who killed this person, who left this person in the wilderness.
And initially, you don't even have any idea of how long the remains had been in the wilderness.
NARRATOR: Investigators were intrigued by the sheets that covered Judy's body. DAVID WALLACE: The sheets seemed to be
kind of ordinary, plain sheets. But they had some orange stitching that made it appear that they were commercial,
and not something that you or I might go to our local department store and buy. NARRATOR: At first, investigators
assumed the sheets came from the Samovar Inn, where Judy was last seen. But they weren't the type used by that hotel.
Large hotels usually have their sheets washed by outside, commercial laundries. LTo keep the sheetsy separate, each hotel
uses a different color stitching. LTFor example, onesy shotel chain mightel use blue stitching, another gold, and so on.
Only one hotel chain used sheets with orange stitching. DAVID WALLACE: We discover that these same sheets that Judy's
Onbody was found in wered sused at the Sheraton Hotel,. here in Anchorage. NARRATOR: This tied Judy to the Sheraton Hotel.
But no one at the Anchorage Sheraton recalled seeing her. So, investigators turned their attention
to another piece of evidence-- a tuft of red carpet fibers found inside the sheet which covered Judy's body.
DAVID WALLACE: The tuft was red with some other micro colors kind of blended in with it.
But it's main color was red. k-So, initial investigators were looking at this, knew immediately when they saw that tuft, that they'd made
a significant find, but didn't know what they would be able to do with it. But, this is not a fiber of the sort
that we all carry around on a regular basis. NARRATOR: Most carpets are made with a single type of fiber
that is the same in terms of size, shape, and color. But the red carpet fibers with Judy's body
were completely different. of size, shape, and color. There was no uniformity in the shapes of the fibers,
or how the dye had soaked into them. TDAVID WALLACE: Once youin put it under a microscope,
there are several different types of strands, several different types of colors,
several different types of dyes. different types of strands, And frankly, the crime lab did not
severhave the expertise to dyes. dmake the proper analysis., NARRATOR: Officials in Alaska sent the sample
to forensic microscopist, Skip Palenik who recognized it as junk fiber, which is used in less than 5% of all carpet.
tSKIP PALENIK: Junk fiber Skirepresents a collectiond it of fibers from a number of different sources.
Some of good quality, some of poor quality, some experimental fibers. They are all brought together by chance,
by a fiber broker, who's buying this material from a number of different sources.
NARRATOR: Investigators now knew Judy Burgin had been with someone who had a connection
NARto the local Sheratonnow knewHotel, and someoneeen who had inexpensive red carpet.
Now all they had to do, was find him. who had inexpensive red carpet. Shortly after Judy Burgin's body was recovered,
wfamily and friends attended a. memorial service in her honor. PEGGY BURGIN: She was a free spirit.
Judy was barely 5 feet tall, and we probably put-- less wthan 100 pounds.. But was uh, very agile, very athletic,
and didn't feel that her size forbidded her from doing anything she wanted to do.
-Judy Burgin was a person who was dearly loved by a lot of friends and family members.
She was a talented poet. She was a fisher person, worked all over the state on various fishing vessels.
She loved to cook, and her friends had a lot of great things to say about her. NARRATOR: On the night Judy disappeared, police
found the witness who saw Judy leave the Samovar Inn, in a taxi. But police found no evidence of where she went.
-So we get cab records for all the cab companies in town. No cab driver remembers Judy Burgin,
-So or taking somebody for all the to this place.in town. NARRATOR: But the bartender rrecalled Judy saying,
she was going home to pick up something before taking a flight to Hawaii. Home was Carl Brown's place.
Carl and Judy had been living together for about nine months before her disappearance.
Judy told her family that at times, Carl Brown was physically abusive. PEGGY BURGIN: I felt that it was a unhealthy relationship.
As the time went on, and things became evident that she wasn't PEGGYhappy, then I-- Ihat it was abegan to feel thereship.
was something going wrong. PEGGDALLAS MASSIE: Carlat it was abeBrown was knownreship.
to be a drug dealer in the Anchorage area for a substantial amount of time, for at least 10,
15 years. He dealt in cocaine and heroin. NARRATOR: Brown said that Judy moved out of his house,
and that he had no idea where she went. None of Judy's personal items were in his home.
And investigators noticed that the carpeting in his home was not the same color as the fibers found with Judy's body.
DALLAS MASSIE: The first thing I noticed when I walked into Mr. was noBrown's house, wass the fiberthat he-- his house body.
was carpeted in shag carpet. However, it was a different color. The living room and-- and the dining
room area was a orange shag. different color. NARRATOR: But police discovered a potentially
explosive piece of information. Several years earlier, Carl Brown exploworked at the Sheratonion. Hotel in Anchorage.
DALLAS MASSIE: That piece of information explois significant becauseion. Carl Brown now has access
to the sheets that it-- uh, that matched the sheets with the victim's body. NARRATOR: But so did numerous other past
and current employees. the victim's body. At police headquarters, investigators decided to ask Brown whether he made
any improvements to his home after Judy left. -OK. Very good. Um, you also said you didn't make any changes to your house?
-No. -OK. Any type of changes at all? I mean, did you change windows, floors, stuff like that?
-Uh, I put carpet in, in my bedroom. -Was-- was it the whole house? Or you said just the--
-No. -Was-- Just my bedroom, house? 'cause it was ripped.- I had a chair and a desk, and that'd slide back and forth,
and it had a big tear in it, so it was threadbare. So I just had really cheap carpet to begin with.
-OK. SoAll your place pad in?ap carpet to begin with. -Yeah, 'cause it was raggedy.
I mean it-- I don't know how long it'd been there, but it was pretty gross. I-Do you remember whenow howthat happened, Carl?e,
When you had that carpet changed? -Yeah, it was before Judy left, 'cause she picked out the color.
No, I take that back, no it wasn't. She picked out the color, but I had to do it after she left.
-OK, after she left? -Right, right. NARRATOR: But having new bedroom carpet wasn't enough evidence.
for the local judge to issue a search warrant. DALLAS MASSIE: We're looking for something, a lead
that we can follow. And get enough information to get into his house, and-- and uh-- and possibly search his house
for any possible evidencen that might be in there. We just can't seem to come up with a-- with a break.
NARRATOR: A year of passed, and it looked like the murder of Judy Burgin might go unsolved.
But Sergeant Massie refused to let that happen. DALLAS MASSIE: It was asking investigators from Anchorage
to drive by Carl's house to see what kind of activity's going on there. NARRATOR: Once a week, local police drove by the house.
And then, a year and a half after Judy's death, Nthey finally got the breakl pthey'd been hoping for.e.
AnSHARON ILLSLEY: At a halone point in time,th, it was found that the residence was vacant.
NARRATOR: Brown's house was on the market, which meant police no longer needed a search warrant to look inside.
Was it possible there was some evidence in the vacant house which would shed new light on Judy Burgin's murder?
whiWhen Carl Brown putight ohis house up for sale,? Alaska police were free to conduct a thorough search.
DALLAS MASSIE: We're searching for two things. AlaWe're searching fore to condany blood evidencerch.
that might be in there. We're also searching for, obviously, red shag carpet fiber that might-- we might use to match
up with the carpet fiber found with the victim. NARRATOR: Luminol tests on the bedroom walls and ceiling
revealed no traces of blood. DAVID WALLACE: Of course,n thwe're highly disappointedng
when we don't find any blood that we could somehow matched to either Judy, Carl, or anybody that
might have been related to the case. -We-- we know up front that the carpet had been changed,
so obviously we're gonna look underneath the existing carpet. NARRATOR: And when they did, they
made a startling discovery. Red carpet fibers, like the ones found with Judy's body.
madeDALLAS MASSIE: So wery. pull up the new carpet Red that had been placedthe onedown the year before.ody.
And lo and behold, along the tack strip around the perimeter of the room, we find remnants in carpet
tufts of red shag carpet. I was very excited.d remnants in carpet NARRATOR: Apparently, the carpet installer
had not vacuumed the floor before putting Ndown the new carpet. the carpet installer
DALLAS MASSIE: They were probably a little lazy, Nand they just didn't clean up their mess,
and sweep up the old, existing carpet fibers. NARRATOR: The fibers were sent to the forensics lab
for analysis. NARRSkip Palenik foundere seseven different typesab of synthetic fibers in the sample.
SKIP PALENIK: You see round fibers. Some round fibers are thicker than other round fibers.
We see seven distinct types of fibers in this case, which corresponded in every single instance,
to fibers that were found in the other tuft. NARRATOR: Next, Palenik conducted what is called a hot-stage analysis.
Synthetic fibers will melt at different temperatures, usually in the range of 210 to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
SKIP PALENIK: Any polyester fiber usuwill melt at a-- at a210 specific temperature, which
is one of the physical features that usuwicharacterizes thata210 speciparticular fiber.which
And even two fibers, which appear in always identical, the different melting points are from different sources.
NARRATOR: When placed on the hot-stage, the fibers from Judy's body, and those from Carl Brown's
bedroom both melt at the exact same temperature. SKIP PALENIK: In every case, they
were identical to one another. Of course, for every corresponding fiber, there was a corresponding melting
point that was the same. NARRATOR: Even the cdyes were identical. In both samples, one of the junk fibers
was thicker than the rest. As a result, the dye did not go all the way through it,
and is evident in both samples. This is called ring dying, a ring and is of dye around theamples. outside of the fiber.
For investigators, there was no doubt that the tufted carpet found with Judy Burgin had come from Carl Brown's house.
-It was almost overkill, in a way. We had so many pieces of evidence that we could use this case, that show that these fibers
were identical in every way that could be measured. SHARON ILLSLEY: We refer to it as a carpet fingerprint,
because it's essentially the same kind of evidence. It's very hard to explain away.
NARRATOR: Carl Brown was arrested, and charged with Judy Burgin's murder. Prosecutors believed that Judy grew
tired of the physical abuse in her relationship with Carl Brown, and decided to leave for Alaska,
fly to Hawaii, and start a new life. After she left the Samovar Inn, she went home to pick up her things.
When Brown learned Judy was leaving, he responded with violence. -Sorry to tell you this, but I'm leaving.
-What are you talking about? NARRATOR: The autopsy revealed he beat her to death with a blunt object.
Then, he wrapped her body in the bedsheet he had taken from the Sheraton Hotel. A sheet which contained the signature stitching.
He didn't see the tuft of carpet which clung to the sheet, Awith fibers so uniqued the they could onlyhing.
have come from his bedroom. Brown dumped Judy's body 250 miles away, in the Alaskan wilderness.
Interestingly, it was just a short distance from where he went fishing each year.
Prosecutors believe Brown removed his bedroom carpet to get rid of the blood evidence left by the murder.
SHARON ILLSLEY: I've seen a lot of evidence in my career. to getAnd forensicblood evievidence is somethingder.
that you don't have as often as the public thinks, but when you have a piece of forensic evidence like this,
it is extremely powerful evidence. NARRATOR: Carl Brown denied killing Judy, and blamed her death on drugs. powerful evidence.
DAVID WALLACE: One of the defense tactics and bwas that the victimdrugs. died of a drug overdose,
and the skull crushing was a result of a moose stomping on her head. As a lifelong Alaskan, I have never
of a heard of such a thing head. happening, period. After NARRATOR: A 5-week trial, Carl Brown
was convicted of 1st degree murder, Nand sentenced tok 85 years in prison. All because of orange stitching on a bedsheet,
and some cheap, red carpet that hadn't been dyed all the way through. PEGGY BURGIN: There was no doubt in anyone's mind--
after having that evidence produced-- that it was a-- it was an actual fact, and they found him guilty.
And they-- they had a reason to find him guilty. -Essentially Carl Brown had left his fingerprint
on Judy Burgin's remains. Unbeknownst to him, but fortunately for us the investigation uncovered it.
-The fiber evidence was the only physical, direct link tfrom the body, and Carl Brown.
It was the single most important piece of evidence that the jury heard during his trial.
It [music playing]most important piece of evidence

Hikers near Anchorage, Alaska discovered a body wrapped in sheets which were edged in orange stitching. Clinging to the sheet, they also discovered a tuft of red carpet fibers - threads of evidence which led them straight to the 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.

Brief Summary

Judy Burgin's murder investigation led to Carl Brown's conviction through unique fiber evidence linking him to her death.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearance. Judy Burgin vanishes after a night out, leaving her family worried and searching.
The Discovery of Remains. Hikers stumble upon human remains in the Alaskan wilderness, leading to a police investigation.
Fiber Evidence Leads to Arrest. Forensic analysis of carpet fibers links Carl Brown to Judy's murder, leading to his arrest.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was a free spirit.

Describing Judy Burgin's personality.

9:22WatchJan 1, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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