Intriguing Evidence | “48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[Music] Powerful opening statements in the Hollywood overdose murder trial. David
Pier sent Brandt Osborne on trial for the deaths of two women. Model Christy Giles and her architect friend Hilda
Cabralis. This trial will not change what happened and will not bring my sister back or Christy.
Christy's plan for the evening was to go out with some friends and have a fun night. Aloha.
My name is Yanselia and Chrissy was my wife. Christy loved to spread joy and laughter
wherever she went. Hilda Marcela just moved from Mexico. She seemed very lovely and they were
becoming fast friends. My sister did enjoy going out to parties. She liked dancing and the
music. I remember seeing her Instagram. She was posting stories of that night. She sent me a couple of text messages.
Her last text message to me was around 1 or 2 a.m. And throughout the day, I was
trying to text her and there was no response. You're tracking Chrissy's phone. Yeah. Is this an address that you
recognize? It's not an address I know. Around 5:00 p.m. I saw her location had suddenly moved to an emergency room
hospital. My level of panic was growing and growing. I just knew that I had to try and get to
the bottom of what happened. You blast out this address and very quickly you get responses. Yeah. What are those
responses? That there's somebody that lives at this location that is a very unsavory person. David Pierce. Yeah.
He passed himself off as a big shot Hollywood producer, but he was a con man with an alleged history of sexual
assault. It wasn't clear what happened. We just knew she overdosed. And to me, my
reaction was, who did this to her? So when you heard overdose, you immediately thought drugged. Yeah, drugged. here.
Definitely not something that she would have done to herself ever. That's just not her.
Got a call at home. Apparent overdose. Christy, she she was deceased. Hilda was still on life support at that time. I
give as much information as I can to the detectives. Yan had put a number of things out on social media and it spread
like wildfire. People recognized this guy right away and they were urged to to call us.
Authorities say seven more women have come forward claiming Pierce sexually assaulted them as well. JD number one,
Jane Do number two, Jane Doe number three, number four, number five, number six, number seven. Being a Jane Doe, we
are the voice of both Christy and Hilda because they can't talk. Defendant Pierce wanted them to die. He wanted
them to die because dead girls don't talk. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] for a fresh case. It's all on you.
There's no no one else is going to solve this thing for you. It's you and your partner. That's it.
And in November 2021, Detective Jonathan Vanderly and Detective Calvin Yu had to
figure out why a lifeless woman was left at this emergency room. This video from Southern California
Hospital shows staff pulling a woman out of a black Prius and helping her onto a
stretcher while two men look on. When the stretcher moves into the ER, it becomes clear the car has no license
plates. Detective Vanderly would later learn that the two men told the staff they found the woman quote passed out on
the curb somewhere nearby and they were trying to be good Samaritans. They left without giving their names or phone
numbers. They were mass disguised. This must be adding up to something that sounds very
sketchy to you. very sketchy, but then you still have to figure out if an actual crime occurred.
The woman was Christy Giles, and her mother, Dusty, will never forget the call that came from the hospital,
telling her 24 yearear-old daughter was dead from a drug overdose. And I said, "What do you mean she didn't make it?"
And then I hung up and I fell apart. Two hours later, at a hospital just 2 miles away, a second woman was left at
another emergency room by the same two men, also in a black Prius, and wearing masks. They never give their names,
never leave their phone numbers, license plates, anything like that. That was Hilda Marcella Cabales. The 26-year-old
architect was still alive in the ICU and fighting for her life. And in Durango, Mexico, her mother, Hilda Marcella
Placencia, was getting the news about her eldest daughter and namesake. She was very bad. She was intubated.
You are a doctor. What was going on in your mind at the time? What happened? What What happened to her? Why is she
that bad? And in the earliest hours of the investigation, there were only questions. How could this happen to
Christy? It was an unimaginable ending to a life bursting with exuberance. Let's do some down.
Christy was an adventurer, traveling the world as a high fashion model for Willamina.
She ultimately made LA her home. Christy Giles. I live in Venice, California and
I am an artist. At 21, her life took a dramatic turn. She met Yan Silier, a South African-born artist, photographer,
and special effects editor, 17 years her senior. They'd been together 7 months when the couple went to Burning Man, an
arts festival in the Nevada desert, where impulsively they took a big leap. We just decided to alope. We just got
married right there. [Music] We said to each other that, you know, life's very short. So, we kind of really
just proposed to each other and the next day we got married. After they got married, Christy started
studying interior design in Los Angeles, which led to a new friendship with Hilda
Marcella. Hilda had just moved there to start her dream job, recalls her father,
Louise. I feel very happy for her but very sad for me because we we are very close.
No one was surprised that the kumlady graduate of the prestigious university in Montter Mexico
was thriving in LA especially her sister Fernanda. She was always making a lot of
friends, talkative, outgoing, just having a good time and meeting people that they also like the music that they
are also enjoying uh dancing, dancing, as this video shows is what the two friends were doing that night.
Christiey's husband, Yan, was out of town visiting his father. He knew she and Hilda had planned a girls night out,
starting at Soho House and then onto a warehouse party after midnight to see a favorite DJ. A friend who was with them
said they did ketamine, a popular club drug. But by the next day, Yan was on his way
home knowing Christy was gone. In less than 24 hours, your world was turned upside down. Shattered. Yeah.
Hilda's father and mother rushed to be by her side. When they arrived, they found their daughter on life support. My
heart broke in thousand pieces because I saw my my baby and conscience. I'm fighting for her life.
I said, "Is this real? Am I dreaming?" I took her hand and I said, "Mom's here with you. You're not alone."
Christiey's autopsy revealed that in addition to ketamine, she had cocaine, fentanyl, and GHB, known as the date
rape drug, in her system. Are these drugs that Christy would take willingly? I mean, that combination of drugs sounds
deadly to me. So, like, no. Yan needed answers. So, he began to build a timeline based on the digital
trail Christy left behind. Information gathered from her messages and phone, which he was able to track. I wanted to
get to the bottom of exactly what happened that night. He already knew what she'd been doing before she went
out for the evening. She was enjoying a lovely sunset. She took our cat for a walk on the beach.
Sand panther. S. Oh. Those were the last pictures she sent me of herself. And she said, "I wish you were here and
I will forever wish that I was there, too." Yan was able to track Christiey's phone
to a residence located at 8641 West Olympic Boulevard. At 5:30 a.m., Christy sends Hilda a wideey emoji and
says, "Let's go." Hilda replies, "I'll call an Uber 10 minutes away." The fact that they're both in the same house text
messaging each other they need to leave is very worrying. That was the last text message that
Christy or Hilda ever sent. That Uber arrived, waited five minutes, and drove away empty. How did you process that? I
mean, it's just confirming my worst fears again that they were there at that place against their will.
[Music] What's going on in your mind from that detective standpoint when you're about
to arrive at a scene? You don't want to form an opinion prior to getting there, but you are kind of mulling over the
evidence. You're thinking about it. You're thinking about what questions you want
to ask. Acting on information supplied by Yan, LAPD detective Jonathan Vanderly and his
partner headed here to 8641 West Olympic Boulevard a little after midnight on November 14th, only a few hours after
getting that call from the second hospital. And this is where the Uber that Christian and Hilda called that
night would have waited right out front. Yep. 10 minutes between life and death.
That's all it takes. It was the home of 39year-old David Pierce. Police would learn Christian
Hilda had met him for the first time at that warehouse party. Police also discovered Pierce had a registration for
a black Prius and found it parked behind the building. It matched the car seen at
both hospitals down to the black rims. Pierce lived on the second floor with a roommate, Brandt Osborne, 42. There was
a light on in the upstairs where the two men live. So I just went up, knocked on
the door. Immediately the lights go out. You identify yourself? Yes, completely.
LAPD opened the door and then just complete silence. After about 15 minutes, he says Pierce
and Osborne came out. Pierce denied owning a Prius. So I immediately get a lie. Do you leave?
No, I I interview Mr. Osborne. At first, he says Osborne denied seeing Christy and Hilda at all. He keep
changes the stories numerous times. At first, there's no girls had been at that location whatsoever. I tell him on the
interview, um, I listen, I know you're lying. It's extremely obvious you're very nervous.
Vanderly says Osborne eventually admitted the women had been at their apartment, but said he'd been asleep and
when he woke up realized Christy and Hilda were in distress. He said he and Pierce chose to go to two separate
hospitals because quote, "We didn't know how it would look." Pierce, police say,
did later admit he owned the Prius, but lied again, saying his license plates had been stolen. Vanderly says he saw
those plates on the ground by the vehicle. Then the man agreed to let detectives
inside. Two beds have been stripped. There was a washing machine that had been recently used. It was still wet.
Anything else that stands out to you? There was a safe in his room with baggies, which is indicative of of
narcotics. He said they're for crafts. For arts and crafts. By now, Vanderly says he knew Pierce and
Osborne had dropped Hilda and Christy off and believed Pice had drugged them, but he didn't have enough evidence to
make an arrest. He thought he beat us that night for sure. He was happy. He smiled and said goodbye. Yeah. Thanks,
detectives. Yep. But that wasn't where it ended for you. No, not by a long shot.
Vanderly knew he needed more evidence and turned to his colleague, Detective Calvin Yu. You hear the name David
Pierce. What goes on in your mind? Well, the first thing is who did he sexually assault this time?
Detective U had investigated Pierce in 2020 for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old. She was uh raped while she
was unconscious. The victim said PICE had given her drugs to knock her out during a date, but the investigation had
stalled and wasn't prosecuted at the time. Detective U knew Pierce had other prior charges, including another rape
charge from 2014 that was also not prosecuted. He has a pattern. His first step is
trying to find his victim. So that could be through a dating app, through online
listings, or meeting them at bars or events. When he picks his victim, he goes to step two, which is bragging
about himself. Pierce relies on lies. Detectives say to set his trap. You need to introduce himself as a producer,
doctor, all these different things. He's none of these things. I think he might have been an intern at the time or
something at a production company. An intern. Yeah. They say his next step is to drug his
victims and incapacitate them, often with a drink. After they take this drink, he goes to step four, which is
the sexual assault. Police would learn both Christy and Hilda showed signs of sexual assault, but they feared they
would face challenges making the case. How difficult is it to prove a crime took place when the victims were
recreationally using drugs? This makes the case extremely hard. I told Yan early on that this was going to be a
near impossible a case to prove. [Applause] Yeah. At first it's who done it. It just became what actually happened
and that's what was the difficulty of this case. Detective Jonathan Vanderly says the
pressure was on to locate any evidence of what happened after Christian Hilda met David Pierce that night.
Video starts expiring these DVRs. It's a constant. You got to get this evidence before it disappears.
[Music] Police did have some luck. Starting with this footage from outside that warehouse
party, which they say shows the women leaving with Pierce Osborne and a friend of
theirs, 47-year-old Michael Ansbach, on their way to Pierce's apartment. Police also uncovered this text exchange
from moments earlier when the women were still inside that party. "Do you want Coke?" asks Hilda. "Yes," replies
Christy. Hilda texted back, "I'm in the kitchen. Let's do a line." Witnesses say
Pierce supplied that cocaine, which Jan says was not a common choice for Christy. Maybe it was late at night and
she wanted to get less tired. It's not something she would do regularly. Police determined the group arrived at
Pierce's apartment a little after 5:00 a.m. The women aren't seen again until 11 hours later when at 4:30 in the
afternoon, a security camera recorded this grainy image showing Pierce with Christy over his shoulder at the top of
the stairs. Police say Osborne is carrying her bag. 35 minutes later at the hospital, PICE, wearing a black
sweatshirt, helps take Christiey's body out of the car. Osborne looks on. A full hour and a half later, this dark
image shows the men leaving the apartment again with Hilda. Police say Pierce is carrying her and Osborne has
her boots and coat. Half an hour later, the Prius arrives at that second hospital where the men take Hilda out of
the car together. It had been more than 13 hours since Christy texted Hilda, "Let's go."
[Music] For 2 weeks, Hilda was on life support. With no hope of regaining consciousness,
her family gathered to say their goodbyes. Hilda, what were your final moments with
your daughter? They were so hard, you know. And I just was asking God to not let her
suffer more. I remember telling her that you can leave and just thanking her for being my
sister. I told her, "Maybe when I pass away, I will see you again. and I give you a big hug, a kiss.
The family decided to donate Hilda's organs. Her mom remembers the medical staff lining the halls as the family
accompanied Hilda to the O. The medical team was clapping to honor her, to say, "Thank you for
giving life to others. Like Christy, Hilda had suffered a drug overdose. Toxicology reports would later
reveal that she had cocaine, MDMA, or ecstasy, and elevated levels of fentanyl in her system.
Police would also learn that while the women were in that apartment, the downstairs neighbor heard someone in
pain and moaning on and off for 6 hours. Police believe that was Hilda. Neither Pierce nor Osborne nor Ansbach called
for help. It makes me get angry because she was suffering and nobody nobody helped her.
How hard is it to prove this narrative when the victims can't even testify on their own behalf? If we were just
investigating Christian Hills alone, very difficult. But the district attorney at the time went public, asking
other women who knew Pierce to call in so police could better understand what he did to Hilda and Christy. If you feel
comfortable moving forward so that we can evaluate your case and charge it, we're here for you. We started getting a
lot of calls. As police continued building their case, Yan received a call that Pearson Osborne
were on the move. He recorded this video of the men loading up a moving van the day after Hilda died.
Police say Pierce had also changed his phone number and it took them a week to locate him again. So, the pressure is
on. You got to get this guy. I got to come up with something quick. Yes. Police have arrested three men in
connection with the deaths of a model and her friend last month. On December 15th, 2021, David Pierce,
Brandt Osborne, and Michael Lansbach were arrested in connection with Hilda and Christiey's deaths. The detectives
still knew next to nothing about what had happened inside that apartment. Vanderly says they decided to take a
gamble and bring the men in. this is the only way we're going to get the info we
need. Once the men were in custody, police conducted interviews with them one by one. Kind of played with the
rotation and uh it worked out exceedingly well. They secretly recorded Pierce and Osborne while Ansbach was
talking to police. Pierce says, "I hope Ansbach's not up there telling him I gave them drugs and wine."
When it was his turn, Pierce denied giving the women drugs. He was told there was like a very bad batch of
fentanyl that was going around. This was suspicious because information that the
women had likely died from fentanyl had not been released. I knew these girls died from fentanyl, but nobody else
knew. Two months after his arrest, Ansbach reached out to police with details of what he says he witnessed
that night. He says Pierce had offered the women a ride to an afterparty and then said he needed to make a quick stop
at his house. Ansbach says Pierce was very insistent they stay and have a drink. And after the women talked about
leaving, Pice gave all three of them so-called special cocaine. Ansbach says he, Christy, and Hilda got sick
immediately. And when he woke up hours later, he saw Christy without any signs of life. Ansbach says he told Pierce to
take Christy and Hilda to the hospital and says PICE then said repeatedly, quote, "Dead girls don't talk."
I wouldn't say survivor. I'm a fighter. That's what I am. But police had at least one woman who
could talk about David Pierce at his upcoming trial. He asked me if I wanted a drink, but it tasted really funny. And
then I don't remember the next several hours after that. [Music] January 9th, 2025. Opening arguments
begin in the trial of David Pierce, charged with felony murder, and Bran Osborne, charged with accessory after
the fact. The evidence will show that the defendant knowingly gave Hilda and Chrissy GHB and fennel knowing that it
was dangerous to their lives, knowing that it could kill them, but he just didn't care. Defendant Osborne helped
him get rid of any evidence to implicate defendant Pierce in the deaths of Chrissy and Hilda. Prosecutor Katherine
Mariano has marshaled the forensic evidence to make her case. The toxicology results that found fentanyl
in both women and the date rape drug GHB and Christy. Also, Pice's DNA discovered
on Christiey's body and under Hilda's fingernails. This is no accident. This is no mistake. But in order to
prove felony murder, she must show that Pierce incapacitated Christy and Hilda to rape them. Without their testimony,
she needs to establish he had a history of doing this to other women, putting drugs in their drinks, and then sexually
assaulting them. He didn't care whether they had lived or died. All he cared about was taking an advantage of them.
Here's where there's a problem. But defense attorney Jeff says the fact that Christy and Hilda were using drugs
before meeting Pierce that night means there is no case for murder. These young ladies unfortunately ingested fentanyl
and they died. It's a shame, but Mr. Pierce didn't kill him. V is sixth in a long line of lawyers who have
represented David Pierce in this case. He knows his client is problematic. He's very demanding. He's very sure of
himself. What David Pierce wants, David Pierce gets. He pushes her onto the bed.
Mariano has her own version of who David Pierce is based on the accounts of the women who talked to investigators and
chose to be anonymous. Jane number one, Jane do number two, Jane Doe number three, number four, five or six, number
seven. It was important for me to come forward and you know get any information I could
regarding this file man. Jackie is Jane do number two. No cameras were allowed in the courtroom for any of the
testimony, but she agreed to talk with us about her experience with Pierce in 2010 when she was a 24year-old law
student looking for a room to rent. She testified about her meeting with Pierce at his apartment on West Olympic
Boulevard where he gave her a tour and offered a drink. I started to spin and you know I I just became like
disoriented. You drink this drink, you start to feel dizzy, I'm sure confused. What happens next? So the next thing I
know um he was, you know, basically trying uh I would say trying to rape me. So I started fighting him back.
According to Jackie, he continued to assault her. He threw me onto the floor. He punched me in the face. When she
tried to take her phone out, he grabbed her arm so hard the phone flew and smashed into the wall. Unsteady on her
feet and unable to call for help, she did everything she could to escape. I had to crawl down the stairs. I was so
disoriented and crawled down West Olympic Boulevard to my car, screaming for help.
Though seriously injured and traumatized, she did not report it. There's a huge stigma that surrounds
women that come forward with sexual assault. But when she heard about Christy and Hilda, she decided to act.
In all, 20 women came forward. Pierce was charged with seven sexual assaults. Detective Calvin Yu thinks that's just a
fraction of those who suffered at the hands of David Pierce. Are there more Jane Does out there? Yes, I would
definitely say so. How many do you believe? As a hundred. 100red? That's incredible. And that's just based on the
people that you have spoken with directly. Yes. I'm just so grateful that they came forward and I can't even
imagine how the level of bravery that you have to have in order to testify to a room of strangers that you were so
intimately violated. And as the women testified one by one, defense attorney V could see what was happening. The
prosecution strategy was working. The victims coming to court testifying, some who broke down in tears, all gave the
same testimony. And I am watching the jury. They're looking at him and the expression on the juror's faces are
like, "How could you? How could you do this?" After the Jane Doe's testified, the
prosecution called Pierce's friend, Michael Ansbach, who was in the apartment that night and later arrested
along with Pierce and Osborne. Ansbach took this video of Christy and Hilda minutes after Pierce gave them
wine and cocaine at the apartment. Christiey's lying on the couch. It looks like she's on her way to becoming
unconscious. In his testimony, Ansbach again said he also used the same cocaine, got
violently ill, and then passed out. When he woke up, he said PICE asked him to check on Christy, and when he did,
Ansbach said it looked like she was not breathing. Hilda, he said, was in Pierce's bedroom.
According to Ansbach, this is when Pierce told him, "Dead girls don't talk." Like Pierce and Osborne, Ansbach never
called for help. His charges were later dropped. On day 11 and against the advice of his
attorney, David Pierce, who pleaded not guilty, was sworn in and testified. So he got on the stand and he did his
best to try to say everybody was wrong and he was right. He was apparently the only one telling the truth at the entire
trial. On the 12th day, here's his roommate Brandt Osborne, who also pleaded not
guilty, takes the stand. So Osborne's role was to help get rid of the bodies first and foremost.
He helped carry the girls at first. He helped formulate the plan in terms of what they're going to tell the security
guards. Osborne testified he was dumbfounded by Pierce's behavior and was emotional,
crying more than once on the stand, saying he played no part in a coverup because he didn't have a complete
picture of what was really going on. Jan, for one, was not buying it. He's basically claiming to be an
innocent bystander in the situation and that he's also a victim in the situation, but there are facts that
prove that he helped David Pierce cover it up. The question is whether the jury will believe either man.
After 3 weeks, the trial took a toll on Christy's family. We sat and had to hold our mouth closed
while they battered and I feel like they destroyed my daughter's reputation. Uh,
it was definitely difficult being in the same room as them. Did I have an overwhelming urge to throw
something really hard at their heads? Yeah. In closing, prosecutor Mariano hits back
at the defense. Just because Christy and Hilda did drugs on their own that night
doesn't make them responsible for their own deaths. David Pierce took care of that. Mariano argued he didn't care
about violating them in the most awful way. He didn't care that by drugging Chrissy
and Hilda that they could die. And she repeats the words of Ansbach attributed to David Piers. The words that rang in
the ears of everyone who loved Christy and Hilda. He wanted them to die because dead girls don't talk.
Hey, good afternoon everybody. Attorneys for Osborne and Piers told jurors there
simply was not enough direct evidence linking them to the crime and that there's a strong case for reasonable
doubt. Now it's up to the jury to draw its own conclusion about Brandt Osborne and
David Pierce. Just Giles made her decision a long time ago. Pierce is a sick, slimy lizard that sits
and prays and sneaks and his bite is deadly. As we're sitting here waiting on the
verdict for the case, I just want to um I'm here for her till the end. For Christiey's family, it's been a long
and wrenching road to get here. For you, what does justice for Christy look like?
I mean, there's no justice for Christy. There's only preventing him from doing it again.
I think that's the only justice we can get. And for Hilda's mother, who could not travel to be in court, the last 3
years without her daughter, have been its own trial. Nothing can bring her back again, but
the hole she lives in our lives will be always there. February 4th, 2025. After 2 days of
deliberations, the jury is back. Matter of the people of the state of California
versus David Brian Pierce. We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant David Brian Pierce guilty of
the crime of first-degree murder upon Christy Guiles. David Pierce guilty. We get that guilty on the first one and
sigh of relief. Guilty of the crime of first-degree murder upon Hilda Marcella Cabraas Arzola. Hilda comes up guilty
again. Another sigh of reliefs and then guilty of all the sexual assaults of seven Jane Does. I don't think I
breathed at all until I heard a guilty on every single one. A lot of relief, not just for my sake, but definitely for
all of the victims. Jane Does finally had their day in court and were believed. I felt this huge weight
released off me. It was almost like a euphoric feeling. We showed the jury what kind of
man this is. But the jury is deadlocked when it comes to Brandt Osborne. A mistrial is
declared. I was surprised, definitely disappointed at at the hung jury. Um I thought the trial made clear that he had
a definitely a hand in their death. What is there to question? He was aware of Christiey's
and Hilda's condition. He's a grown man that stands on his own two feet. He withheld medical help from
Hilda and Christy until they were dead. I'm not happy they perfectly could save her life and they chose to not do it for
me. That's not justice. At least in that part. I am here standing for me and Hilda's mom Marcela.
Now there's an unbreakable bond between the mothers who must live without their daughters. Our daughters individually
were like soul sisters. Both of them lost their souls at the hand of the same man, same way. And that will be forever
entwined. And before she leaves the courthouse, there is a final plea from Dusty. As
much as it hurts to lose my baby girl, her body was able to tell the story and her sharing her location. Technology
told us where she was, how long she was. So please within your own families share
locations. You never know when you're going to not be able to get in touch with somebody. When you look at photos of
Christian Hilda, what do you see? I see beauty. I see myself when I was 24. I will remember them as strong,
independent women. I'll remember them as beautiful souls, free spirits, women that were coming to
LA to pursue their dreams. Two young women who loved their families, [Music] their animals
and their lives. I want to remember her as the bright, beautiful soul that she was.
[Music] Fernanda, how do you hope your big sister is remembered? as someone who had
a lot of dreams, ambitions, very intelligent, funny. She was happy to be alive. [Music]
[Music] Need more time with 48 Hours? Go deep behind every true crime episode with
firstirhand accounts from 48 Hours Investigations. Were you at all prepared for what happened in this case? Shock is
the word that comes to mind. Get inside the twists and turns and get in on the case. Listen to Postmortem from 48
Hours, now available wherever you get your podcasts. Now, a special two-part edition of 48
Hours. [Music] Four young women, three murdered, one left to tell the story. The Hollywood Ripper. He's been called a
serial sexual thrill killer. Hollywood 2001. A 22-year-old believed to be actor Ashton Coocher's girlfriend is stabbed
to death. They were going to be hanging out. The injuries that she suffered were
horrific. El Montei, California 2005. [Music] A 32year-old woman is stabbed in her
home. There was slashing and cutting. There were multiple stab wounds, not just a couple.
Santa Monica, 2008. A young woman is woken up by a man attacking her with a knife. She was
stabbed multiple times in her chest and shoulder and and right arm. She fought. She stood up and she fought. They were
all young. They were all attractive. They were all female. The media started calling him the
Hollywood Ripper. But had he killed others? That was the question investigators more than 1,800 miles away
outside Chicago had been wrestling with. It would take a 48 hours investigation to find the answer. Where was the
window? Was this window outside Chicago 1993? The murder happened here in the middle
of the night. Someone jumped out of the bushes and stabbed 18-year-old Trisha Picacio to death.
My daughter Trisha was murdered when she was 18 years old. [Music] I was the one who found her.
I woke up and I had a cup of coffee and I was going out to my van and I just happened to see two little tennis shoes
sticking up by the side door. And when I saw it was her, I dropped the coffee cup.
[Music] Who would do this to her? Why would anybody do this? She was a nice girl.
I died right then and there. [Music] We were told that we have to understand that some murders go unsolved.
And I was like, there is no way somebody is going to come to my door, outside my
door, and do this and get away with it. He's cold. He's devious. He's a predator. And we've got ourselves a
serial killer. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] They never saw it coming.
Trisha, Ashley, Maria, Michelle. The trial of an accused serial killer has dominated the headlines here in Los
Angeles. He is known as the Hollywood Ripper. May it please the court. The methodical and systematic slaughter
of women. That's what this case is about. It is not overstating it to say this is
a sensational murder trial. Ashton Ashton on the witness list. Ashton Kutcher. He was scheduled to go on a
date with one of the victims the night she was murdered. Ashton Kutcher talked about what would have been his first
date with one of the murder victims. For me, this story begins near my home just outside Chicago.
One question has haunted this quiet Glen View community. Who killed Trisha Picacio and why?
The murder of Trisha Picacio is a case we've been working on since the summer of 2008. It took years to gain her
parents' trust. That maybe somehow by telling Trisha's story, we could help catch her killer.
It wasn't long after sunrise. So the morning of August 14th, 1993, I was going out to my van and when I saw it
was her, [Music] I ran over there and saw what happened to her. Rick Pacio had just walked out the garage when out
of the corner of his eye, he saw his 18-year-old daughter, Trisha, spled out on the landing stabbed to death. I tried
to revive her. That is the worst feeling in your life when you can't do nothing for somebody
you love. I remember just waking up to this blood curling scream of my father and it was,
"Doug, call 911. and Doug call 911. Trisha's brother, Doug, I don't really want to describe the details of of what
I saw. That's okay. I have nightmares about it all the time. The police arrived and Rick had to make a difficult
call to his wife Diane. He called me at work and said, "You have to come home. Trish is hurt." I heard a lady screaming
and the mother had just exited her vehicle and she was running towards Trish. Officer Ray Cavic saw her pull up and I
basically tackled her and I didn't want her to see Trish like this and remember her daughter like that. Who would do
this to her? There is nobody that knew her that would do this to her. My daughter never did anything to put
herself in harm's way. You She was the type of girl that you knew where she was, what she was doing, and you never
had to worry about her. Trisha was also the type of girl who made the most of high school. She took
calculus, was on the debate team, and played clarinet in the band. At the time of her murder, she was just a few days
away from moving on to the next chapter in her young and exciting life as a freshman at Purdue University.
She had a great attitude about everything and she knew what she wanted out of life.
Were you close with her? Trisha was an amazing girl. was probably one of the most energetic and happy
people I've ever seen. Trisha's close friend, Karen Jones, spent a lot of time at the Picacio House. Her mom was very
caring and treated us all like her children. Trisha's younger brothers, 17-year-old Doug and 13-year-old Tommy,
often had their friends over. I fed the whole neighborhood. Everybody ate there.
They were just a very warm family. On the night of August 13th, Karen, Trisha, and most of the kids from their
senior class went out, one last harrah for the summer. That night, a whole group of us got together for a scavenger
hunt party. One of the final parties of the summer before we all went off to college, we ended things at the
restaurant and people started getting in their cars to go home. Police believe it was around 1:00 a.m.
as Trisha walked toward the side door of the house, keys in hand, that the killer
grabbed her left arm, twisting and breaking it and then stabbing her 12 times. I remember my chest just sink the
minute I realized that she was gone and there was nothing I could do to help her. Detectives interviewed dozens of
people. Some parents were too afraid to even let their kids talk. No one seemed to know anything. There were no leads,
no arrests. To be honest, I think we were zonked out for a long, long time. People talk about closure.
My experience is there is no closure. That void is always there. Rick Picacio also had no idea how to go
on living in the same house where he had found the butchered body of his beautiful daughter. The family moved out
for 4 years. Eventually, they decided it was time to come back home. Shortly after, they had an unexpected
visitor. Former high school football player Michael Garulo, one of Doug Picacio's
closest childhood friends. Michael you've known since he was how old? Since probably he was in second grade. Because
he lived on the next street. Michael showed up at the door. And he says, "I need I need to talk to Rick."
And I said, "Well, he's at work, Michael." And he said, "Well, can I wait for him?" I said, "Yes." He sat and
waited for over an hour for him to come home from work. Sat at my kitchen table.
I remember walking in the garage door and I looked at him. He he had this look on his face like he was going to say
something to me. But before Michael Garulo had a chance to say anything, the garage door opens. His father and one of
his sisters come in and say, "We have to leave, Michael." And they picked him up
and whisked him out and the door closed. And I told Diane, I says, "Golly, that that was kind of odd." But the look on
his face, Moren, at that point, Rick, did you think this kid knows something? Or maybe he even had something to do
with it? Yes. You believe that was the moment that you started to think Michael Garulo may have
had something to do with doubt about it. The Pacios told authorities, but it was
too late. Michael Garulo had disappeared. [Music] Soon after he left Chicago, Mike Arjulo
turned up in Los Angeles. Like a lot of other dreamers, he wanted to be an actor or a model.
[Music] Anthony Dorenzo and Teamer Liry worked with Mike Arjulo in the late 90s. They
were all bouncers together at a Hollywood nightclub called the Rainbow Bar and Grill.
What did he tell you he was doing out here? Acting and modeling. Isn't everybody? Right. He's doing the
Hollywood thing. He's doing the Hollywood thing. Yeah, he sure is. Did he have a girlfriend at the time when
you were all hanging out? He always had girlfriends. He always had girls after. He was a good-looking, clean cut guy.
You know, the waitresses were always after. But Garulo moved on from the nightclub and began working for a
heating and cooling company. Who was the first one among you to meet Michael Garulo?
I was Chris Duran, Jennifer Disto, and Justin Peterson spoke to us in 2010. They were the kind of good friends most
young people would be attracted to. Really the connection between this big group of friends was kind of partying
and having a great time. Very free-spirited lifestyle, right? We were young. Their introduction to Mike Garulo
started with a flat tire. I'm changing my flat tire and this guy comes walking down the street.
He was good-looking. He stopped and offered to help me change a tire. At the same time, 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin
came out of the house she was renting on the street. Mike Garulo noticed and Ashley was standing there with me and he
was good-looking. She's beautiful. I was like, "No, it's okay. I don't I know how
to change a tire." So, he stood there talking to Ashley and they were, you know, talking and flirting. They
exchanged numbers and that was our first meeting. Did you have any feeling about
him one way or the I mean, he was just, you know, good-looking guy walking down the street offering to help. Ashley
Ellerin, the young woman Mike Argulo had immediately noticed, was a part-time fashion student. She was amazing. I
mean, she just had this charisma to her that she could go into a room and walk into the room and just take complete
control over the room. And she was just beautiful and and fun and spontaneous. She had a lot of friends. Ashley was a
22-year-old, you know, attractive girl living in the Hollywood Hills. And she liked to have fun. Absolutely. She liked
to have fun. We had a lot of fun. The guy they only knew as Mike kept trying to spend time with Ashley.
He called the house a lot after their runin. Called and had begun just showing up uninvited.
Seeing that we were hanging. The friends say one night he walked into the house during a party, sat down and was laser
focused on Ashley, but Ashley was not interested. Back then, lots of men were interested in her. Hollywood is
Hollywood. Interacting with celebrities, that is how it is. I mean, they live here. One celebrity in particular had
started following Ashley. It was then upandcoming TV actor from that 70s show Ashton Kutcher.
Why is everything doing that? We had hung out with them a couple of times. Let's go back to the night that
Ashley was supposed to go out with Ashton Kutcher. I knew they were going to be hanging out.
The next morning, Ashley's roommate, Jen, came home. I entered the house and Ashley was
laying across the two stairs covered in blood. The body of 22-year-old Ashley Lauren Ellerin was found by her roommate
early Thursday morning. And that's when I realized that no, this is not, you know, this is not happening. Who could
have done this? [Music] When Jennifer Desisto got home that morning in 2001, she walked into a gruesome and
terrifying scene. At that point was just a like a sense of trauma just came over
me. I thought maybe the person was still there and I kind of ran out hysterical.
I dropped that phone and ended up getting to the car and calling from my cell phone. 911.
Ashley had been attacked just after taking a shower, stabbed 47 times. Her body was lying just outside the
bathroom. Had you ever seen anything like that before in your life? I I absolutely had not and it still
traumatizes me to this day. Police arrived quickly and started asking questions.
Who could who could have done this? That must have been one of the first questions that police asked you though
was was anybody angry with her? Did she have any enemies? It sounds like such a trit question, but you would think that
based on what you saw only someone who hated another person. Absolutely. Yeah. And and also it was a given from the
get-go that it was obviously someone she was either familiar with or knew to let
them in cuz as we had said the the house was kind of doublegated. You believe that Ashley let him in? Yes.
Okay. This is Ninehurst Road and this is Ashley Ellerin's uh former residence. Hollywood homicide detective Tom Small
says there was little to go on. No blood splatter outside, no pieces of clothing,
no other no material that would lead you to one particular individual. No. We had
teams of detectives searching the interior and the exterior. Uh we walked the streets, we canvased every building,
door knocked every house. Were you kind of baffled initially? Very much so. You know, we were just looking for any type
of uh direction or clues that would uh to lead to a suspect. So, we had to start with the victim and work
backwards, find out her associations. They definitely wanted to talk to the person she was supposed to be on a date
with that night. How you doing? How you doing? Congratulations. actor Ashton Kutcher. And what role has he played in
this as a as a witness in any way? He is a person in a group of Ashley's friends.
He's one of many and he was a friend of hers. Kutcher and Ashley had plans to go to
dinner, but he was running late and kept pushing back his arrival. Kutcher told detectives that at 8:24 p.m. he spoke
with Ashley, who told him she'd just gotten out of the shower. Ashton Kutcher didn't actually arrive at
Ashley's front door until around 10:45 p.m., at which point he says he was confused because the lights were on, but
no one answered. Just as he was about to leave, he glanced through a window and noticed what he thought was red wine
spilled on the floor. Turns out it wasn't wine. It was blood. Uh, it just was a very bad scene. A lot
of anger, a lot of rage. Somebody had isolated Ashley Ellerin the killer and was very, very angry when he
did it. Could anyone think of someone who wanted to hurt Ashley? Not really. Almost to a person. Ashley was
considered to be, you know, like uh the life of the party. She had a lot of friends from different
walks of life, friends from school, her roommates. Celebrity type folks. Kutcher wasn't the only man police were
interested in talking to. This is Mark Durban, a not so famous actor who was also Ashley's property manager. Durban
and Ashley were secretly having a relationship and he and Ashley had been intimate earlier that evening, but like
Kutcher, he had fully cooperated with investigators, and both men were ruled out as possible suspects.
While police had no concrete leads, Ashley's friends couldn't shake the feeling that the guy who seemed fixated
on Ashley was involved. In your initial conversation with police, did you mention Michael Garulo
to them? Uh, yes, the I didn't know his name, but the heating and air conditioning guy. And did they pay any
attention to that? I know they took note. I don't I don't think they took it very seriously or that much of a threat.
He was not in their circle of friends and they were creeped out by him. So when you hear that, does it strike a
chord with you? Well, I mean, it it takes a little bit more than that to to get focused on somebody as a suspect in
a in a case like this. Garchulu wasn't really on Detective Small's radar. Ashley had a large social circle. There
were hundreds of people to talk to and he was just the creepy air conditioner guy. It would take months for police to
learn his last name and put him on their list. Uh it weighed really heavy uh on me personally because everybody has the
case and this one was mine. My frustration was why can't I get the evidence I need
to solve Ashley's murder? Back in Cook County, just outside Chicago, Trisha Picacio's murder was
unsolved for nearly 10 years. Her mother, Diane, was relentless, hounding investigators,
at least once or twice. And did you feel like anything was being done in that time? No, but I kept thinking maybe I
just keep going and talking to them and keep telling them every little thing that came to mind. I mean it was just it
helped and it did help some of them. It helped me probably emotionally because it was almost like I could talk to them.
They under they knew what had happened. Mhm. I have the tenacity to keep going until it does happen. You're not going
to give up. I'm not going to give up. No. My daughter is going to get the representation that she deserves.
Cook County Sheriff's Detective L. Solo was assigned to the case in 1999. We had
the benefit of technology when we took the case over. By 2002, new DNA technology allowed
investigators to take a fresh look at the evidence collected from the crime scene.
We we were hoping to establish some type of DNA profile, give us an idea of a possible offender or So, what's the
first big test result you get back? The first new piece of information from this round of
DNA testing? Well, the biggest thing is when we got the unknown male contributor
from the fingernails. Male DNA found on Trisha's fingernails. Now, they had to match it. At that
point, we began the DNA campaign of everybody, including the Picassio family, her friends of hers that were
with her at the road rally that night. We even tested the dog. You even tested the dog. Yeah. Detectives wanted samples
from anyone they had talked to back in the day. and Michael Garulo was on their list. Detectives heard Garulo was now
living in Los Angeles, so they went to the LAPD for help. I had no knowledge they were even coming. By now, Detective
Small had begun to take a closer look at Michael Garulo. And uh all of a sudden,
we get a phone call. Cook Countyy's in town. He says, "Well, who who is it you're looking for?" And they named
Michael Garulo. He said, "Hey, that's that's my guy." They showed up. I held up a a photo. I said, "Is this who
you're looking for?" And they said, "Yeah, how do you know him?" I said, "Well, right now he's a potential
suspect in a in a murder investigation. What do you guys have?" Detective Small agreed to help Cook County find Gulo and
collect a DNA sample. [Music] [Music] In 2002, almost 10 years after Trisha Picacio's murder, the LAPD caught up
with Michael Garulo. We obtained Mr. Garulo's DNA sample and I and he was cooperative with that. Not
really, but it it got done. The DNA sample was sent to the Illinois State Police Crime Lab. The results were
stunning. A match. It was Michael Gulo's DNA on Trisha's fingernails. Case closed. Not exactly. Did you think it
was enough to move forward? Well, I thought it was, but uh I'm not the attorneys. Cook County Detective L
Salah. It was explained to me and and the explanation made sense at the time that they they just wanted some type of
cooperating evidence. They needed something more than that. Something more than that because they said Michael
Garulo's DNA might have gotten on Trisha in a way that had nothing to do with the
murder. At the at the time, he was a friend of the family, you know, and one would have to wonder, could it have
gotten there by casual contact? And had there been casual contact in the hours before or the day before they that she
was murdered? There was the day before. The day before her murder, Gula was driving with another friend, Scott
Olsen, when they saw Trisha. We drove past Picassio's house and who do we see around in the corner walking away from
us? There's Trisha. Mike's driving. He kind of swerves over, slows down, swerves over, gets right behind her, and
we saw she was crying. So, she's like, "Hey, give me a ride." Like, whoa, okay, sure, get in. So, she gets in the car.
Um, said, "Take her to so and so's take me to so- and so's house." So, we just we just drove her. We dropped her off
and and that was it. When we spoke to Jack Blakey from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in
2011, he confirmed that because of that ride and because Gardulo had spent time at the family home, he cannot be sure if
Garulo's DNA on Trisha was from the attack. The evidence just hasn't been there. I wish we could bring closer to
her family tomorrow. So, with nothing else tying him to Trisha's or Ashley's death, Gargulo was
only a guy who had the bad luck of knowing two different women who had been murdered in exactly the same way.
Gargulo left Hollywood and continued doing what he always did, never staying in one place for too long. How come
nobody keeps tabs on this guy? I don't know if they if they tried. My understanding was he kept kind of a low
profile. I think he knew he was on the radar. Over the next few years, Gulo had several girlfriends and even became a
father. In 2005, he settled in suburban Elmont, 20 miles east of Hollywood. Then just before Christmas that same
year in that same neighborhood, there was a murder. The victim was another attractive young woman. We're talking
about a 90 lb 32year-old woman who's defenseless asleep in her bed, in her home where if there's any one place in
the world, she should feel most secure. That attack is every woman's nightmare. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
homicide detective Mark Lilyfield. Uh this is a building where the murder happened. Behind me in apartment number
20 is where Maria Bruno lived. She had uh 2-year-old twins and then I believe a four-year-old and a 5-year-old. In the
months before her death, Maria and her husband had several violent fights, including one where her husband punched
her in the face. She left him and found an apartment in this gated complex. and she had picked that building
specifically because it was very secure. You had to either have a passcode or a key to get through the front door. So,
it was a pretty secure building. But someone got past that security. The suspect entered through the kitchen.
It appears from the evidence that he obtained a weapon there in the kitchen. A knife. Correct.
Her body was somewhat mutilated. and you just, you know, that's that's crap you see in the movies in real life. That
that is very rare. It just doesn't happen. There was very little evidence left behind except for one blue cotton booty
found in the courtyard outside Bruno's apartment. Just about where we're standing is where that blue cotton booty
was at. Right here. Yeah. Right here. Right here. And it was kind of out of place.
Actually, on the sole of the booty was a drop of blood. and DNA testing proved that in fact it was Maria's blood.
Police immediately took a hard look at Bruno's aranged husband. There was the history of a turbulent relationship and
drops of Maria's blood were found in his car. But Maria's husband told police that earlier that evening he and Maria
had decided to rekindle their relationship. They went to a restaurant where the manager confirmed Maria had
cut her finger and was bleeding as they left. And like Picacio, then Ellerin, and now
Bruno, another vicious murder eventually turned into a cold case. As for Michael Garulo, his romantic life
was once again in turmoil. He left his girlfriend and new baby in suburban LA and headed to the beach, Santa Monica.
And once again, where Garulo went, an attack eventually followed. A young woman is woken up by a man
attacking her with a knife. [Music] Santa Monica, April 28th, 2008. Another breakin, another brutal assault.
But this attack would change everything. All right. I got the call at about 12:30
in the morning from my sergeant and uh asked me to come out and uh respond to a scene of a stabbing or attempted murder.
Then Santa Monica police sergeant Richard Lewis. Um he gained access into this window which was open a few inches
and once he got inside there he then opens the front door and kind of stages it as an escape route. Um proceeds into
the bedroom where she's sleeping and uh what awakes her is a knife being plunged
into her. He just flat out stabbed her. Right. She was stabbed multiple times uh in her
chest and shoulder and and right arm and suffered several wounds to both of her hands as she's grabbing this knife as
it's being plunged down upon her. The victim was 26-year-old Michelle Murphy. What can you tell us about her?
Oh, it's an incredible young lady and uh just someone who's very resilient and uh
decided to fight. As Murphy, all of 5'11, was fighting for her life. The blade is slipping back and forth. And
somewhere in the struggle, the attacker is also cut. And at some point, there's a a lull in the action. And uh she was
able to get her feet up underneath and kick him off of her. The attacker stumbles off the bed and
out of the room, bleeding profusely from her multiple stab wounds, Murphy runs after the hooded man down the hallway to
the front door. Did he say anything to her ever? Uh, I'm sorry. He said, "I'm sorry." I'm sorry.
Then he ran out. Michelle immediately called her boyfriend who called 911. Uh, she told
me that she woke up and there was someone on top of her and she offer. [Music] Then the police call Michelle. What is
your name? It's very hard to hear her answers. The fire department is already on the way
and we're on our way. What does this person look like? You definitely like a long street like kind of thing.
Everything's a dark [Music] or something. So he comes out this door and there's blood on the steps right outside the
front door. We have some blood on the steps. Okay. And then blood on the concrete steps here leading out down
this walkway and into the alley. So, how significant in your investigation and when you showed up that night did you
think that blood was going to be? Huge. Huge. About 25 days after uh submitting my
samples to the crime lab, I'm informed by a criminalist where we actually have a hit, a DNA hit. And who does it match?
Michael Varulo conclusively. Yes, they were able to make the match because remember Garulo's DNA had been collected
for DNA testing in the Picacio case and was already on file. And guess where Garulo lived at the time of the attack.
It'd be the second building down in the uh first window. It would be just above that black trash can that you see on the
left side. He could see right into her bedroom. If she were to have the blinds open, that'd be correct. That's pretty
scary. Yes, absolutely. Within 24 hours of making that DNA match, Garulo was arrested for the assault of
Michelle Murphy. He was taken into custody. And what was his response? His response was, "Which agency is this?"
What did that say to you? That tells me a lot. tells me that uh he wasn't sure which crime he's getting charged for,
but that there was more than one out there. To me, that's what that meant. Yes. Sergeant Lewis was reminded of a
conversation he'd once had with Detective Lilyfield about a similar murder that had happened 3 years earlier
in Elante, just outside of Los Angeles. I got a call from Sergeant Rich Lewis from the Santa Monica Police Department.
He had a case that was very similar. Um, luckily his victim survived and he had identified a suspect. And it turns out
Gardulo once lived close enough to Maria Bruno to also watch her. She reported to
friends run-ins with the strange guy across the way. So, this is her apartment. And where was
Gargula's apartment located? Um, if you turn around, look, it's right over your right shoulder. It's apartment number
34. So, that is up just behind that tree. Correct. Correct. just to the right of that tree. Uh so you've got a
clear view obviously from his apartment. Now the pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to come together.
Determined investigators had discovered more evidence. Remember that blue booty found near Maria Bruno's front door? In
Gulo's old apartment just across the way. And sure enough, in the attic of the apartment, we wound up finding a
matching booty, a blue cotton booty just like the same one that we had found at the crime scene. The same manufacturer,
the same make, the same model of booty. And in that 2001 murder of Ashley Ellerin, Garulo lived only a couple of
blocks away. He was frequently seen hanging out with his dog at this park directly across the street from Ashley's
home. We had information that he's, you know, frequented the dog park, parked his
vehicle on occasion over there. Within a month, Michael Garulo was also charged with the murders of Ashley Ellerin and
Maria Bruno. [Music] When Trisha Picachio's family heard that Mike Gardulo had been arrested in LA,
they were certain he would soon be charged with Trisha's murder. But nothing happened. Then in 2011, 48 Hours
ran our first show about the so-called Hollywood Ripper and the unsolved murder of Trisha Picacio. Almost immediately
after the show aired, a witness reached out to me. I watched the show and it was
a mug shot of Mike Teamer Liry, one of Michael Garulo's bouncer buddies from Hollywood. And did you reach out to
Anthony? I did. I did. I sent him a text. Yeah, he tried. Uh, did you know Mike's a serial killer? Turns out both
Teamer and Anthony Dorenzo had led checkered lives of their own in and out of jail. But both men were now fathers
and seeing Trisha's father on 48 hours moved them. I tried to revive her. That is the worst feeling in your life
when you can't do nothing for somebody you love. I get emotional cuz I I love my
children. Uh, and when I when I look at him and I see that video to this day, I get a pain in my chest that any man
would have to miss and love their child like that. So, you're watching it and we're telling the story and you have
already know. You already know. You have pieces of the puzzle that we don't even
know exist. Yeah. I said, I advocate I have to let somebody know what I know. Here's what Teamer and Anthony knew.
They said back in 2000 when they were all working together, Michael Garulo told them he had murdered a girl in
Chicago. We're cruising down Sunset. You know, he asked us, he's like, "You guys ever kill anybody?" And he's like,
"I have." And we're like, "Shut the, you know, shut up." Yeah. Here we go again.
You know, he said he buried this. He was he was I buried a [ __ ] He goes, "I left the [ __ ] on the steps for dead."
We put them in touch with Chicago authorities and soon Michael Gardullo was indicted for the murder of Trisha
Picachio 18 years after her death. Then Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez. This new evidence that uh has
just come forward after the 48 hour episode really coupled with the DNA, we feel at this point that we have
sufficient evidence. But the Picacio's search for justice was just beginning. There was a long road
ahead, full of unexpected twists and turns. Well, see, my truth is being 100% innocent, being wrongfully charged. All
I could do is be cold and fight for my innocence. [Music] Up next, I hate you. I hate you. I hate
you. The accused Hollywood ripper faces trial. This was somebody who was going to take pleasure in plunging a knife
into their victim over and over and over again. Celebrity Ashton Kutcher takes the stand. In a surprise, both the
prosecution and the defense make him their star witness. Ashton Kutcher talked about what would have been his
first date with one of the murder victims. The case will not be easy for the DA.
Zero trace evidence, no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints. Really, they had nothing.
And the defense says there may be other killers out there. They just have to establish some reasonable doubt in the
minds of the jury and offer a bizarre story began a circular slicing motion, multiple personalities.
It was really a very strange spectacle and even possession. If you are caught red-handed doing something, you can say,
"I was there, but I wasn't." You don't want to think that a regular person, you know, can actually commit this horrific
of a crime and then just go live dayto-day. Who does that? The case of the Hollywood Ripper is not over.
Not by a long shot. It's really, really sick. This special two-part edition of 48
hours will continue. [Music] This special two-part edition of 48 Hours continues.
[Music] He's accused of attacking at least four women. He's been called a serial sexual
thrill killer. This is not a typical murder case. This is a systematic slaughtering
of beautiful women by a serial killer. Four young women, only one survivor. The Hollywood Ripper is one of the most
horrible cases I've ever seen. This is a man who spied on them, who stalked them, and then brutally stabbed
them to death. And that's defendant Michael Carulo. Ashley Ellerin, 2001. Ashley Ellerin was supposed to go on a
date with Ashton Kutcher and he rang the doorbell and nobody answered. He saw what he thought was
spilled wine all over the place. Unfortunately, we later learned that that was her blood.
Maria Bruno, 2005. Mother of four was brutally murdered inside her Elmonte apartment.
She was stabbed to death. You think she was asleep when she was attacked? I do. Michelle Murphy, 2008.
This attack would change everything. [Music] How did Michelle Murphy somehow get away
from this guy? She fought. We have some blood on the steps. Okay. And then blood on the concrete steps
here leading out down this walkway and into the alley. So, how significant did you think that blood was going to be?
Huge. We actually have a hit, a DNA hit. And who does it match? Michael Varulo. I'm Moren Maher. Since the fall of 2008,
I've been covering a man known as the Hollywood Ripper. It's a story that 48 hours helped to break wide open.
Trisha Picacio, 1993. One question has haunted this quiet Glen View community. Who killed Trisha
Picacio and why? Who would do this? Why would anybody do this? What was your reaction when you got a
phone call that a witness had come forward to 48 hours? I was shocked. I Would you have imagined that a
television show would be able to help you solve a crime? No, but it's never happened to me. Targeted young women in
Illinois and the LA area. Frankly, it's almost a miracle that these cases were linked together. You say to yourself,
"Who could do this?" Butchering his victim, attempted murder of a You think, "Oh my god, it's a monster." Vicious
murders of three young women. Murder and contempted murder. [Music] [Music] in a Now known for keeping secrets,
the murder trial of Michael Garulo, nicknamed the Hollywood Ripper, could reveal a hidden life. Trisha
Picacio, Ashley Ellerin, Michelle Murphy, and Maria Bruno were all young, attractive, and outgoing.
On May 2nd, 2019, the case against Michael Garulo begins. Prosecutors say he murdered three women and attempted to
murder a fourth. He staked them out. Mary Fuljaniti, a former federal prosecutor and 48 hours consultant. He
stalked them and then he stabbed them brutally. Prosecutor Dan Aman says Michael Gardulo
is a serial killer, attacking four women just for the thrill of it from 1993 through his arrest in 2008. What you
will hear is that Michael Garulo for almost 15 years was watching, always watching, and his hobby was plotting the
perfect opportunity to attack women with a knife in and around their homes. During those years, Garulo played high
school football, was a wannabe actor, and a repairman. It has taken Garulo longer to go to
trial than any other inmate in the history of the LA County Jail. Nearly 11 years. This is how he looks
now. There have been nearly 100 hearings. He's fired attorneys and even tried to
represent himself. Mr. Rubin and myself have the opportunity to ask questions and cross-examine. But now with the new
high-powered courtappointed legal team, the wait is over. The prosecution starts
with its strongest case and most powerful witness. Michelle Murphy in 2008 was stabbed in
her bed in her Santa Monica apartment. Right. Right across the alley from Gargulo's apartment,
after showing photos from her brutal attack, Michelle Murphy, the only woman who survived this alleged serial killer,
is called to the stand. There were no cameras allowed in court during Michelle's testimony. But we
wanted to share with you some of what she said, her exact chilling words. I grabbed at the knife. I wrapped my hands
around the blade. And at some point, 5 foot1 Michelle Murphy gets her legs up against her chest and shoves the
attacker off of the bed. She describes how he runs out of the room down the hallway. She goes after him and Michelle
says the attacker told her, "I am sorry." This is Ms. Murphy in the hospital. Michelle never saw his face,
but noticed he was left-handed. In the struggle, the attacker was also cut, leaving his blood, his DNA all over her
bedroom. Gargulo's blood and DNA were found on Michelle's bedspread and sheet and in the blood trail across the alley.
After Michelle Murphy testified, the prosecution turned to the other victims to prove Gardulo's pattern of stalking
and stabbing. Three years before Michelle's attack, Maria Bruno, a mother of four young
children, was stabbed 17 times. Maria Bruno was stabbed to death in her Elmonte residence.
There's a pool of blood. Maria Bruno's body was discovered by her estranged husband, Irving, who called 911. I'm
looking at her right now. She's dead. She just moved here about less than less than a week ago.
Gargulo lived right across the way. Gargulo entered Maria's apartment through a window,
put on blue surgical booties, and mutilated Maria with a knife as she slept. The prosecution argues that the pattern
and direction of the blood drops show that the killer was left-handed, just like Michelle's attacker and just like
Michael Garulo. And this time, the killer left something behind. A blue booty with critical
evidence. Detectives located a blue surgical booty right outside of Maria's front door. Forensic analysis showed
that there were drops of Maria's blood on the booty and Garulo's DNA was around the elastic band.
Four years before Maria, there was Ashley Ellerin, a 22-year-old fashion student in Hollywood. Gargulo, who lived
within a short distance from Ashley's house and frequented the dog park across from her house, injected himself into
Ashley's life. On February 21st, 2001, within weeks of Gargulo fixating on Ashley, surveilling
her home at odd hours, Ashley Ellerin was found stabbed to death in the hallway just outside her bathroom.
Ashley had been stabbed over 47 times. As the state lays out its explanation of how Ashley was murdered, an important
witness is about to have Hollywood's eyes upon him. This is Mr. Koocher. He's Ashley's friend.
Ashton Kutcher is used to being a star, but not a star witness. Mr. Kutcher is part of the chronology of this case that
is offered to show you that there was a very narrow window of opportunity for somebody to get into the house and
murder Ashley. Why is Koocher called as a witness? He's incredibly important to the timeline here and when the murder
possibly occurred and he may have been the last person to actually speak to her before she was killed. At trial, only
still cameras were allowed for his testimony. Kutcher is asked about his planned date with Ashley on February
21st, 2001, the evening she was murdered. At 8:24 p.m., Ashley talked to Mr. Kutcher on
the phone, and they confirmed a plan to go out that night. Ashton Kutcher was running late, so he called Ashley again
at 10:15 to let her know he was on the way. But Ashley didn't pick up. He then drove to her home, knocked on the door,
but still got no answer. Will testify that at 10:45 p.m. he arrived at the residence and saw what he
thought was spilled wine on the floor. We believe now the evidence will show that was actually blood and Ashley had
already been murdered. A diagram of Ashley's home is shown. That's her bathroom where we believe she
had just exited the shower and was getting ready to go out with Mr. Koocher when she was attacked from behind and
then there was a struggle in the area right outside the bathroom where she was stabbed 47 times. Kutcher testified that
after learning about Ashley's murder, he quote went to the police. I was like, "My fingerprints are on this door. Like
I was freaking out." Although never a suspect, Koocher was concerned about what he left behind.
That's unlike Michael Garulo who was always careful to cover his tracks. [Music]
[Music] the methodical and systematic slaughter of women. That's what this case is
about. The prosecution painted a portrait of Michael Garulo throughout his life. He was violent towards women,
interested in serial killer Ted Bundy, and studied forensic science. Mike was a strange guy. This is Mirco
Hoffman, a man who now describes himself as Gulo's former best friend. Told MCO he could get away with committing crimes
because he studied forensics. He would go online whatever he could find about forensics. He would learn from people's
mistakes, other criminals mistakes, you know, how to get away with a crime. And he told me if he ever got caught
committing any crime, he would just lie until he dies. Lie. Lie until you die. Michael Gargulo felt confident,
arrogant, dare I say, invulnerable. Prosecutors said Gargulo also studied a book that taught you how to kill with a
knife. The anarchist cookbook talks about knives, the perfect guide to committing some of these crimes,
detailing how you go for the throat. We believe the evidence will show as this is what Mr. Garulo was doing.
As for Gulo's motive, prosecutors described a serial killer with a sexual bent. This was somebody who was going to
take pleasure in plunging a knife into their victim over and over and over again.
To better understand that, we asked Chris Moi to explain. He's a forensic psychologist and expert on serial
killers. He is also a consultant to 48 hours. Most serial killers are motivated by power. That's at the core of
everything. The prosecution points out that Gargulo never raped his victims, but he
controlled them and say for Michael Garulo that control itself is a sexual thrill. It's control over life and
death. So violence has become sexualized. According to prosecutors, Gargula went after women he found
attractive. Michael Garulo noticed Michelle Murphy. Michael Gargulo noticed Ashley Ellery.
Michael Gargulo noticed Maria Bruno. And he stalked them. He watched and waited and collected real time intelligence on
the victims. Prosecutors say the spying was all part of his power game and his pattern. And
you've got all this stalking, this watching, surveilling, and fantasizing going on. And the person is doing this
repeatedly to try to satisfy their urges. At some point for some of these individuals, it's not enough to just
think about it anymore. And they have to move to the next step. They have to actually kill in order to get the same
degree of stimulation. [Music] To really make their point, prosecutors took the jury out of court to see where
everything happened. Jurors saw that Michael Gardullo lived close to all of his victims, close
enough to watch them. To start with, Gardulo lived right down the alley from Michelle Murphy.
A few years earlier, he lived within a few hundred feet of Ashley Ellerin. And when he lived in El Montei, his
apartment was just across the courtyard from Maria Bruno. [Music] To strengthen their argument and really
show how Gardulo had a clear pattern, they also told jurors about a murder over 1,800 miles away. You will hear
that Gargulo's killing spree started in Chicago in the summer of 1993, almost 26 years
ago, when Gargulo killed his first victim, his neighbor, then 18-year-old Trisha Pocachio. While Garulo is not
being tried for Trisha's murder here in LA, prosecutors thought it was essential
to tell the jury what happened all those years ago outside Chicago. It's introduced here for a very limited
purpose and to show that the facts and the pattern in the Picacio case in Illinois are similar to the California
cases. It was 1993. Trisha Piccio was just 18 years old coming home late one night in the
Chicago suburbs. Gargulo, who was athletic and had trained in martial arts and boxing,
grabbed Trisha, who was very petite, snapped her arm and stabbed her repeatedly in the left breast, arm, and
chest. Left her bleeding to death on the doorstep of the family home and fled. I was the one who found her.
Trisha's father, Rick. I woke up and I had a cup of coffee and I was going out to my van and I just
happened to see two little tennis shoes sticking up by the side door and when I saw it was her,
I dropped a coffee cup. [Music] I died right then and there. At the time, Michael Garulo was a
17-year-old kid living around the corner, one of Trisha's brother's closest friends. When the murder
happened, Gargulo wasn't even a suspect, and the case went cold for years. [Music]
By 2003, there was new DNA technology. Eventually, Garulo's DNA was found on Trisha's fingernails. Back then,
prosecutors in Chicago did not think that DNA alone was enough to charge him, and the case stayed dormant. In 2011, 48
Hours reported on the case and a witness came forward to me. I watched the show.
Teamer Liry and Anthony Dorenzo had once worked with Michael Garulo as bouncers in the late '9s at a Hollywood
nightclub. They say Michael Garulo confessed to them one day when they were driving, telling them that he had killed
a girl in Illinois. At the time, it seemed too crazy to be true. Garulo had told them a lot of stories. We're
cruising down Sunset. When he asked us, he's like, "You guys ever kill anybody?" And we're like, he's
like, "I have." And we're like, "Shut the you know, shut up." Here we go again. He said he buried this. He goes,
he was I buried a [ __ ] He goes, "I left the [ __ ] on the steps for dead." We put them in touch with Chicago
authorities. And shortly after, Gargulo was charged with the murder of Trisha Picacio 18 years after her death.
Now they are key witnesses at Gargulo's Los Angeles trial. In 1997, Gargulo told his friend Teamer Liry,
quote, "I stabbed up the girl." End quote. Also in 1997, Mr. Garulo told his friend Anthony Dorenzo, "I actually left
the [ __ ] on the step for dead." End quote. They asked you to identify Garulo in the room. Did you make eye contact
with Mike? I did. Absolutely. He did not want to look at me. He knew every word that came out of my mouth was true. And
there's just no doubt about it. Each of the Picacio family members were called to testify, retelling the awful
details of finding Trisha on the doorstep of their home. They also described their relationship with her
alleged killer. What was it like for you to be in the room with him? Oh, it's it's it's in the room. It's
very very hard. Trisha's brother, Tommy. It's difficult. I mean, it never something like that never goes away.
The Picacios can only hope that this trial will bring justice for Ashley, Maria, and Michelle. But the defense has
another take. They point the finger in a different direction and away from Michael Garulo.
[Music] They just have to poke holes. They've got to raise any doubt. They're going to
throw everything out at the kitchen sink and they're going to hope that some of that will resonate and it'll raise just
a a seed, a kernel of doubt in one of those jurors and that's all they need. something accused serial killer Michael
Garulo knows. My truth is being 100% innocent, being wrongfully charged. In recorded jail conversations with 48
hours between 2009 and 2011, Gardulo maintained his innocence and a desire to fight the charges. It's a matter of
waiting and knowing that there will be victory because I know I'm innocent and uh it's just now putting it down.
Putting it down in the courtroom and just being patient. In the courtroom, his defense attorney,
Daniel Nardoni, has a plan. Argue someone else besides his client could have killed these women. He starts with
the Ashley Ellerin case. There's not one single witness called by the prosecution
that saw Michael Garduglo go into the house in the Ellerin case. Despite all the
efforts they put into scouring that that crime scene, they came up with zero. Zero DNA, zero physical evidence linking
him, zero trace evidence, no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints. really they had nothing.
Nardoni focuses on the prosecution's celebrity witness, Ashton Kutcher. To everyone's surprise, he says Kutcher is
really the defense team's star witness. Because Kutcher's account of that evening points to a very specific
suspect, and it's not Michael Garulo. Instead, it's the manager of Ashley's rented house. this man, aspiring actor
Mark Durban. I think there's suspicion that Mr. Durban did this murder. Mark Durban testified he was actually having
an affair with Ashley and admits they were intimate that very evening, just hours before Ashton arrived. The defense
argues that at the time of her murder, Durban was at Ashley's house. their proof. Ashton Kutcher's cell phone
records. Ashton Kutcher calls her at 8:24 p.m. We know there's a phone record. He calls her
at 8:24 p.m. Miss Ellerin stated, "I just got out of the shower." Mark Durban testifies that he was there
when she was taking a shower. And while he was there, he says Ashley got a phone
call, then he left. Nardoni insists it must have been Kutcher's call at 8:24. And that is critical because the
neighbor testifies that around 8:25 or 8:30 heard something. He hears horrible screaming coming from Ashley's home.
He hears two screams from a woman. That puts Mark Durban possibly right in the thick of it. At the time of the murder,
Mark Dervin was the only person known to have been with Ashley Ellerin, the last
person while she was still alive. But Los Angeles detectives clear Durban. He was cooperative and they didn't believe
he had a motive. Still, Nardoni may have succeeded in raising some doubt with the
jury. The defense makes a very big deal about Mark Durban. They did a pretty good job, I thought. And with that, the
defense was on to the other case where they saw an opportunity. The killing of Maria Bruno. Same argument, thin
evidence. Not one single person saw Mr. Gardulo leaving the house. But there was
that blue booty with a drop of Maria's blood on it. And Gardulo's DNA on the elastic band. Nardoni reminds the jury
Gargulo, who lived across the courtyard, was a repair man. We all know that Michael used booties all the time. He
says the booty probably dropped out of Gulo's pocket as he was returning from work and picked up a drop of Maria's
blood that was already on the sidewalk. Maria's body had been mutilated. And again, Nardoni offered up an alternate
suspect. He pointed the finger at Maria's aranged husband, Irving. The person that did this, what's it tell
you? I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. Whoever did this made it personal. Nardoni paints a picture of a fractured
marriage and details a previous fight between the two. Irving Bruno grabbed his wife out of the car, threw her to
the ground, and with a closed fist punched her in the face. He's got a terrible history of physically abusing
her that came out. She said she was scared of him. In fact, Maria Bruno had recently left him, but Irving told the
police that on the night she was killed, he and Maria had rekindled their relationship. Irving Bruno was the last
person with Maria Brono while she was still alive. That night, he told police they
went out to a restaurant together, returned to her place, were intimate, and then he left. A neighbor says she
heard crying at around 1:30 in the morning. And who's down there at 1:30 in the morning?
You know who. Irving Bruno. And police did find drops of Maria's blood in Irving's car. They found it on
Irving Bruno's baseball cap, a droplet. They found it on the passenger seat, and
they found it on the uh central console. But a restaurant manager testified he had seen Maria cut her finger earlier
that night. Police cleared Irving Bruno, but the defense still tried to persuade
the jury. The defense though is still going to try to raise doubt. Just because they were clear didn't mean they
didn't possibly do it. The defense also drills down on the Trisha Picacio case, the 1993 murder
outside Chicago. Everyone agrees it was Gardulo's DNA on Trisha's fingernails. But how did it get there? Nardoni says
it could have come from casual contact. Gulo had been friends with Trisha's brother and Trisha had been in Gulo's
van the day before she was killed. I have a theory and that is this that Trisha seats sits in the back seat of
the family van. You know she touches it her clothes pick it up uh potentially Mr. Gulo's DNA. To find out how likely
that is, we asked Nathan Lent, a forensic expert at John J. College of Criminal Justice. So, what we're talking
about now is a secondary transfer. A day later, I've never seen a secondary transfer that would last that long.
There's just not enough cells that would survive. And especially on your arm, which is touching other things, you're
putting on and off your clothes. Uh, that rubs off the cells pretty quickly. And he says casual contact is even more
unlikely because at trial, the scientist who matched Gargulo's DNA to Trisha's fingernails said it was actually a 5050
mixture of Trisha and Gargulo's DNA, and that is significant. Casual contact will
leave a few cells here and there. A 50-50 mixture means in almost all cases that there was a lot of DNA, a lot of
cells from both parties. That would require contact. That would require extensive contact. It looks to me that
the defendant was scratched by those fingernails. That's what it looks like to me. While there may have been some
doubt about the power of that DNA evidence, no one disagrees that the DNA in the case of the woman who survived,
Michelle Murphy, belongs to Michael Garulo. DNA is all over the place. So, they've got to somehow figure out, okay,
what am I going to do now to defend this particular charge? The defense's argument surprises everyone.
Michelle Murphy, because of her strength and courage, allowed investigators to work backwards
and piece this entire case together. Michelle Murphy is the sole surviving victim, and it is Gardulo's DNA that is
found all over Michelle's apartment. It's a problem defense attorneys Daniel Nardoni and Dale Rubin must address head
on. And we know that the evidence in this is stronger, is much stronger. Michelle testified
that she never saw her attacker's face, but did notice he was left-handed. And there were those words Michelle heard
her attacker utter as he ran out the door. I am sorry. Michelle Murphy is the only count in which the prosecution
has shown that Mr. Garulo was in her apartment and attacked her. In a surprising move,
Michael Garulo's attorneys do not deny that he attacked Michelle, but insist that he wasn't in his right mind when he
did it. She says that she's fighting off Mr. Garulo when all of a sudden he cuts himself. He
stands up. He like comes out of a fog, says, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." And runs out. Didn't know where he was. didn't
know what he was doing. And to prove it, the defense calls only two witnesses at
trial. Mental health experts. Both of them have diagnosed Mr. Garulo with a mental disease or disorder. He can't
premeditate. He can't deliberate. He can't have malice of forethought. The defense says when Gulo attacked
Michelle, it was as if another personality had taken over. as if he was possessed, an experience of possession.
Michael Garulo, they claim, suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Dissociative identity disorder used to
be called multiple personality disorder. There's a split whereby they may not have an awareness of when they're doing
certain things. This becomes the go-to defense because you can say, "I was there, but I wasn't." They're just
saying that they didn't have the mental state to be able to commit horrible crimes. And how often is that true? Oh,
it's very infrequently. I mean, the only times I've ever seen it actually be successful is when the person was truly
like a schizophrenic, had other voices in his head. The defense can only hope that they have managed to convince the
jury. After a 3monl long trial, 79 witnesses, the presentation of some 350 exhibits,
and that field trip to the crime scenes, closing statements begin. It was four female victims, all young,
attractive, and outgoing. Prosecutor Garrett Damron again lays out the similarities among
the victims and the attacks. These attacks, these murders took a great deal of strength and athleticism. Each of
these attacks were all extraordinarily cold-blooded, torturous. Each of these victims were ambushed. No evidence that
there was any theft. Knife is the weapon of choice. 20 similarities between the attacks of the four women are described.
Those common characteristics of these crimes point to one man, one killer, Michael Garulo.
Adding to their argument, you know about the DNA is the forensic evidence with Gulo's DNA found all over Michelle
Murphy's apartment on Trisha Vicio's fingernails and that slight amount on that booty near Maria Bruno's home. The
prosecution is trying to lump these all together. Why? Because they want to show
that it was one attacker, that the pattern, the practice, the, you know, everything that was done was similar.
You have to judge each case separately. On the other hand, the defense is trying
to do just the opposite. They want to separate these out. They want to show that no, no, no. One's in Illinois. Yes,
you may have some in California, but they're separated by years and time. They're not just one attacker. You can
find them not guilty on all these crimes, or you can find them uh guilty of some crimes and not guilty of other
crimes. The defense needs to plant a seed of doubt in one of those jurors. [Music]
The three-month trial of Michael Gardulo has captured the public's attention. Alleged killer dubbed the Hollywood
Ripper claims he's innocent. He's accused of attacking at least four women. For the families of the victims, the
wait for justice has seemed endless. Finally, the finish seems to be in sight as the jury begins its deliberations on
August 12th, 2019. This was probably one of the worst cases. I I've worked in this area for a long time as a
prosecuting defense attorney, and I've never seen anything this horrific. So for this jury to have to see all this
evidence and day in and day out for three months think about this case and what happened to these victims is really
challenging. But in what might seem like a short time given such a long trial after 3 and 1/2
days of deliberations the verdicts are in. We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Michael Garulu
guilty of the crime of attempted murder. Guilty of attacking Michelle Murphy. Guilty of the crime of first-degree
murder. Guilty of murdering Maria Bruno. Guilty of the crime of first-degree murder. And guilty of murdering Ashley
Ellerin. Michael Gerulo sat without emotion as he heard the verdicts. Outside the courtroom, I immediately
called the Picacios with the news. It's all done. It's all done here and now it's your turn. She's sobbing, sobbing,
sobbing that she's so grateful that they all have their justice and that now it's
Trisha's turn. Remember, Trisha's case was included in California only as supporting evidence
of Michael Gulo's criminal pattern. It is up to Illinois officials in Cook County to try the case there. We have to
make sure that Cook County now does a the job that they need to continue to do because they need to prosecute him for
what he did to my daughter. Are you confident that he will be brought back to Chicago and he will stand trial?
Talking with the California attorneys and our attorneys in Cook County, I feel confident.
The Picacios are cautiously optimistic as they say they have been let down by the Cook County State's Attorney's
Office before. The family has criticized that office for being slowed to charge Gardulo when there was that DNA match in
2003. When we spoke with Jack Blakey from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in
2011, he told us that DNA match alone wasn't enough to charge Garulo. If there was a DNA match to Gardulo, why hasn't
he been arrested? The DNA match is consistent with casual contact. We still cannot establish based on the DNA alone
that he was present at the time of the killing as opposed to a different time. But it came out at the Los Angeles trial
that an Illinois forensic scientist submitted her findings to Cook County prosecutors in 2003. that it was a 5050
mixture of Trisha and Gardulo's DNA on Trisha's fingernails. Remember, the expert from John J. College of Criminal
Justice told us that usually signifies extensive contact. A 50/50 mixture means in almost all cases that there was a lot
of DNA, a lot of cells from both parties. That would require extensive contact. In almost all cases, extensive
contact. So why not bring charges? A lot of prosecutors are hesitant to bring a case when there's not at least one other
piece of evidence that helps complete the picture of how the DNA got there. Does it bother you that the charges
weren't filed? Oh, absolutely. We had them in 2003. You had them. It didn't work out. For L. Salah, the lead
detective on the Picacio case. The focus now is seeking closure to the case that
has haunted him through the latter part of his career and into retirement. Now that LA is done, they fully intend to
extra him back here. And I I think it has to be done for the Picassio family. Their verdict is still coming.
But the trial in LA did give the Picacios a chance to meet the men who changed the course of Trisha's case,
Teamer and Anthony, who came forward with Gardulo's statements. Evidence that pushed
authorities to finally charge Gardulo with Trisha's murder. So, you have both met the Picacios now?
Yes. Yeah. What was that like? I it was hard and I see out of the corner of my eye I see them and I spun around and I
was like Rick and he instantly knew who I was. He hopped up and gave me a hug. I
feel for them so much. Yeah. You know they were just sent through the ringer the whole time.
[Music] It's always painful. Yeah. It will always be. I just tell people it's something that I have to live with now
and deal with now and try to cope with for the rest of my life. Trisha's remembrance book from her funeral
provides bittersweet memories. And so there's family in here obviously and lots of friends. I mean hundreds of
people. It's filled with kind comments about their beloved daughter, but also this
back here. What was that name? Yeah, that's Michael Garulo signed that. It has been a 26-year long journey from
when that book was signed by the man the Picacios now believe killed their daughter. Gargulo is now a convicted
murderer of two other women. Women the Picacios through Trisha helped to find justice. She helped these other girls.
She was a very always liked to help people and I just want justice to get done because that's what my daughter
deserves. [Music] [Music] Personally, [Music] I could sort of relate to Kathy Blair
and just thinking about what that would be like as a woman to be home alone. That is the boogeyman story for every
woman, right? It's awful. An intruder is in your house. Yeah. Someone is stabbing you.
What's happening? My mom is dead. He killed my boss. This is a case that sticks with you
throughout your life. My name is Derek Israel. I was working in the homicide unit when this case uh occurred.
Uh my name is Carrie Scandalan and I was the lead investigator on the Kathy Blair
murder. Kathy was a larger than life. She's my big sister. I have always thought everything Kathy did was
amazing. How would you describe her from a student's perspective? She was so kind. Um, just believed in me
wholeheartedly. It still makes no sense. Who kills a choir director? Who does that? A monster.
Uh, I get notified that there's been another murder. The victims are an elderly couple. They
were the best parents you could ever want. They were just sweet people like anybody's grandmother and grandfather.
Right from the get-go, it started sounding really familiar. It's so violent and it's eerily similar
to Kathy Blair's and when we saw the connection, we just continued to work the investigations
together. You know, Carrie and I both kind of came to the conclusion that there was a
serial killer working here in Austin. I was uh out testing a thermal scope. I needed to get some video of some deer.
Rob Leaf has this thermal imaging scope. It's a night vision rifle scope. So, I saw the car pull up and park. I zoomed
in with the scope and by the time I had zoomed in, someone had gotten out, walked over to the sidewalk.
That is just unbelievably chilling. The last thing they were expecting was high resolution thermal video. This video
showed the murderer walking towards Kathy Blair's house. The actual killer. The actual killer.
[Music] [Music] These days in Texas, it seems like all roads lead to Austin. The sleek skyline of the Lone Star
Capital glittering. A boom town that welcomes newcomers chasing dreams. It's a city charged with life. An
unlikely place to find tragedy as dark as the death of a dreamer like Kathy Blair.
She loved life. You loved being around her. What were the things that were important to her? She had, I think, a
sense of justice, right and wrong. Kirsten Mat is Kathy's younger sister. Um, she was bossy and even as kids in
California, it was clear Kathy had a passion. She was always singing. She had a god-given talent, which was her voice.
It was music that led Kathy to Austin. Kathy went to UT Austin to get her master's degree in vocal performance.
She loved Austin, but love didn't always work out for Kathy. She divorced twice.
Still, her affair with Austin held firm. [Music] And by 2013, Kathy was renting a house
on a quiet street here on Tamarak Trail. It was home. She loved the people here.
She loved the vibe. In a city known around the world for music, Kathy Blair fit right in. She had
melody and rhythm in her soul. But you wouldn't find her singing the blues here on Austin's famed Sixth Street. Instead,
she chose a more spiritual stage for her talents. Christian Coral Society was a positive
social setting. The kids were kind to each other. Barbara Sally's daughter was one of
hundreds of students touched by Cathy's talent as a choir director and teacher. I think she lived, breathed, ate, slept
music. Barbara along with Kathy's student Kristen Degrroot met with us to share their memories of Kathy. She was
so kind. Um just believed in me wholeheartedly, which uh was something I really needed. And for Kristen, Kathy
was a role model. She and I were the same. Music needed to be in our lives or we would die. She was their teacher and
their mentor. One of her friends called it the Kathy Nation. The Kathy Nation. The Cathy Nation.
It was December 6th, 2014. Kathy's son, Joe, was staying with her while waiting for his assignment from
the Navy. After a night out, he came home to Tamarak Trail. What he found was shattering and echoed across that Kathy
nation. Think my mom is dead. There's a lot of blood. Broken. She killed my mom. Joe,
what's your mom's name? Her name is Kathy Blair. [Music] This case was clearly different really right from the
right from the get-go. Starting with the location. Oh, this is a nice neighborhood. This is a place where
people I think feel safe. Up until this case, which would frighten and chill Austin and shock veteran
detectives Scanland and Israel, one of the first things I thought of, I'm like, why this house? Yeah, why this
house? There's nothing that uh makes this house stand out from all the other ones. This is the living room right
here. Then in Kathy Blair's bedroom, there's a full-size jewelry case right here. Large drawers. All the drawers
have been pulled out and they're stacked up. So, it's like someone dumped them out and then put them in a pile right
here. Someone who had time to do that. Correct. A jewel thief who had time because Kathy Blair was already dead.
This murder started right here on the bed. 53-year-old Kathy Blair lay alone, asleep in her own bed. She awoke to the
ultimate nightmare. Yeah, Kathy Blair fought like hell. Choked, stabbed, and finally slashed
across the neck. The wound is a fatal wound, but she still has time, you know, to put up that fight. She she fought for
her life. Kathy's here, and there's blood all around her. So much blood that it formed the timeline of a murder.
There's a light switch and on that light switch we saw blood like a a blood swipe
that told us that the perpetrator had come in here after the murder and and switch that light on. There are more
blood swipes on these drawers. That tells me the murder of Kathy Blair occurs before these drawers were
removed. Word soon spread across Austin and across Kathy Nation. I just said, "No, that's not what
happened. That cannot possibly be what happened." Was Kathy Blair the kind of woman who might have an enemy who would
do that? No. She didn't have a malicious bone in her body. Why does someone come in here and and
murder someone in order to steal a little bit of jewelry? You know, it doesn't make sense.
It would be the first in a hideous series of senseless events. It's just one of those moments where you're in
disbelief. You think you're living in a dream. This does not happen. But it did happen. And the killer left
almost no evidence, no DNA, no fingerprints. No fingerprint. And no blood from the
killer. No. Israel and Scanland would need all their street smarts and then some because just 9 days later I get
notified that there's been another murder [Music] for Austin Detectives Israel and
Scandlin Images of Kathy Blair's death were harrowing. Tacked in the middle of the night and it was a really horrific
scene. But there was no physical evidence from a killer who made virtually no mistakes.
And that meant there was no clear suspect. Then suddenly the search for a suspect
changed in a way no one could imagine. It was around 1:30 a.m. on the night that Kathy Blair died. One of her
neighbors was out for a late night walk. What he saw and what he did would give the detectives their first big break in
the case. I was out testing a thermoscope. I needed to get some video of some deer.
And we've got some deer up and down the street. Rob Leaf lived a few short blocks from Kathy Blair. So it's a
thermoscope. So it picks up a heat signature. Wow. It's like daytime except it was the dead of night and Rob
was only looking for deer. I saw the headlights of a car coming up. I saw the car pull up in park and on this street
on this street. Rob kept recording. This is video he recorded that night with a scope like this one. I zoomed in
with the scope and by the time I had zoomed in, someone had gotten out and walked over to the sidewalk. You can
flip the setting to red to see the image more clearly. Did you focus in on the car? I first focus in on the person and
he turns left on Tamarack. Kathy Blair's street. The next day, Rob flew to Las Vegas on a
planned trip with old friends. Reading the news on my phone and saw a murder story. I clicked on it. I saw the
address. Rob raced back to Austin. He checked the video of that stranger on his street and
I called Austin police. How important does the video end up being in Kathy Flair's case? very very important.
The video was tantalizing but blank on images that did not give off heat, so you couldn't actually
identify the man, a license plate number or even if there was anyone else inside
the vehicle. Still, there was one important clue. It gave us an idea of what kind of vehicle our murder suspect
arrived at the crime scene with, and it was a sedan of some sort. These cops needed much more evidence.
Then 9 days after Kathy Blair's murder, in another peaceful Austin neighborhood just 15 minutes from Cathy's home, they
would get it. The victims are an elderly couple murdered overnight. Viciously. Viciously.
[Music] Sydney Jr., Johnny and Brenda want their parents to be remembered as the outstanding people
they were, not the grim headlines they became. Billy and Sydney Shelton were hardworking and happily married for 64
years. We were never rich, but not once did daddy ever complain about it. Not once did mama ever complain about it.
A life well-lived and peacefully slowing down. Billy was 83. Her husband Sydney 85.
These are sweet people that'll, you know, send you on the road with some cookies.
Home nurse Dao Catola was making her scheduled visit on December 15th, 2014. I knocked. Nobody answered. Front door
was splintered. It was clearly had been busted open. D nervously headed to the Shelton's modest bedroom and their room
had been ransacked. And then to the left, I saw him on the bed and I I ran. I just turned around and I ran. Sydney
and Billy Shelton had been beaten and stabbed. The knife is still present. Yes. In one of the victims. That's
correct. Is it clear that it's also a burglary? Yeah, I was seeing some of the same things.
The same things found at Kathy Blair's murder scene, starting with an empty jewelry box. And again, the drawers were
pulled out. They had been emptied and stacked. Three people had been slaughtered in their own beds. The crime
scenes were eerily similar, and investigators were privately wondering, was there a serial killer loose on the
streets of Austin? [Music] If word gets out that there's a serial killer, it kicks it to an entirely
different level. So, investigators kept their worst fears to themselves. But why
would any killer target Kathy or Billy and Sydney, who cops determined didn't even know each other? None of these
people had any enemies that we could figure out. What is it that connects these people together besides the
killer? Every lead was chased down. Then almost 3 weeks after Kathy was killed, the name of a stranger surfaced. Tim
Paron. He'd done yard work at Cathy's house, and a friend reported Parland was weird and rude. I go to our computer
system. It was a simple and easy search. Tim Paron had spent decades in prison. And he jewelry and he stole jewelry.
Specifically jewelry at night. Are you hopeful at this point? Yeah, I am. So, this is the in town suites. Tim
Parland where he was living at the time the murders happened. Israel and Scandlin went to look up the
lifelong convict. The detectives snapped these photos of Tim Parlin. Told them were homicide
detectives. So, he asked us a few questions as well about the murder. Well, yeah. Like, so how'd she die? Wow,
that's bold. you know, stuff like that. He's sussing it out to see what we know.
Cat and mouse. It is. Harland spoke to the cops in the hotel's parking lot, but when they asked to see his room, he
refused, claiming his wife was inside and asleep. And you drive away. And what's the conversation? I said, "This
is our guy." You did? Yeah. And Derek says, "I don't know yet." A return trip to the in town suites just
a few days later pays off. Parland wasn't home, but his wife was. Explain what we were investigating. And she knew
the Shelton. His wife knew the Shelton. Tim Parlland's wife knew the Sheltons from church. And Tim Parlin had worked
in Kathy Blair's yard. It was tenuous, but it was a connection. She gave us permission to search the apartment. Did
you find anything? We did a pawn receipt. This is that pawn receipt for a piece of jewelry, a a Nugget pendant.
And it turns out that pendant belonged to Kathy Player. It was pawned on the same night that Kathy Blair was
murdered. We found out that his sister had a green Toyota. Haron had been using his sister's car, a
green Toyota. Its outline appeared similar to the car in Rob Leaf's video and one caught on security footage
approaching that Austin pawn shop less than 24 hours after Kathy was murdered. We took it. We had it towed towed and
tested on the passenger seat. Traces of dried blood. Blood belonged to Kathy Blair that was
in that car. Austin was on edge. Kathy Blair was found dead inside her home. hoping for
an arrest. The wait for justice has been troubling for her students, family, and
friends. My name is Ha Müller and I'm an anchor at CBS Austin News. It was very,
very shocking in the community, and it was really unsettling. But now, justice was closing in on one man, Tim Parlin.
But you're thinking one guy still. Oh, yeah. When Kathy Blair's blood was found in
Tim Parland's car, detectives Israel and Scanland were convinced that he had killed her. At that point, we're all
jubilant. We're super excited. We got our guy. Parland fit the bill perfectly. He had
done yard work for Kathy Blair and was a career criminal with a long wrap sheet of burglaries. Now I just need to
question him, confront him. Hopefully he'll confess, but if he doesn't, we have hard physical evidence to tie this
guy to the murder. Israel had Parl arrested for an unrelated parole violation and brought in for
questioning. Seemed like a pretty short and straight road to charging Tim Parliament with murder. It turned out it
wasn't a short road, and it certainly wasn't a straight road. The first step was to get Parl to
corroborate some of the details of Kathy's murder. I just straight up told him that, you know, we knew that he had
killed Kathy Blair. What's his response? I didn't do it. And this was the thing he really liked to say. These hands
didn't kill anyone. So the detectives asked him who did, but Parlin wasn't giving up that information
so easily. So after hours of this conversation, he finally says, "Okay, I'll tell you who it was." And that's
when he said, "Sean Gant Ben Alkazar." Who is that? That's what I said. Who is that? Did you think he was stalling? Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This sounded completely made up. And I knew as soon as he said it that he had screwed us cuz
now you had to because now we got to go hunt some mystery guy down and prove that he didn't commit a murder. With
their lead suspect behind bars for now, the detectives reluctantly contacted Parland's mystery man. Shaun Gant
Benelkazar had never been in trouble with the law. He had a degree in microbiology, was once a high school
science teacher, and seemed an unlikely acquaintance of a serial jewel thief. This guy lived in Galveastston. He
didn't cause any trouble. Gampelazar readily agreed to meet with them that night at the Galveastston Police
Department. Let's go see the cops there. All right. We're investigating a murder
in Austin and in particular, we're looking at Tim Parlin as the person that we we believe committed the murder. I'm
completely in the dark on this um who was murdered. He tells the detectives he barely knows
Parland, that he just met him a few months earlier when his sister began dating Parland's nephew. So, we started
talking. Okay, when's the last time you were in Austin? Well, I've been in Austin a few times for the last month.
He was in town during the the weekends of both of those murders. And on top of it, he was staying with Tim Parlin. The
thing is, honestly, I want to help you guys out because this guy, Wolf and Sheep's clothing, basic didn't tell me
anything about his past, and I'm starting to feel like he set me up like a psy. The detectives knew from Parland's
criminal record that he did have a history of being a master manipulator. Did Tim ever approach you about doing
burglaries? And before long, the mystery man who initially said he knew nothing slowly started to crack. Gant Benelkazar
now says he was sitting in the car when Parl went into Kathy Blair's house. So where are you sitting in the car?
Passenger seat. Well, if he's sitting in the passenger seat, then why is there blood in the passenger seat? But Gampen
Elkazar had an explanation. He says Parland came back to the car clutching a bloody pillowcase. Came back with a
sack. Had blood on it, threw it in the passenger floorboard, and I took a peek at it. Had jewelry in
it and I didn't want anything to do with it. When did you figure out that it had
something to do with the murder? The fact that it had blood on it was not a good sign.
Then about 4 hours into the interview. Now I'm just wondering the restroom. As he walked down a hallway and he was
walking in front of me. I looked up and it just I mean I got a chill because I was like that's the same walk as the guy
in the video. Remember that spooky thermal video that the cops think accidentally caught Kathy Blair's killer
ambling down the sidewalk? You know, it was just the broadness, the deliberate steps.
I thought it was him. I definitely believed it could be him. Was it actually Gamp and Alkazar and not
Parland who had gone into Cathy's house? We started pursuing, you know, the line
of questioning along the lines of maybe he was in the house. Did he bully you into going into the
house or I was scared and you know he he was taking a threatening tone? He told me to go in the house and get the stuff
and finally he admitted I did go into the house and I did steal the jewelry. Came in through where? The back door you
said. Yeah, it was open. Okay. Open. Unlock. Unlocked. Yeah. I looked around and kind of prowled and snuck through
quietly. I turned on a couple lights um in rooms where I didn't see her and I found the room where she was and she was
fast asleep. That was the room her jewelry box was in. Okay. And so I I opened the jewelry box, took the stuff
out, put it in the the thing. Maybe he went back. I don't know. But I didn't kill her.
Yeah. I told him that's that's impossible. Everything you said is true except that it's not possible she was
still alive when you left. And I explained that the person who turned on those light switches, you talked about
turning on. The person who removed that pillowcase, you talked about removing. The person who removed those drawers,
you talked about removing. That person had Kathy Blair's blood on his hands. So the person who did all that killed
Kathy Blair. I kept pushing him for the reason. Something happened in that room when you were there. What happened? And
that's when he said, "I was standing there. I was looking at her." With no room left to lie, he breaks
down. She woke up. She lunged at me, grabbed the knife, started trying to wrestle it out of my hand, and then it
was a struggle, and I stabbed her in the neck. The confession came unexpectedly. The
witness was now the prime suspect. We had gone to clear the guy and instead he confessed to capital murder. Gampan
Elkazar kept talking and claimed that after murdering Kathy Blair, he handed off her jewelry to Parl. Did you get to
keep any of it? No, he didn't give me anything. I got nothing. You're going to have to ask him where he fenced it.
Shawn Gampanelkazar appears to have gained absolutely nothing from this senseless murder. I've never met anyone
who would go into someone's house and sneak in at night and and murder them in their bed. For what reason? None. For
their own gratification. That's it. We're going to place you under arrest for capital murder. Detectives
immediately read Gant Benelkazar his rights. But they still wanted to learn what he knew about the murder of the
Shelton. We started talking again. Ask him about the Shelton. Try as they might, Gampen Elkazar wasn't
talking anymore. Well, I wasn't there for that one. I don't know anything about that one. By
this point, everyone is exhausted. So, eventually, he just he terminated the interview. He said, "I'm done." Done.
Wish this all had never happened. After the arrest, Detective Scandlin made this
video of Gamp Benelkazar on his cell phone. His hunch seemed right. That's the moment that you think That Yeah, that's
what I thought it was him. Two men are in jail in connection with the murder of a beloved choir teacher. 4 days later,
Austin police announced that they had made two arrests. 30-year-old Shaun Gant Benal Khazar of Galveastston is charged
with capital murder. 49year-old Timothy Parlland is also expected to face charges related to Blair's murder. Shan
Gant Benel Khazar, he was a UT graduate. He had no criminal record of any kind. How did he get involved with a crime
like this? Tim Parlland had an answer. Later, while in custody, Parland admitted to the cops
that he had driven Gampen Alcazar to Kathy Blair's house and to the Shelton residence on the nights they were
murdered. And Parlland says he knew all along that Gamp and Alkazar had killed all three of them. Investigators now
thought they understood what had happened. Shawn murdered the Sheltons. Tim Parlland was a party to that murder
and he planned it. He facilitated it. He profited from it. He assisted in it. But
you are 100% convinced that it was Shawn who murdered that couple? Yes. Will he ever be brought to trial for it? It
seems unlikely. Unlikely because there was no direct evidence linking Gampan Alcazar to the
Shelton murders and he would always deny he had killed them. Prosecutors would focus instead on building their
strongest case, using Gampanelkazar's confession to convict him of killing Kathy Blair.
But when Shawn Gampanelkazar finally gets his day in court, no one could have anticipated what would happen next.
Makes you worry because this guy cannot be out on the streets. [Music] Okay, good morning ladies and gentlemen.
We're here to start the trial in the state of Texas versus Sha Gant Ben Alcazar this morning. 3 years after
Shawn Gant Benelkasar confessed to the murder of Kathy Blair, his trial begins. Did then and there intentionally commit
murder by causing the death. You never know what a jury's going to do, but it was a very, very strong case. You're all
here today. Assistant Das Andrea Austin and David Lovingston present the state's
case. The man who sits among us in this courtroom, the defendant, Sean Gantazar,
is Kathy Blair's killer. How hard was it to be there during that trial? It was really hard.
There were some pictures throughout that that I saw that I can't unsee. There was a car that parked while I was
out on the walk. Kathy's neighbor, Rob Leaf, testifies about the video he recorded on the night she was murdered.
By the time I zoomed and zoomed back in, someone was already out of the car and was crossing onto the sidewalk. that
someone, the prosecutor tells the jury, was Shawn Gampanelkazer, on his way to murder Kathy Blair. I just kind of
looked through the rooms, you know, and I I turned on a couple lights um in rooms where I didn't see her. The
prosecution's case hinges on G Benazar's rambling 5-hour confession where he describes breaking into Cathy's house.
She woke up. She lunged at me. He had a knife out. They fought over the knife and I
stabbed her in the neck. He didn't just kind of confessed. He straight up confessed to all the details
of of killing Kathy Blair. Signed right here. That confession was vital to the prosecution's case. He gave enough
details in this confession that were kept out of the media so we could show the confession was from the actual
killer and that he knew enough about this crime to have either been there or done it himself. There's no question
that this is a horrible, horrible crime. But Gapanelazar's defense lawyer, Ariel
Pion, makes a bold accusation right off the top. that damning video. She just was trying to fight the knife away from
me and I was It was all a lie. A false confession coerced by detectives Israel and Scandlin.
No, I'm just wondering. The defense tells the jury that during that 5-minute bathroom break in the
hallway when Gamp Benelkazar was not being recorded, detectives threatened him. Law enforcement went down there. We
believe the evidence will show with the express idea, plan, purpose, and intent to try to get him to confess to
something he didn't do. They have to come up with something. They have to argue that it's a involuntary statement,
but we obviously knew that wasn't true. The exact words were, "This is important
and we're not you're not going anywhere until we finish." Gampelazar takes the stand to blame the cops for his
confession. That if I I didn't explain a reason for having done it, even though I
didn't do it, um I would get the death penalty. And he maintains that it was actually Tim Parland who killed Kathy
Blair on that chilly December evening back in 2014. Were you worried the jury might You always have to worry with
juries. You don't get blood on your hands and put it on a jewelry test. At closing arguments, prosecutors insist
Gap and Elkazar voluntarily confessed and offered details about the crime only the killer could have known. I think it
comes down to a credibility. And hopefully are sitting there thinking, "This guy confessed. Why are we here?"
The case goes to the jury. When the hours started ticking away, two, three, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, you feel you feel awful. Were you worried? Yes. The idea that he would get out
is just unthinkable. I mean, Sean is going to kill somebody else if he got out. After 19 hours of jury deliberations,
this time I'll declare a mistrial. A mistrial. The jury cannot reach a verdict. If one person held out, she
didn't want to consider the confession. I mean, look, that's what this system is
about. We We're required to get a unanimous verdict. We didn't get a unanimous verdict. How hard was it to
hear that there was a mistrial and you would have to go through it all over again? really hard. Yeah, that was that
was tough. With a retrial in the works and Tim Parland's trial less than a month away, prosecutors were worried.
Could they get any jury to convict either of these men? Good morning. This man Timothy Parland
knew that Shan Gant would go in and murder Captain Blair. With Sha Gamp and Elkazar's mistrial still fresh in her
mind, prosecutor Andrea Austin is determined to put Tim Parland away for life. He stands trial for both the
murders of Kathy Blair and the Sheltons. In Texas, if you were part of the crime,
then you are also guilty of that crime. You can convict him even if you don't believe he stepped foot inside that
house because he was there and he participated. Correct. I'm going to ask you to find him guilty of capital
murder. Detectives were convinced Gant Vanelazar had killed the Shelton, but had no
evidence to charge him with their murders. So Tim Parlin would prove to be an easier target for prosecutors.
Parland admitted he drove Gampan Elkazar to both murder scenes. And the car Parlin was driving had Kathy Blair's
blood in it. Oh, he did much more than sit in the car. He's the one who targeted Kathy.
He's the one, for whatever reason, said, "Hey, you know what? This would be a good person for you to murder."
Morning ladies and gentlemen. Parland's lawyer Keith Lowerman argues that despite his client having confessed to
driving Gampelazar to both murders, there is no evidence placing Parland inside the two houses. He never set foot
in either one of these houses. And at the very end, you're going to realize that this man in those hands never
participated in any murders. After a nine-day trial, the jury doesn't take long to reach a verdict. We, the
jury, find the defendant, Timothy Parley, guilty of the offense of capital murder. Guilty.
Parlin is sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole
for his role in the murders of Kathy Blair and Sydney and Billy Shelton. Five months later, Gampanelazar went to
trial a second time for the murder of Kathy Blair. The nerves were much higher the second round. Well, there's a lot at
stake. There's a lot at stake. The vehicle parked on the side of the street that it wasn't in front of a house.
Again, Rob Leaf's testimony is critical for the prosecution. And uh did at some point did you see an
individual get out of that car? Yes, sir. I did. I want you to watch this. It was a
struggle and I stabbed her in the neck. I I didn't Look what he does with his hands. I was just
He's retrieving a memory, right? Involuntarily, he's doing this. He remembers doing because he's the one who
murdered her. The police wouldn't let me go. It was my understand. Once more, Gampanelazar swears the cops coerced his
confession. And I come out of the bathroom. They keep saying, "Oh, we we know you did it. There's no doubt you
did it. And they keep saying it. Keep saying it. And I just got worn down. This time out, the jury deliberates less
than 3 hours. We, the jury, find the defendant, Shan Gamp Benazar, guilty of the offense of
capital murder. We poured our emotions out into this case. Was justice delayed and
Yeah. But delivered. but delivered. Like Tim Parliament before him, Shaun Gamp and Elkazar was sentenced to life
in prison without the possibility of parole. We're pleased. Um we miss Kathy. This isn't going to bring her back. Our
hearts are never going to completely heal. A few months after the verdict, I spoke
with Gampen Elkazar via a prison video phone. I wanted to ask why. Why would a guy who'd never been in trouble with the
law suddenly turn into a vicious killer? Instead, with no evidence of any remorse, he repeated what he told the
jury, that he was innocent, the cops had forced him to confess, and that Tim Parlin was the one who had killed Kathy
Blair. When I went to go see him at 4 4:00 a.m., um, he said, "Well, we're going to go get breakfast." and uh drove
me out to the place and then said that he had killed her and told me about it. Tim Paron confessed to you that he
killed Kathy Blair. Yeah, that's right. How could you have known the movements of the killer?
Anything that um I said was something that either uh you know Tim told me or I just made up.
And not surprisingly, when I visited Parland at a prison in northeast Texas, hello. Hello. How you doing? He pointed
the finger at Campanelkazar and claimed he knew absolutely nothing about the murder of Kathy Blair. After Shawn
viciously kills Kathy Blair, gets back in your car and drives away and he goes back to Galveston. He never said a
thing. Never said a thing. He never said he stone cold individual actually. Right. You've been described as the
master manipulator that you talked him into doing it. My IQ is very low and I have a big heart. I
believe that it is. It's very low actually. And I have a big heart. So I'm not the mastermind behind anything.
You're just a big teddy bear behind bars. Yeah, pretty much. Rob Leaf is the accidental hero of this
story. Someone who never knew he'd be called upon to help solve a murder. And you ended up leaving the neighborhood. I
did. Needed to change. I did. Absolutely. I would not be where I am as a a professional actor and musician without
her influence. Kathy Blair's student Kristen Degrroot is moving to New York to pursue her dream of a career in
music. One of my greatest regrets is that I never was able to tell her that she did
this for me. How proud do you think she would be of you? I I hope she'd be really proud of me.
They're just evil people in the end. There's just two broken human beings who, you know,
basically put a path of destruction through, you know, two families. [Music] Two families who will forever share the
same tragedy. They were the best parents you could ever want. [Music] I just miss her.
And at the end of the day, she's gone and I can't call her tonight. [Music] 48 hours. Don't miss an episode.
[Music]

“48 Hours" reports on cases with compelling evidence in crime investigations. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Dead Girls Don't Talk", "The Hollywood Ripper (Parts 1 & 2)" and "The Shape of a Killer."

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Brief Summary

David Pierce is tried for the overdose murders of Christy Giles and Hilda Cabral, revealing a troubling pattern of assault and drugging victims.

Key points

A Night Out Turns Tragic. Christy and Hilda's night out ends in tragedy after they are found unresponsive.
The Fight for Justice. Detectives work tirelessly to gather evidence against the accused in a complex case.
Trial Verdict. After two days of deliberation, the jury finds David Pierce guilty of first-degree murder.
Mike Garulo's Hollywood Dream. Mike Garulo arrives in Los Angeles, hoping to become an actor or model.
The DNA Match. DNA from Michael Garulo is found on Trisha Picacio's fingernails, linking him to the murder.
Garulo's Arrest. Within 24 hours of the DNA match, Garulo was arrested for assaulting Michelle Murphy.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I said, 'What do you mean she didn't make it?'.

A mother's devastating reaction to the news of her daughter's death.

5:20WatchJun 28, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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