Paducah Ripper | Death Comes Knocking | Forensic Files

[AUDIO LOGO] [OMINOUS MUSIC] DISPATCHER: Paducah City 911. Where is the location of your emergency?
CARL: Oh, I just woke up, and my mom came in screaming and yelling. And she's bleeding.
My dad's out here lying on the ground, and he just got stabbed. DISPATCHER: Your dad just got stabbed?
CARL: Yeah, I don't know-- DISPATCHER: What's your-- OK, is your dad breathing? CARL: I don't think so.
DISPATCHER: And he's in the front yard? CARL: No, he's laying down the road. DISPATCHER: He's in the road?
CARL: Yeah. DISPATCHER: OK, hon. CARL: I don't think he's alive. NARRATOR: This video provided by a neighbor,
shows a threatening man. He's seen walking past a home holding an ax. ROBERT: No, baby, no!
[SCREAMING] [OMINOUS MUSIC] [SCARE CHORD] [WHOOSH] DISPATCHER: Did your mom say who stabbed him?
CARL: [WHIMPERING] [PANTING] [WHIMPERING] DISPATCHER: Hey, I know you're upset. Did your mom say who stabbed him?
CARL: Mom! Mom! DISPATCHER: OK, hon, what's your name? CARL: Carl. DISPATCHER: OK, Carl, give me one second.
We're getting help on the way. [SIREN BLARING] NARRATOR: Police and paramedics raced
through a sleepy Paducah suburb. [CAMERA FLASHES] When they arrive at the scene, it's too late.
Carl's father is already dead. CASEY STEENBERGEN: When I first got the call, it was approximately 5 o'clock in the morning.
My sergeant called me, notifying me that there were two victims of stab wounds. He indicated that the two people were husband and wife
and that the husband was deceased. For Paducah, Kentucky, two victims of stab wounds,
that's extremely uncommon. NARRATOR: The murder victim is 56-year-old Robert Penn.
His wife, who survived the attack, 41-year-old Cocina Penn. [CAMERA FLASHES] CARL: Several detectives were there processing the crime.
I have been provided details that there was a lot of blood at the scene, and I was expecting traumatic injuries.
[SIREN WAILING] NARRATOR: When Detective Steenbergen arrives, the victim's body has already been removed by the coroner.
[SOMBER MUSIC] CASEY STEENBERGEN: The atmosphere of the scene when I arrived was very somber,
not only myself but EMTs, fire department personnel. Everybody that responded to the scene
was shocked at the level of brutality used against him. PHOTOGRAPHER: And then when we got here, he's laying down.
But he's got like cuts on his wrists. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Whomever inflicted this level of injury to Robert Penn
is an extreme danger to our community and needs to be located as quickly as possible.
MAN: Everyone in the house. NARRATOR: Cocina, who suffered knife wounds, has been taken to the hospital.
AMANDA MELTON: Cocina Penn had stated that she and Robert took a walk during the early morning hours.
And there was a wooded area that had a bridge. As they were walking, someone, out of nowhere, attacked them.
Was that person just randomly attacking people? And where is that person? And are any of us in danger?
So, you know, my anxiety was up there. NARRATOR: County Coroner Amanda Melton was one of the first called to the scene.
[CAMERA FLASHES] AMANDA MELTON: When I arrived, we had some complications removing him.
[CAMERA FLASHES] [OMINOUS MUSIC] Just the fact of the wounds and the injuries, the blood loss.
[CAMERA FLASHES] He was a very large in size man. And he had plunging knife wounds into his rib area.
He had wounds to his arms that were deep. He had a laceration across his abdomen that was penetrating,
and it had caused his intestines to protrude on the exterior of his body. [CAMERA FLASHES]
He had lacerations across his wrist. He had deep laceration across his neck. [CAMERA FLASHES]
It was clear that Mr. Penn had suffered a very violent death. - So the husband either?
OFFICER: I don't know who Coco is. - It's a friend of my family. OFFICER: Where do they live at?
- They live back here somewhere in one of these houses. OFFICER: All right. NARRATOR: The attack happened just yards
from Robert and Cocina's home. [DOG BARKING] - Pretty sure the first cut occurred at the Red Bridge.
Plus, he was here and then blood going that way. CASEY STEENBERGEN: OK. There were several patrolmen who were there to maintain
the crime scene perimeter. And then we had detectives there that were looking for additional evidence
and also photographing the crime scene. NARRATOR: Officers follow the route Cocina said she
and her husband took on their early morning walk. They track traces of blood. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
- First drop of blood, that is right here. CASEY STEENBERGEN: OK. OFFICER: Doing a buccal on it just to compare his DNA.
- They had the K-9 units out in the woods nearby, trying to detect a scent. [LEAVES CRACKLING]
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Our officers were also looking for any witnesses that might have heard a commotion, looked outside
And saw any portion of what may have happened. NARRATOR: One neighbor reports speaking with Cocina
immediately after the attack. OFFICER: You said 4:00 in the morning? - It was about 4:30 around in there.
OFFICER: Who came knocking on the door? - Uh, uh, Coco, I think, is her name. OFFICER: OK.
What did the-- what did she say? - She just said-- she was just crying so hard. And I kept trying to ask her what happened,
and she was just saying some big dude. That's all she said. NARRATOR: With no other witnesses to Robert's murder,
Detective Steenbergen urgently needs to speak to Cocina. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] CASEY STEENBERGEN: Cocina Penn had
been treated for two small cuts on her right hand as well as a small stab wound in her back.
NARRATOR: Processed by forensics, her clothes have been taken into evidence. CASEY STEENBERGEN: She'd agreed to travel
from the hospital to the police department with one of our detectives. OFFICER: Need to heat up on the coffee?
You want some fresh coffee? I can make fresh. COCINA: No, just a warm-up. OFFICER: Just a warm-up?
OK. [CLINKING] - Is it "Co-see-nah or "Co-kee-nah?" - "Co-kee-nah." Can I go by "Coco," if that makes it easier for y'all.
- OK. OK. Well, what would you prefer me call you? - Coco. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Coco.
That's what we can do then. I was initially trying to gather details about who this person was that attacked
her and also brutally attacked and murdered her husband. She said that she and Robert had been out on a morning walk.
- We went over there to look at the bridge like we normally do. We were just standing there kissing,
and he said he would rather just go to the house this morning. And I said, OK, and--
and when he turned to walk that way, that's when that guy jumped out and grabbed hold of him
by his neck. - Did you hear him walking up or see him walking up? - No. It's like he was just there.
- She stated that she couldn't see anything about this man, that he looked like a shadow.
- He grabbed him like, right as we went to walk off the bridge. And when I said it looked like he was choking,
he grabbed his throat and was running, hollered, run. And me and him both was running.
And that's when I felt my collar and my shirt get pulled. That's all I felt though.
- OK. So when y'all were running, were you in front of your husband? - At first, yes.
- OK. - And then I turned around. And he had been caught up with my husband, was attacking him,
and had a knife. And I run back to try to grab the knife. This, when I tried taking the knife, I seen the blood,
and I passed out. I don't know anything after that. I wish I did. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Her account seemed believable.
And she said that after she woke up she learned that Mr. Penn's wallet had been taken
and that their two cell phones had been taken. [DOG BARKING] NARRATOR: Police combed the Penn residence for clues.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] - There's two buildings in the back, a car in the back. CASEY STEENBERGEN: When our investigators arrived
at the home, they saw blood on the front door frame. [OMINOUS MUSIC] [CAMERA FLASHES]
Then they found blood on one of the kitchen cabinets. NARRATOR: Blood samples are sent for testing at the lab.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: We had detectives looking for blood trails, looking for weapons
that might have been used to commit this crime Looking at neighboring houses, buildings,
looking for people being on scene at the time of this crime. [DOG CREAKING] OFFICER: Hello.
How are you today? WOMAN: Do you know her name? CASEY STEENBERGEN: Being a mostly residential area,
our officers recognized that there was a high likelihood of seeing some doorbell cameras
on a neighboring house. OFFICER: You don't happen to have any security cam footage
or, like, ring door cameras or anything like that? - No. We were just talking about getting one.
- I got one, but I didn't put it up. OFFICER: Ain't put it up yet? OK. CASEY STEENBERGEN: We were looking
for cameras that would capture any aspect of Mr. and Mrs. Penn walking that morning and anybody else
that may have been in the area. The hope is that we see this shadow man that Cocina Penn is describing caught on camera and
that we're able to go arrest him. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] DYLAN PAYNE: The community reaction
to the murder of Robert Penn was one of genuine shock. This is a small, quiet community.
Most of the scuttlebutt that happens in the community is some sort of personal drama.
[CAR WHOOSHING] If you hear about a burglary, OK, that's pretty common. If you hear about someone who stole a lawnmower,
that's something that you might expect. When you hear about a murder, you don't expect that in any community, certainly
in Western Kentucky. It's really unbelievable that a person could do this to another human being.
Certainly, it was one of the most violent murders that had ever happened in the history
of McCracken County. [DOGS BARKING] [CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC] - My name is Tania Hopkins.
My uncle, it's my mom's brother, is my Uncle Robert. My sister called me and told me that Uncle Robert
had been killed-- [SIGHS] on my birthday. It's gut wrenching. He was fun. We were poor growing up, so he used to do things for us
to have fun. And he was like a dad to me. I just always loved my Uncle Robert. As a loving, caring, nurturing man,
he was always there for anybody that ever needed him. Friends, family, blood or not, he didn't care.
He always accepted everybody. He's a big guy, but he was sweet. Like, he didn't have a mean bone in his body.
Total loss. Yeah, I'm gonna miss him. [WHOOSH] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NARRATOR: As friends and family mourn Robert's death,
his body is transported to the county coroner for autopsy. [DOOR CREAKS] AMANDA MELTON: It was a very violent death that he suffered.
He had so many injuries that would have been lethal and deadly, that it was hard to determine exactly
which one was the fatal blow. Mr. Penn was a large, strong man. It was clear that his attack was sudden and unexpected.
I do not think he had a chance to fight or defend himself. I believe he was incapacitated fairly quickly, which
led me to believe that that was a premeditated attack on him. It just seemed like there was a motive involved
that would have created that type of anger. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Most of the time,
in a robbery case, the perpetrator is gonna use the least amount of force possible to achieve a theft.
It's an anomaly anywhere that someone would use that level of violence and brutality
to achieve a robbery. Things were not making sense to me. So for those reasons, it was not adding up in my mind.
[STREET BUZZING] [TENSE MUSIC] CHUCK WALTER: I first became aware of this case, like a lot of people in Paducah,
hearing items on the news. This was a fairly horrendous, nasty homicide, and it attracted a fair amount of attention here locally.
And when news like that hits, I always think well, there's a possibility I'll be involved in the trial
and litigation of this matter. Just how vicious and brutal the attack was obviously, someone wanted Robert Penn dead.
The injuries to his face, the fact that he was disemboweled, almost decapitated,
this was not a robbery. This was a crime of someone who knew the victim. It was personal.
[SCARE CHORD] [DISTANT DOG BARKING] CASEY STEENBERGEN: We started entertaining the idea that someone personally knew the victim
and did have animosity some type of grudge. AMANDA MELTON: Who could have a vendetta against him?
Who could attack him that viciously and cause his death in that manner? - Listen to it, just the way you know--
- Yeah, I'll get some more quotes for it. Yeah, you've heard it. OFFICER: And that solidifies--
like, you know for a fact. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Ms. Penn described her husband as a big old Teddy bear.
She said that he was a kind man. When asked if he had any enemies, she said that she wasn't aware of any.
I still had several questions I wanted to ask Cocina. Any detail could be huge in an investigation
of this magnitude. You know, our main priority is to figure out what happened and make sure we do right by your family
and figure out who did this to your family. OK. Was he hiding in that area or just happened to be--
- There was no walking. There was no sound. - OK. - He was just there. I don't know where he come from.
He was just there. There was no footsteps, no nothing. - OK. The more details we ask for
the more reluctant she was to give us details, to cooperate in the investigation.
What was the first contact he made with your husband? Can you describe what that looked like?
- It just looked like he jumped up on his back and had his hands on his neck. That's all I remember.
- OK. And what did your husband say or do? - Nothing. He hollered, run. - Hollered, run. - He hollered run.
And that's what I did. We're not used to that kind of stuff. - Sure. I'm sure it's terrifying.
So you were running-- - Towards the house. We was running back home. - OK. She, at one point, became kind of defensive
and indicated that she didn't want to answer any of my questions. - I don't know why we're going back over this.
I just don't know if my heart can handle this [BLEEP] again. - But there may be something little that we can bring
up that will jog your memory. That was a huge red flag because I'm simply trying to identify her husband's
murder and her own attacker. So what-- - But he took off back across the bridge, though.
- The guy that attacked you? - That attacked my husband and me, yes. He took off back across the bridge.
- So after the attack was over, he-- - He went back towards, like he was heading towards Emma Court.
- OK. OK. The more I spoke to Cocina Penn, the more suspicious I became of her. NARRATOR: Officers searching the crime scene
also questioned Cocina's story. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] CHUCK WALTER: The canine didn't hit anything.
There was no human scent on the other side of the bridge, where apparently this mysterious stranger
had appeared. Therefore, nobody came from that area and attacked them when they were by the footbridge.
There was nobody coming from the other side. Her story had no support from the facts.
- OK. They ran at the house over here? NARRATOR: Detectives decide to delve deeper into Cocina's relationship with Robert.
They turned to social media for clues. - --no one over here. [STREET BUZZING] [TENSE MUSIC]
CASEY STEENBERGEN: We didn't find a social media presence for Robert Penn, but we did find a social media
presence for Cocina Penn. All the pictures that she had posted were of herself and grandchildren
but never a picture of her and Robert together. [CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC] TANIA HOPKINS: I always thought they were good.
She was nice. She was fun. They played with one another like, you know, couples do.
She took care of a lot of kids. They had a lot of kids. 20 years ago, a cousin of mine got them two together.
And then Cocina was married to him. From my understanding, the relationship was very loving.
They showed affection to each other. They just acted like a normal couple. CASEY STEENBERGEN: The absence of a picture of her
and Robert on her social media suggested that maybe their relationship wasn't as
close as people had thought. Maybe there were some issues or estrangement. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
[LEAVES RUSTLING] NARRATOR: Officers canvassed the neighborhood, hoping to find home security footage, anything that
can shed light on the murder. - Hello. MAN: Yeah? - This is Casey Steenbergen with Paducah Police Department.
- Sure. - We're wondering if this records. - Yeah, I just had a guy stop by, another cop.
He was undercover, I guess. He caught up in a-- CASEY STEENBERGEN: Real tall guy?
- Yes, skinny. But I don't know if he had glasses. CASEY STEENBERGEN: And, like, crazy tall?
- Yes, like wicked tall. We reviewed the cameras with him, and I didn't have anything to show up.
NARRATOR: As the investigation continues, officers at Paducah's police station get an unexpected visit from a woman wanting to talk.
OFFICER: Right here, so. WOMAN: Oh. OK. - Let's go in and have a seat in that chair is fine.
And then someone's gonna be in with you, OK? WOMAN: OK. CASEY STEENBERGEN: She had found out
that Robert Penn had been murdered and felt the need to come forward and talk to investigators.
- And what information do you have for me today? - Uh, let's see. Um, William Tabor has been having an affair with Coco.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] CASEY STEENBERGEN: Discovering that Cocina Penn was having an affair was a huge deal in our investigation
because that presented investigators with a motive. NARRATOR: William Tabor is well known to Paducah PD.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Knowing William Tabor's affiliations with known criminals, you can't help but entertain
the possibility that maybe he was more involved in these events than simply just
being Cocina Penn's lover. [TENSE MUSIC] CHUCK WALTER: William Tabor is the patriarch
of a family that has substantial criminal history here in Paducah. You have to consider him a suspect
because you've got a motive. When you fool around in someone's family, stupid things can happen.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: We immediately sought out William Tabor, who was working in construction at that time.
When approached by our investigators, he said, yeah, I think I know why y'all are here.
OFFICER: You're not in any trouble. You just need to help us. CASEY STEENBERGEN: He agreed to come back
to the police department for an interview with our investigators. OFFICER: Right, come in here.
Here if you want. When did the affair start? - Uh-- I think it was this year. - This year?
Do you remember if it was the beginning of this year, summer? - No, it was more the beginning.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: It was so important that he confirmed he was having an affair with Cocina Penn.
But the biggest question was, was Tabor actually there when Robert was murdered?
[TENSE MUSIC] - Do you know her husband? - Yes, he-- - Did he know about you-- - --probably a good person.
- He's a good person? - Did he by any chance know about you and Coco? No? CHUCK WALTER: They questioned Tabor in relation
to where he put himself vis-a-vis the crime scene. - What time did you get home?
- When, last night? - Mm-hmm. - That I'm off, around 5:00. - 5:00 PM? Did you stay at home the whole time?
- Yeah. - OK. And then you stayed at your house until 5:00 AM the next morning? OK.
Was anyone there with you? - Yes, ma'am. NARRATOR: Tabor says he was at home with his girlfriend.
If that checks out, he couldn't have killed Robert Penn. Then Tabor makes a shocking claim.
- She did come up to my job one time to tell us all that, uh, she was tired of him.
She liked for somebody to do away with him. [OMINOUS MUSIC] - Yeah. So she came over, said she's tired of him,
would someone go over and get rid of him? - Or see him. She didn't really put it like that.
It's just-- - What words did she use? - Kind of like, I wish I knew somebody that-- or y'all know
somebody that go bump him off? CASEY STEENBERGEN: When I heard that statement, it showed that she had hatred towards Robert that she loved
William, wanted Robert out of the picture, and wanted to be with William Tabor. - Like I was telling him, when you go--
NARRATOR: Officers seize Tabor's phone and find deleted texts from Cocina. OFFICER: Seven days.
- I think it's 10 days back from where we're at. OFFICER: So we definitely need to work--
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Through digital forensic examination of his phone, we found out that Cocina had sent him a text
message, which indicated that they spoke of moving to Florida together and used the words, "and he'll be gone,"
referring to Robert. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] CHUCK WALTER: The motive? Yeah, she had the motive.
She wanted him dead. She wanted to traipse off to Florida with her paramour. NARRATOR: The search for surveillance footage
pays off when a neighbor hands over video from his doorbell cam. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Hey, I'm Casey. I'm a detective with the police department. MAN: OK.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Do you get the videos? I think, detective got 'em. MAN: I've seen them, too.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Yeah. Thank you for getting us that. The biggest question for me was
what is that video footage gonna show? The hope is that it captures everything that happened.
MAN: At the end of the day, he don't expect something like this to happen right in front of the house. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Yeah.
Thank you. Yeah, that's gonna be hugely helpful. As gruesome as it would be to watch
you hope that it would capture the totality of this attack. NARRATOR: While the footage is analyzed,
Steenbergen tracks down William Tabor's girlfriend. CASEY STEENBERGEN: You're not, are you?
You are? [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] I spoke to William Tabor's girlfriend to corroborate the affair
that William was having with Cocina. Well, I don't think it's any secret at this point.
So there's been a murder. - That's not good. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Yeah. - That's not good at all.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: The victim is Robert. - And see, I was gonna talk to Robert. CASEY STEENBERGEN: OK, OK.
Well, that's why we're here. That's what we'd like to talk about. - And also, I can vouch for my own man being here, too.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Yeah. And that's something that we wanted to talk about, you know.
What was going on with Coco and William and Robert and just kind of the dynamic of that?
And then she showed me a text message that she had sent to Cocina, warning her that she was gonna alert Robert of the affair
if Cocina did not leave William Tabor alone. - I did send her a message. I did tell her that I was going to let her husband know.
And three days later, this happened. CASEY STEENBERGEN: The text message from William Tabor's girlfriend to Cocina Penn
was very likely the catalyst to this murder. CHUCK WALTER: Boyfriend's girlfriend
is going to go to Robert Penn and spill the beans. That establishes a lot. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
NARRATOR: But rumors of an affair aren't enough to arrest Cocina. Steenbergen needs solid evidence.
And the recently discovered doorbell footage could be a game changer. [TENSE MUSIC]
CASEY STEENBERGEN: The camera is pointed in the area that Cocina described, that she and
Robert ran from while the attack was occurring. The attack beginning off in the darkness here, in the darkness,
is the red footbridge. ROBERT: No, baby, no! [CRYING] Listen, baby! No, baby, no!
[SCREAMING] [DOGS BARKING] [ROBERT YELLING] CASEY STEENBERGEN: This is a sombering
video for everyone to watch, especially the audio aspect. ROBERT: No, baby, no! CASEY STEENBERGEN: Hearing a man that we knew
had been brutally murdered, hearing him throughout that process in the last stages of his life,
was a difficult thing for all the investigators to digest. But the obvious thing that we're looking for
is any evidence of a third person being at this scene. And as they pass underneath the street light,
you clearly see that it's two people, not three people, as Cocina Penn described there would have been
when they reached this area. When I heard Robert Penn say, no, baby, no. That solidified to me that the attacker that he was
referring to was Cocina Penn. [CAR WHOOSHING] NARRATOR: Nick Barreiro is a forensic video analyst.
Using special software, he can look at the footage more closely. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
NICK BARREIRO: There's a variety of tools and software that we use as forensic analysts that
are not available to the average detective working on a case. So the first thing I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna magnify the area where these people were running. And then I'm gonna enhance the brightness
and contrast in that area. Particularly at night, when people are moving fast, the camera doesn't have an opportunity
to capture a lot of detail. I'm gonna go to a frame where these people are visible, where they're running under the light here.
To get the most control over these very bright parts of the screen and the darkest parts of the screen,
I would use a curves adjustment. And with the curves adjustment, it allows me to adjust the different tonal
ranges within the frame. We get a pretty clear view of the action, right. It's two people running.
And I've watched this video from beginning to end, and there are no other people.
There's no other movement that's visible within this frame that would account for a third person.
ROBERT: No, baby, no! [SCREAMING] NICK BARREIRO: So the video footage only tells us so much.
It's limited in its detail. We can see the general idea of what's happening there.
But the real evidence in this clip, I believe, comes from the audio track. ROBERT: No, baby, no!
[SCREAMING] [DOG BARKING] NICK BARREIRO: I think it's highly unlikely that two people being chased would result
in this audio clip, where we only really hear one person screaming. We would expect to hear both people
doing that if in fact, there was a third person involved. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] With the enhanced version--
ROBERT: Listen, baby! No, baby, no! [SCREAMING] [MOUSE CLICKS] NICK BARREIRO: --I think it would
be very hard to argue that he's saying anything other than, no, baby, no. As an investigator, I would be looking at this video footage.
I would be listening to this audio. And it would be pretty easy to come to the conclusion
that there was one person being chased by another person. And the person who was being chased
was very familiar with the person chasing them and calling them, baby. NARRATOR: Robert Penn's autopsy report
also throws doubt on Cocina's account of the night. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] CASEY STEENBERGEN: One of the most striking things
that I learned was that a significant time lapse had occurred between the time that Robert Penn died and
law enforcement was alerted to this incident. [CAMERA FLASHES] The time lapse told me that there
was a very high likelihood that Cocina Penn was not being honest about the times that she and
Robert left the house and the time that this attack occurred. [TENSE MUSIC] CHUCK WALTER: The coroner's report said the murder
happened around 3:13. She had her youngest son call in the murder of his father about 4:45.
[CAMERA FLASHES] By that time, the body's cold, rigor mortis was already setting in.
So that tells you, why did he lay out there for an hour and a half? What fit with our theory was she
used that opportunity to hide evidence, to construct her robbery theory, all sorts of things.
[DOGS BARKING] CASEY STEENBERGEN: It is reasonable to think that suspects would try to conceal evidence,
weapons used in the commission of a crime within their own homes. I remember one of our detectives
telling me that the house was very clean and orderly. - And even inside, is it not, like-- you know,
like bloody, you know? Like, she hadn't been cleaning herself up. Like-- OFFICER: I looked at the sink. - She got like.
OFFICER: Well, you don't have any blood. CASEY STEENBERGEN: They found bleach in a drain trap
underneath the kitchen sink. Who washes their dishes with bleach before they go to bed?
There was no reason for there to be bleach in the drain trap of their kitchen sink.
NARRATOR: Still searching for Cocina and Robert's missing phones, Steenbergen makes an important discovery.
OFFICER: Here's the snapshot. CASEY STEENBERGEN: Our patrol staff requested that dispatch pinged both phone numbers that
were obtained through Cocina and Carl in an effort to locate those phones. CHUCK WALTER: So they start pinging those cell phones.
And those cell phones are found about 25, 30 miles south towards Mayfield, Kentucky.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Through my investigation, I determined that garbage pickup routes ran every single day in the city of Paducah.
CHUCK WALTER: The police department were able to track those cell phones to a landfill
in the next county south. I believe that she had thrown away the phones in a trash can.
She had thrown away the wallets. She was obviously trying to say, look, this is a robbery.
I had nothing to do with it. [WIND WHOOSHING] NARRATOR: When the DNA results from the blood found in Cocina
and Robert's home come back from the lab, the last piece of the puzzle finally falls into place.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: The lab confirmed that the blood on the kitchen cabinet door was Robert's blood, along with her
and Robert's blood found deeper into the house. Directly conflicted with her account,
which was that she burst through the front door and went straight to Carl's room, which is just
inside the front door of the residence, to notify him that, your dad is hurt and call 911.
[CAMERA FLASHES] Knowing that Robert's blood found in the kitchen and bleach in the drain trap, it proves
that Cocina went deeper into the residence and was cleaning and concealing evidence.
CHUCK WALTER: I thought Ms. Penn was clever but not very smart, if it's possible to be
those two things. - He's gonna switch the cuffs around. [HEART POUNDING, TENSE MUSIC]
CASEY STEENBERGEN: One of our other investigators recognized that the cuts on Cocina's hands
are consistent with injuries sustained by stabbing attacker rather than a victim.
Frequently, in a stabbing attack, blood being viscous and sticky, surfaces such as a knife
handle become slippery. And it's a common thing that the attacker's hand will slip off of a knife blade, and they'll
actually cut themselves. [CAMERA FLASHES] CHUCK WALTER: Comparing the carnage that
happened to Robert Penn with the one superficial wound to her back, I admire her flexibility in making it.
She-- [SIGHS] she wasn't smart enough to have a shirt on at the time because there
was no corresponding cut in her shirt. But, OK, here, I'm gonna-- I was cut too.
Well, that was minor compared to what happened to her husband. And that also shows whoever killed Robert Penn wanted to,
had it in for Robert Penn. One little stab on her? That's nothing. That's nothing.
OFFICER: [INDISTINCT SPEECH] You just want to put her-- CASEY STEENBERGEN: Cocina Penn had
means, motive, and opportunity to murder Robert Penn. NARRATOR: Cocina is charged with the capital
murder of her husband. OFFICER: Coco, I'm putting your stuff in his front seat, OK?
CASEY STEENBERGEN: She was taken to the jail here in McCracken County. - That thing squished my wrist when you hit that bump.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] I told them I didn't do this. Maybe they should prove it. - Maybe.
NARRATOR: Cocina is held behind bars until her trial at McCracken County Courthouse.
[METAL BAR CLANKS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] BAILIFF: The Honorable Judge Tony Kitchen presiding.
Please be seated. All chairs are present, Your Honor. CHUCK WALTER: I was going to make sure
that she paid for her crime. That's my job. I get paid for being tough. - When you look at Cocina Penn, I
will tell you that your first instinct is to think, I can't imagine that this lady could have done
what she did to her husband. CHUCK WALTER: The first day, we had submitted a lot of strong evidence to demonstrate motive,
the fact that it was premeditated, and the fact that this was not a robbery. We had one more thing that was gonna tie it all together,
that videotape. ROBERT: No, baby, no! [SCREAMING] CHUCK WALTER: The last thing the jury
heard on that first day was, no, baby, no. Baby, don't kill me. They heard him screaming for his life.
[ROBERT SCREAMING] DYLAN PAYNE: When we're at the movie theater, we're used to hearing those horrific screams,
but we know that those screams are not real. [SCREAMING] And I don't think that it was lost on anyone
in this courtroom, including the jury, that what they were hearing, which is stuff of nightmares,
was very, very real. [TENSE MUSIC] AMANDA MELTON: The evidence I was asked for at trial had to do with my observations
about his injuries and the impact of his injuries. When I looked at Cocina, she seemed
very distant, very stoic. I never saw her show any kind of emotion in any kind of way,
even as I was describing his injuries. CHUCK WALTER: In court, people testified that Robert was a caring, loving, and doting father,
that he really loved his wife, that he really loved his kids. - Well, the first thing, my dad was-- he
was literally my best friend. He was literally my everything. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] That man, he showed me a lot of things.
He's made me a very good man. And I really miss him. I would do anything for my father.
It's destroyed me, personally. My dad didn't deserve this. CHUCK WALTER: On the night that she--
NARRATOR: On the third day of the trial, the jury is asked to decide Cocina's fate.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] CASEY STEENBERGEN: The jury came back unexpectedly fast with a guilty verdict for Cocina.
- It took the jury less than an hour. That's unheard of. DYLAN PAYNE: I'm not sure that without the doorbell footage,
that we would have even gotten a conviction. NICK BARREIRO: Home surveillance video footage
can be brought into court, and it acts as the perfect witness. It doesn't have a memory.
It doesn't have a bias. It's not gonna be influenced by outside factors. That video, when it comes in to court
and is presented to a jury, is gonna show exactly what it saw at the time of the incident.
DYLAN PAYNE: 20% of households in the United States have some sort of Ring video doorbell system.
That's about 23 million households. And what that means is, whether you're walking your dog
or whether you're killing your husband, there's a good chance that there's a set of eyes
that you don't realize that it's watching you do it. [CAMERA FLASHES] NARRATOR: Cocina Penn is sentenced to life in prison.
[CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC] AMANDA MELTON: It is a lack of humanity to brutally kill someone in the way she did.
CASEY STEENBERGEN: Cocina Penn has never shown any remorse to the consequences affecting her children.
- It's hard for most people to wrap their mind around the fact that you have a child, whose father has been murdered
and whose mother was the murderer. DISPATCHER: He's in the road? CARL: Yeah. DISPATCHER: OK, hon.
CARL: I don't think he's alive. - I hate that she made him see that. I hate that that's probably the last thing
he remembers about his dad. They say time heals all wounds, but it's not true. [CHUCKLES] It's always there.
I hope Robert is remembered by everybody knowing how loving he was, how he would have helped anybody.
He'd give the shirt off his back. He really would have. [THEME MUSIC] [AUDIO LOGO]

When Robert Penn is slashed to death during a late-night walk with his wife, it looks like a stranger is responsible. But audio from a doorbell camera points to someone close to home.

This true crime series delves into the chilling stories of homicide investigations where crucial evidence is captured on doorbell camera or home security footage.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/⁨@UCVVXDVee0JZ2dlPYtpdTZVg FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseMovies Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

Cocina Penn is charged with murdering her husband Robert in a brutal attack during a morning walk, driven by an affair.

Key points

Emergency Call. Carl calls 911 after finding his father stabbed, revealing a shocking family tragedy.
Brutal Murder. Robert Penn is found dead, marking a shocking crime in Paducah.
Affair Revealed. Cocina's affair with William Tabor surfaces, suggesting a possible motive for the murder.
Shocking Claims. Tabor reveals Cocina's disturbing comments about wanting Robert out of the picture.
Video Footage Discovery. Surveillance footage from a neighbor becomes crucial evidence in the case.
Cocina Charged. Cocina is charged with the capital murder of her husband, Robert.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I don’t think he’s alive.

Carl's desperate call to 911 about his father.

0:41WatchMar 15, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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