Skeleton Stories - Season 1, Episode 1 - A Head for Murder - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] - What is it? - It looks like a skull. ANDY WILLIS (VOICEOVER): We realize it
still had brain matter in it. It's obvious this isn't a prank. This is real. NARRATOR: A suspected hoax turns into a crime
beyond rational explanation. As I was there alone in my laboratory, I literally got chills, because it was one
tiny cut mark after another. I remember just being in disbelief thinking, am I seeing what I'm seeing?
Who could do this? NARRATOR: Can Dr. Beth Murray solve a homicide from just a skull?
When a ranch hand disappears, suspicion of murder hangs in the air. I thought it was strange that Tommy would just take off.
He should've have said, you know, goodbye. NARRATOR: Now, it falls to Dr. Murad to literally piece together the fragments of a puzzle
and prove how a young man died. I don't know that anybody could be prepared or expect
what we found there that day. NARRATOR: On the outskirts of a small Midwestern town,
two boys head to an isolated lake for a day of fishing. Look. What's that? NARRATOR: But what begins as a day of fun
is abruptly cut short by a grizzly discovery. It's a human skull. Look at it. Oh my god.
Is it real? It looks real. Let's go. NARRATOR: Initially, police are skeptical of the boy's
discovery. At first, we thought that it possibly might have been a discarded skull from the school, which
is on the other side of the lake and the kids were just pulling a prank. NARRATOR: They soon see that it's anything but a prank.
ANDY WILLIS (VOICEOVER): We realized it still had brain matter in it. It's obvious this isn't a prank.
This is real. NARRATOR: Homicide detectives rush to the scene, to look for additional remains.
But after a thorough search of the surrounding area, they come up empty handed. In my 33 years of police work, this
is the first case involving this skull by itself appearing from the waterways. NARRATOR: All signs point to foul play.
But first, Detective Nugent needs to figure out who this skull belongs to. I returned to that police department,
started searching through our missing persons reports. NARRATOR: He finds four missing persons from the area,
three men and one woman. Investigators then turn to the only expert they know who could help identify the remains,
forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray. Each victim is a witness to their own death.
I'm merely there to speak for this person who can't speak for themselves anymore.
NARRATOR: Investigators deliver the skull to Dr. Murray's lab at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio.
DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): You never really know what's at stake when you start a case.
NARRATOR: But Dr. Murray does know where to start, with a biological profile. A biological profile is basically
a description of who, scientifically, the individual is in question. NARRATOR: Though she has only the skull to work from,
Dr. Murray is hopeful it will help her identify this unknown person. If you get only one part of the body in a case,
I would hope it's the skull. A skull provides critical information that can be used to assess the sex of the person
and the ethnicity of the person. NARRATOR: That critical information can be learned by measuring the skull's key features.
There are a lot of landmarks on the skull from which we take measurements, the length of the skull,
the breadth of the skull, the size of the eye orbits, the height and width of the nasal aperture.
All of these landmarks are measured. NARRATOR: Then, she inputs these measurements
into a computer program. The individual measurements are compared to the skeletal measurements in a databank
of known individuals. And the result will be a probability of whether this person is male or female, whether this person
has African-American ancestry, European-American ancestry, for example. NARRATOR: Within a day of receiving the skull,
Dr. Murray makes her first conclusions. The measurements suggested that the skull
was that of a female and that she was very likely Caucasian. NARRATOR: Her findings mobilize the investigation.
This information she supplied us gave us some place to start. NARRATOR: Since only one person from the area is female,
police focused the search around her. The missing person was a young woman named Tracy Stark who was
21 years of age, who left for work one day, leaving her mother-in-law in charge of babysitting her child.
NARRATOR: As police learn about Tracy, they uncover a heartbreaking story of abuse and neglect.
Tracy never knew her real father. And her mother was committed to a mental facility
during Tracy's adolescence. When Tracy was 14, her stepfather sexually abused her
and was sent to prison. But Tracy was resilient. And by the time she turned 21, she was already
getting her life on track. She started work at a local grocery store to help pay her way through college.
She was also the proud mother of a beautiful 18-month-old daughter, Alisha, and lived with common law husband Rob Venton.
She was a beautiful young lady, a beautiful smile, kind of long, darkish hair. And she looked vibrant.
And I mean, she just looked like a fun person to be around, full of life. NARRATOR: But then, on June 4th, 1996, Tracy disappeared.
Rob's mother filed a missing persons report. Nugent learns that, at the time, her husband Rob told police
Tracy had simply abandoned him and their daughter. But now that a skull matching Tracy's biological profile
has been found nearby, Detective Nugent suspects that there may be more to his story.
He brings Rob in for further questioning. I'm listening, Rob. Tell me something. DET.
JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): During the course of this interview, I could read that he was being evasive and untruthful
in our conversation. His body language, his blood pressure, and his heartbeat increased in his nervousness in the chair.
But he stuck to his story that she left and returned to where she was originally from and left him and the baby.
She left behind an 18-month-old baby. That also is highly unusual. If a woman is going to take off, she is going
to take an 18-month-old baby. NARRATOR: And interviews with Tracy's friends reveal that Rob was not always the caring husband
he seemed to be. He had a very quick flash point. He did have a temper. He was very easy to set off.
NARRATOR: Rob quickly emerges as a suspect in his wife's disappearance. But investigators still face many unanswered questions.
Although certain activity might seem suspicious or not natural, that doesn't give us a crime.
We still didn't know who this person was. And that's where we, again, had to turn to Dr. Murray.
NARRATOR: They are now counting on Dr. Murray, more than ever, to tell them if this skull
belongs to Tracy Stark. People are often identified by matching their teeth to dental records.
But that won't be possible in this case. Except for two wisdom teeth, all the teeth
are missing, which is odd. Teeth do fall out after death. But the molars typically don't.
The molars on top have three roots that hold them in pretty tightly. But the molars are gone.
And Dr. Murray notices something alarming about the missing teeth. DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): There's a lot
of breakage of the bone here. You can see just the fractured tip of a root. Teeth fall out all the time.
But they don't leave their roots behind. NARRATOR: The broken root suggests that the victim's teeth didn't naturally fall out after death.
Someone removed them, by force. I could actually see the plier bites from needle nose player marks.
It appeared the teeth were snapped out, you know, in this kind of motion. And I'm turning turning this over in my lab
and I'm thinking, you know, I can't believe what I'm seeing. NARRATOR: And Dr. Murray thinks she knows why this was done.
It's commonly known that teeth are used in identification. So that somebody was going to extreme lengths
to disfigure this person, so that they couldn't be identified. NARRATOR: Surprisingly, Dr. Murray
discovers that two of the victim's teeth do remain. The only teeth that were still there were the wisdom teeth.
They were unerupted. NARRATOR: Wisdom teeth typically erupted between the ages of 17 and 25.
In some people, the teeth never emerge. When that person was alive, when they were fleshed,
those teeth would've been hidden underneath the gums. He or she only removed the teeth that they could see.
NARRATOR: But the forced removal of teeth is only the beginning. As Dr. Murray examines the skull more closely,
she discovers the killer has gone to even more extreme lengths to disguise the victim's identity.
DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): As I was there alone in my laboratory and began turning this over,
I literally got chills, because it was one tiny cut mark after another, all types of tiny little insults,
tiny little wounds to that skull. And I thought, you know, am I seeing things? NARRATOR: The more Dr. Murray looks,
the more marks she sees on the skull. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was literally hundreds of tool marks.
There's serrated blade marks, where it looks like somebody's drug a blade down the side of the skull,
like in an attempt to deflesh it. This is just mutilation. This is just something bizarre.
This is a person who is obsessed and is just clinically, methodically, painstakingly
taking apart another human being. NARRATOR: If this is Tracy Stark, it appears her killer took her face apart, deflshing it,
to make sure that no one would ever be able identify her. ROBIN PIPER (VOICEOVER): You just cringe.
You can't believe [INAUDIBLE] the type of crime that has been committed. It just sickened me to think about the person that could
do that to another person. NARRATOR: But despite the well-defined pattern of injuries and a clear biological profile,
there is still no concrete evidence that this is Tracy's skull. Without a positive ID, the case can go no further.
DR. BETH MURRAY (VOICEOVER): I knew there was a lot at stake, that this wasn't a run of the mill case.
This was the most grisly case I had ever worked in my career. NARRATOR: Coming up, Dr. Murray hopes a DNA test will give
her the positive ID she needs. But can she find the clean genetic material for the test?
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray is examining a skull found on the muddy banks of a lake.
Police believe it may be all that's left of 21-year-old mother Tracy Stark, who police
now suspect was murdered. And from what Dr. Murray has already discovered, it was a bizarre and chilling crime.
I was seeing evidence that somebody had painstakingly taken all of the flesh off of this skull.
And I remember just being in disbelief, thinking, am I seeing what I'm seeing? Who could do this?
NARRATOR: One person who police suspect could've done it is Tracy's own husband.
But they're unable to pursue any suspect [INAUDIBLE],, because there is still no proof positive
that this disfigured skull belonged to Tracy in the first place. It's now up to Dr. Murray to give them that proof.
I could see the history of the dismemberment or the defleshing of this person, who had a face, you know, had a scalp,
had hair. It just sickened me. NARRATOR: Though Dr. Beth Murray has been unable to determine
if the skull in her lab belongs to missing person Tracy Stark, the mutilation is nothing short of shocking.
But she knows from experience that emotion has no place in the forensics lab. I try to step back and say, yes, this was a person,
but my job right now is to stay focused, not get emotional, not get involved, not get teary eyed.
How would my tears help this person? NARRATOR: The only way she can help the victim
now is by verifying her identity. The killer has gone to great lengths to destroy all recognizable characteristics,
including pulling out her teeth. But he made one critical mistake. Two wisdom teeth escaped removal,
because they were unerupted, lying hidden under the gums. I believe they were still there,
because the perpetrator didn't know that they were underneath the flesh. NARRATOR: And the teeth may contain
the precious piece of information needed to ID the skull, DNA. DNA can be obtained, typically,
from basically the guts or the inside of a tooth. The pulp cavity of a tooth contains
enough living, organic tissue that would have cells that would contain DNA. NARRATOR: But even if Dr. Murray can obtain a DNA sample
from the molars, it needs to be matched from a sample from one of Tracy's blood relatives.
This time, luck is on Dr. Murray's side. She did have a child. And from the child, we could get blood
and we could compare it to the DNA within those teeth and hope for a match. Detective Nugent came to the prosecutor's office and we
assisted him in getting a court order for a blood sample from the 18-month-old baby.
NARRATOR: But the results from the first DNA test are disappointing. When the DNA results came back from the lab,
they were inconclusive, because that skull had been in a lake environment with a lot of other small living
organisms whose DNA can contaminate the specimen. NARRATOR: The lack of a positive DNA match
is devastating to investigators. The investigators and I were, initially, disappointed,
obviously, in the DNA results. And I think that some of the detectives thought that this might be the end.
What are we gonna do? NARRATOR: Things are looking bleak. But Dr. Murray has one last trick up his sleeve.
Most people think of the skeleton as a static thing. But bone is alive. NARRATOR: Bones, like teeth, are living tissue.
And living tissue is comprised of cells that contain DNA. And I said, you know, I think that we could
get some core bone samples that might be able to give us some DNA, despite the lake water, some deep areas
of thick, dense bone that may have been protected from the contamination. NARRATOR: The back of the skull, the thickest, densest part,
offers the best hope of a clean DNA sample. I take my drill, I put the surgical core on it,
I core into it, under sterile technique, take out the samples, put them in a sterile container,
ship them off to the lab for DNA analysis. NARRATOR: As Dr. Murray anxiously await the results,
police continue their investigation of their prime suspect, Rob Venton. We found out that she had a bank account.
Money had been taken out of her account after she was reported missing. And they came up with a photograph of Rob
taking money out of an ATM machine. NARRATOR: All clues suggested Rob Venton killed his wife.
But Rob is sticking with his story that Tracy simply left town. And investigators have little else to go on.
If the DNA of the skull doesn't match, then that case will go cold. When you hear how horrific it was,
you hunger to solve the case. You have to have closure in such a horrific case. NARRATOR: Two months later, Dr. Murray's
efforts bring police one step closer to the closure they need. The DNA results concluded that this was in fact Tracy Stark.
NARRATOR: The test is conclusive. This skull is Tracy. Despite the killer's extreme efforts
to destroy all traces of the victim's identity, Dr. Murray has outwitted him. But even though she has confirmed that this skull
belongs to Tracy, investigators still have no evidence against her husband. Their only hope is to get help from the most unlikely
of sources, the suspected killer himself. Coming up, Dr. Murray's findings are put to the ultimate test, when they are used to confront
the suspected killer. Maybe we're gonna finally be able to put the pieces of Tracy
Stark back together, literally. NARRATOR: Later, what could've happened to a farm hand
with a hidden past? BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): Tommy would do anything for you/ great help for me around here.
He was like a son to me. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. Dr. Murray has proven that this skull is Tracy Stark's
and that it has been systematically defleshed, her killer's futile attempt to hide her identity.
But that wasn't the end of the story. NARRATOR: Police are eager to confront their prime murder suspect, Tracy's
common law husband Rob Venton. But before they can, they'll need to know every detail of what was done to Tracy Stark.
They again turn to Dr. Murray. It's my job to create a scenario of a sequence of events.
Then, law enforcement can take that sequence of events, presenting the suspect with the information.
NARRATOR: Scrutinizing this grisly patchwork of wounds, Dr. Murray catalogs the cutting tools and the manner
in which they were used. There's at least four different tool mark classes here, a serrated blade, and then something like a large machete
or a meat cleaver, and then a little tiny pocket knife-sized knife perhaps. NARRATOR: As soon as Dr. Murray completes
the horrific forensic narrative, police are ready to confront suspect Rob Venton.
We made the joint decision, yes, pull him in, find out what he has to say. NARRATOR: Police immediately hit him
with a barrage of damning details, details that Rob thought only could know. We know this, this, and this.
We know you pulled her teeth out with needle nose pliers. We know that you dragged a serrated blade down the skull
and defleshed her. That's often enough to get somebody to kind of crumble, if you will.
NARRATOR: At first, Rob refuses to budge. But as he's confronted, blow by blow with Dr. Murray's findings, eventually, he crumbles.
A year after her disappearance, Rob Venton confesses to the brutal murder of his wife.
The investigators are stunned as he recounts the grisly story of how he killed and defleshed his wife, Tracy.
It's the first Friday night that Tracy has had off in three months. And she's decided to leave the baby with Rob's mother,
so she and Rob could have some fun alone together. They start the evening with some cards,
a simple game of Gin Rummy. But things soon get out of hand. I don't need to cheat to win at card with you.
He stated that he and his wife Tracy got into a vocal argument. NARRATOR: Rob accuses Tracy of cheating
and the situation quickly escalates. Tracy Starks flees into the bathroom to escape
her husband's violent temper. DET. JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): He had a filet knife in his hand
and but her throat. She started bleeding. He panicked, ran from the house. NARRATOR: Fatally wounded by the man who claims to love her,
Tracy bleeds to death, most likely the result of a severed jugular, the primary vein that
drains blood from the brain. She spends her last moments alone. DET. JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): After a short period of time,
he returned to the house, found her laying in the bathtub, dead. He started disassembling her, cutting her up in pieces.
He told us how he defleshed her bones, how he carved her skull. It goes hand-in-hand with what Dr. Murray said,
as far as the blade striking the skull. He also told us how he extracted her teeth
using needle nose pliers, which is consistent with what Dr. Murray told us. NARRATOR: He then puts her body parts
in two large garbage bags. He buries them near the local sewage plant and disposes of the skull in the lake on the outskirts of town.
With a confession secured, using Dr. Murray's findings, Rob is charged with voluntary manslaughter
and abuse of a corpse. He receives a 10 to 25-year sentence and is still in prison.
His mother is currently raising his and Tracy's daughter. The murder, the dismemberment, the fact
that he used her credit cards after he had done all this, he went to such extreme measures and treated
with such callousness, a woman that he loved and had a child with, I can't understand
those sorts of things. So I don't try. I just don't even try. NARRATOR: Detective James Nugent and prosecutor Robin Piper
are forever grateful to Dr. Murray for helping them solve this gruesome case. The information that Dr. Murray
supplied us made the case. Without Dr. Murray, we wouldn't have developed the identity of the victim.
We wouldn't have developed the suspect. We wouldn't have closure. I guess I'd like to think that, if justice is served
and if I was a part of that, then people can move on with their lives, as best they can.
NARRATOR: Rob's mother buried Tracy's remains in a local cemetery. From time to time, Detective Nugent still visits her grave.
DET. JAMES NUGENT (VOICEOVER): She had a rough life. This is my way of recognizing her,
letting her know that someone does care about her. NARRATOR: Coming up, a remote chicken ranch is littered
with hundreds of bones. Unless Dr. Murad can determine which bones belong to a young ranch hand, a murder may go unsolved.
There were bones scattered all over the place, all kinds of beef rib bones and turkey bones, all of which
had to be identified and analyzed. That was my job. NARRATOR: That's next on "Skeleton Stories."
It's 5:00 AM on a Western Nevada ranch. While stacking lumber, the ranch's caretakers
find what looks to them like human bone, partially visible beneath the woodpile.
Alarmed, they phoned the ranch owner, Bob Hammett. BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): Came as a big shock.
In disbelief, I thought, no. It's got to be cow bones. It's got to be coyote bones or something.
You know, I had-- you know, human? No, no, no. NARRATOR: Hammett immediately summons the police.
The ranch hands direct them to a stack of old lumber near the chicken coop. As the police pull logs off the stack,
they discover part of a skull and a set of rib bones inside a torn flannel shirt.
They also find a clump of red hair. Ranch owner Bob Hammett isn't skeptical any longer.
In fact, he claims he knows whose body it is, a young red-haired laborer named Tommy Bledsoe, who came to work
on the ranch two years earlier. You know, I really miss Tommy. He was a sweetheart of a guy.
He was a younger fella. NARRATOR: Tommy grew up in Texas, dreaming of becoming a pro rodeo star,
until a back injury dashed his hopes. Since then, he drank too much and spent his share
of nights behind bars. But things changed when he showed up looking for work on the Hammett ranch.
Tommy, I met and he needed work. There was always stuff to do around here, you know, burning firewood or cutting firewood.
NARRATOR: Tommy took to the work and to ranch owner Bob Hammett. BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): Tommy would do anything for you.
He was great help for me around here. He was like a son to me. NARRATOR: But after a month, Tommy's new life took
a tragic turn for the worse. His girlfriend of over two years was suddenly killed in a car accident.
Her death sent Tommy into a deep depression. Tommy had gotten very, very despondent, withdrawn.
Basically, his personality changed. He felt somewhat responsible for her death. As a result of that, he talked suicide.
NARRATOR: Then, one morning, Tommy disappeared. I thought it was strange that Tommy
would just take off and leave. I thought it was strange, because he should've said goodbye, or tell us if he's coming back.
NARRATOR: If this pile of bones is the last of Tommy Bledsoe, then Bob Hammett's lingering questions will be answered
and police can begin a real investigation. But is it? Any time we have human remains in skeletal form, that's
when we contact Dr. Murad. NARRATOR: Police turn the Dr. Turhon Murad. Bones do have a story to tell.
I like to think that I can help tell the story from bones. It's what I do. NARRATOR: Dr. Murad immediately heads to the Hammett ranch.
The property itself is over 10,000 acres of brush and wilderness. At it's center are the run down farm buildings where
the remains were discovered. TONY BURDINE (VOICEOVER): We're lucky in this county.
We have Dr. Murad right here, which gives us the advantage of having him coming out to the scene.
I'd never been to a place like this before. It was very strange, almost surrealistic.
I don't know that anybody could be prepared or expect what we found there that day.
NARRATOR: For Dr. Murad, the first step to learning whether these remains are Tommy's is to sort and collect all
the human bones at the scene. But as he surveys the ground, it becomes clear that this will be a tall order.
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): This is not what I thought I was getting into. There were bones scattered all over the place.
And I don't mean just human bones. Human bones are what I do. It's what I'm there to help them with.
But there were all kinds of beef rib bones and turkey bones and just everything lying around this place, all of which
had to be inventoried, identified, and analyzed before it was even picked up. And that was my job.
NARRATOR: Bird bones are easily distinguished from human. They are thin walled and hollow, which makes them lighter
and easier to keep airborne. But bones from mammals, like sheep and cows, require closer scrutiny.
Piece by piece, Dr. Murad separates man from beast and identifies a growing stack of human bones.
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): There was a skull. And it wasn't complete. It was broken up.
And in the firepit itself, there were portions of a human vertebra that had been burned.
So unbeknownst to whoever did it, they were cooking their meal over burned human bone.
Bizarre to say the least. NARRATOR: Seven grueling hours later, Dr. Murad and investigators have collected more than 100
human bones and fragments. Now, he must rely on these bones to answer the two questions at the forefront of detectives' minds.
Is this Tommy Bledsoe? And how did he die? Because there was no flesh, the pathologist
couldn't perform an autopsy. They wanted answers to both of those questions. Who might this be and how might they have died?
NARRATOR: To shed light on these mysteries, Dr. Murad brings the bones back to his laboratory,
the Physical Anthropology Human Identification Lab at the California State University.
Here, he can examine the bones more closely. One of the most accurate ways to verify whether this is or isn't
Tommy is to compare Tommy's dental records with the placement of the teeth found in the skull.
If they match, it's as good as a fingerprint. But in this case, there's one glaring challenge.
Both the skull and the jaw are in pieces. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): There were lots of fragments.
The face, essentially, was missing. The mandible was broken. There were these fractures to the top of the head.
NARRATOR: Without the skull in one piece, there is literally nothing to match the dental records to.
Dr. Murad must put it back together. He'll first need to learn which of the hundreds
of bone fragments lying before him belong to the skull. One set of clues that guides him is the unique patterns
made by veins on the inside of the skull, the menengial arteries. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): And you can see, very subtly,
there's some grooves in there. Those are what [INAUDIBLE] from the menengial arteries.
OK? The menengial arteries are the coverings of the brain. By virtue of this kind of surface, on that bone,
I know that this is a cranial bone. It doesn't-- it's not like from an arm or a leg or anything like that.
This is from the skull. NARRATOR: Much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle piece by tiny piece, Dr. Murad painstakingly tries
to put the skull back together. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): So if I have a pretty good idea
as to where this might fit, then I'm gonna set it aside and I'm gonna look for other fragments that I can identify.
Once I have those identified, then I will try to literally fit them together. And if there is a good fit, then I will glue them together.
NARRATOR: Six hours later, the skull is in one piece. MICHAEL L. RAMSEY (VOICEOVER): It
was the forensic anthropologist that put that skull back together. Then, it got to a forensic dentist
that was then able to establish this was the victim. NARRATOR: The forensic dentist confirms
that this was Tommy Bledsoe. But now, they need Dr. Murad to answer a question with much graver consequences.
How did Tommy die? And was he murdered? There are only four ways a person can die,
homicide, suicide, natural causes, and accident. MICHAEL L. RAMSEY (VOICEOVER): Was there a crime here?
Or was there a person that had just died, been thrown under a lumber pile, and we
had no crime other than perhaps burying a body without a permit? NARRATOR: Coming up, Dr. Murad finds
vital clues in the fragments of the young man's face. In this case, the bones are talking to me.
They're telling me things. NARRATOR: Thanks to the work of forensic anthropologist Dr.
Turhon Murad, investigators have confirmed that a skeleton found on a remote Nevada chicken ranch was once
Tommy Bledsoe, a farmhand who had disappeared two years prior. Police returned to the crime scene
to question ranch owner Bob Hammett, hoping he can provide clues to Tommy's death.
The detectives came to me after they talked with the anthropologist and asked me
who had been on this ranch in this time period. NARRATOR: Hammett tells detectives
of another man who worked on the ranch around the same time as Tommy. His name is Hubert Wilkins.
Hubert and Tommy, they were friends. They were very dissimilar. Tommy was a smaller individual.
He was only about 5 foot 9, maybe 150 pounds thereabouts, a very outgoing person.
On the other hand, Hubert was a very large individual, in excess of six foot and extremely muscular,
and an introverted type, somewhat of a loner, had very few friends, and pretty much kept to himself.
NARRATOR: When Tommy suddenly disappeared from the ranch in the summer of 1994, it was Hubert who
claimed to know what happened. BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): And I asked where Tommy went.
And he says, I think he went back to Arizona. And I said, ah, he wouldn't have done that without coming
and saying goodbye to me. NARRATOR: A few weeks later, Hubert took a cue from Tommy and vanished.
BOB HAMMETT (VOICEOVER): He wanted me to take him to town to do his laundry. He just never came back.
There was nowhere to be found. He just disappeared. Hubert's gone, in the wind, not to be seen again
We have Tommy, who two years after Huber's disappearance is found underneath the woodpile.
So there's a strong finger of suspicion pointed at Hubert. NARRATOR: Did Hubert Wilkins to Tommy Bledsoe?
Police now suspect he could have. But before they could move forward, they need one more key piece of information
that only Dr. Murad can provide them. Was Tommy murdered? Even though the skull found under the wood pile
was fractured, this doesn't necessarily go to a homicide. It might have been an accident.
I mean, for all we know, perhaps a wood structure fell down on him and he died as a result
of that blunt force trauma from some cave in of some type. NARRATOR: Before Dr. Murad can tell if Tommy was murdered,
he must determine whether his skull fracture caused his death or occurred after he died, the result of scavenging animals
or the weight of the wood pile. To answer the question of when Tommy's skull was damaged,
Dr. Murad must examine the edges of the skull fragments themselves. On close inspection, he sees that the fractures
are not crisp and even, but ragged and bent. This suggests that at the time of breaking,
the bone was moist and pliable. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): Bone responds differently after it's dried out than it
does when it's fresh or green. Many of the fractures to this guy's face suggested that he was--
this was near the time of death, the bone was still fresh. It had a lot of organic material in.
It hadn't dried out. NARRATOR: In other words, whatever broke Tommy's skull, broke it when he was lying.
Next, Dr. Murad must determine if Tommy's injuries could have been fatal. To answer that question, he maps the fractures, so he
can decipher their severity. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): They're fractures radiating,
moving away from this area. I'm inclined to think that the major force was right here.
NARRATOR: He concludes that a massive blow to the glabella, the midsection of the brow ridge,
split Tommy's forehead, literally, into pieces. The broken bone itself would not have killed him.
But the shock to the brain underneath, unquestionably, would have. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): This blow
to his head was more than sufficient to have caused the cerebral hemorrhage and pressure
on his brain, his brain to swell, and to have caused his death. NARRATOR: Now, he must make the final and most difficult
determination. Are Tommy's fatal injuries proof of murder? Again, Dr. Murad turns to the fractured skull for answers.
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): In this case, the bones are talking to me. They're telling me things.
And I enjoy listening. Here's his left zygomatic, or cheekbone, that was fractured.
There's a fracture coming down into his left eye. The mandible, when it was recovered, was fractured here.
He was hit at least a couple of times. I can't tell you exactly how many times, but probably
two or more. NARRATOR: This pattern of multiple fractures is not at all consistent with a fall or an accidental impact
to the head. Dr. Murad has finally found the evidence investigators are waiting for.
Tommy Bledsoe suffered not just one single blow, but a number of successive blows that
ultimately shattered his skull. He was almost certainly murdered. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): This, at one time,
was a young man. He laughed, had family, cried, was known by people. He was a person.
And he didn't deserve to die this way. NARRATOR: The news galvanizes the investigators.
The hunt for Hubert Wilkins begins. They track him down and learn that he is working at a donut shop at Gallup, New Mexico.
Police decide that it's time to go pay Hubert a visit. Coming up, Hubert Wilkins goes toe to toe with Sheriff Reniff
and Dr. Murad's findings. I says, Hubert, we both know that Tommy never left the property.
NARRATOR: That's next, when "Skeleton Stories" continues. Dr. Murad has provided police with detailed skeletal proof
said Tommy Bledsoe was bludgeoned to death. Now, armed with Murad's findings, police prepare to confront their chief suspect, Hubert Wilkins,
a drifter who once worked on the isolated ranch where Tommy's body was found. Investigators question Hubert Wilkins at the donut shop
in New Mexico where he works. Remember, Tommy? You worked with him a couple of years ago?
That was a long time ago. Can we talk to you back in private here please? PERRY RENIFF (VOICEOVER): We spoke to him at length
for about two to three hours. He kept telling us how Tommy had left the property
and he never come back. And that was the story that he was maintaining. NARRATOR: The detectives are convinced
that Wilkins is lying. And thanks to Dr. Murad's findings, they are able to turn up the heat in the interview.
Having a pretty good idea of what happened, forensically, was vital, so that you
know when a suspect is lying. You can call him on it. Then, Sergeant Reniff hit him with the evidence and said,
we know you're lying. Here's what the physical evidence is. Now, we found the bones over here, didn't we?
NARRATOR: The investigators proceed to replay for Hubert the exact circumstances of Tommy Bledsoe's death,
from the shot to the fractured cheekbone. He's finding out the investigator knows more detail than I thought could ever be revealed.
You worked with Tommy Bledsoe. We found his bones this week. And finally, I told him, I says,
Hubert, we both know that Tommy never left the property. Now, do you want to continue the interview here
or do you want to go downtown and do it? The man kind of stopped and said, OK, well, here's
what happened and then gave the truth. NARRATOR: Nine months after discovering a pile of human bones on Bob Hammett's ranch,
Hubert Wilkins confesses to the murder of Tommy Bledsoe. It all came together. NARRATOR: With Hubert's confession and Dr. Murad's
findings, authorities could finally piece together the last few moments of Tommy's life.
As Hubert tells it, he began his friendship with Tommy Bledsoe in 1991. Both men are ex-convicts and drifters.
They get along well, until Tommy's girlfriend dies in a car crash in July of 1994.
Tommy becomes depressed. He was not the outgoing person that-- that Hubert was used to.
It basically was getting on his nerves. NARRATOR: One afternoon, Hubert decides to head to Reno weekend
on the town, without Tommy. The Reno rodeo was coming up. Hubert wanted to go to that rodeo
and Tommy wanted to go with him. I guess that's why they got in a fight. Well, at this point, Tommy threatened
to turn in Hubert, who was wanted on a parole violation. That was the straw that broke the-- the back.
PERRY RENIFF (VOICEOVER): He just exploded. Picked up the splitting [INAUDIBLE] and hit him, as he put it, between the running lights.
NARRATOR: Hubert pounds Tommy's head with the blunt end of the [INAUDIBLE]. The blows are swift and ruthless.
[INAUDIBLE] are precisely as Dr. Murad has described. One blow splits Tommy's cranium.
Another cracks his face's frontal bone and eye socket. A third breaks apart his zygomatic arch,
Tommy's cheekbone. By the end of the beating, Tommy is dead and panic grips Hubert.
He kind of fell apart and didn't know what to do with the body. Initially, he hid the body in the bathtub in the trailer.
That night, he went from place to place trying to figure out where to get rid of the body.
And finally, he decided, well, I'll put it next to the chicken coop and pile the lumber over it.
NARRATOR: He sticks around for a few weeks, until questions of Tommy's whereabouts subside.
Then, he moves on. In March of 1997, Hubert Wilkins is extradited back to Nevada to face charges
in the death of Tommy Bledsoe. Wilkins pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter, but tries for the lightest sentence possible.
The defense was trying to say, well, it's just kind of one blow. I mean, it's just--
you know, it's just one of those things. NARRATOR: But Dr. Murad has the proof. The beating may have been unplanned, but it was brutal.
Hubert didn't just kill Tommy. He battered him again and again. We were able to say, no, you know, we
have multiple separate blows. Because of the forensics that were involved here, we were able to convince and judge
for the upper term for the voluntary manslaughter, 11 years in the state's prison.
NARRATOR: From the first hours of the investigation to the final sentencing, Murad's skill made the investigation
and prosecution possible. Without him, there would have been no justice at all for Tommy Bledsoe.
DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): Sometimes it works out well and other times it doesn't.
Perpetrator was captured, the decedent was identified and the family notified so that there could be some closure
on the family's part. Without the physical evidence, they would've never gotten the confession.
They would've have never solved this particular crime. DR. TURHON MURAD (VOICEOVER): Bones have a story to tell.
I get a great deal pleasure out of interpreting what those bones can say. Sometimes it's very obvious.
Other times, it's not so obvious. It's a challenge to try to learn as much as I can
about the person from the hard parts of their body.

When a skull washes up at a small-town lake, the investigation reveals foul play. Another skull is found smashed into 23 pieces as well as hundreds of small bones.

This true crime series delves into the case files of the country’s top forensic anthropologists and reveals the secrets trapped deep inside the human body.

Brief Summary

Forensic experts identify and solve two chilling murder cases involving Tracy Stark and Tommy Bledsoe.

Key points

A Grizzly Discovery. Two boys fishing make a shocking find: a human skull with brain matter still inside.
The Investigation Begins. Detective Nugent investigates the skull's identity, leading to a missing person case.
A Heartbreaking Story. Police uncover the tragic past of Tracy Stark, a young mother who disappeared.
DNA Test Results. Dr. Murray's DNA analysis confirms the skull belongs to Tracy Stark, despite the killer's efforts.
The Killer's Confession. Rob Venton confesses to the brutal murder of his wife, Tracy Stark.
Tommy Bledsoe Identified. Thanks to Dr. Murad, investigators confirm that a skeleton found was Tommy Bledsoe, missing for two years.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I literally got chills, because it was one tiny cut mark after another.

0:29WatchSep 16, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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