Skeleton Stories - Season 1, Episode 3 - Suicide and Suspicion - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A witness too young to testify, a murder investigation crippled by circumstantial evidence.
Someone doesn't fall down and then cut a bone quite like this. NARRATOR: Can Dr. Murray tell how this young woman died
and give police what they need to arrest a killer? Then, the body of a depressed postal worker
turns up in the woods with a whiskey bottle and a shotgun. Can Dr. Murray confirm an open and shut case of suicide,
or is something more sinister at work? And even a grown man with a very long arm reach
would have a difficult time putting that shotgun up against the side of his head
and pulling the trigger. [THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: On a scorching California afternoon,
a family dog comes running home after spending several hours in the nearby woods.
It's not the first day he's spent exploring the surrounding wilderness. But this time, he brings home a grisly trophy.
This is a rural remote area. There's a house probably 2 and 1/2 miles off the highway.
And the people that live there, they see their dog chewing on something. And they go up and look, and they're like, oh my god.
It's a human hand. NARRATOR: Local police search the area and soon uncover a cache of decomposing remains.
For Sergeant Rob White, the gruesome find may be the break he needs in a missing
person's case that's gone unsolved for months. That case began eight months earlier
when a 3-year-old boy wandered into a supermarket parking lot. Realizing that the toddler is alone,
a passerby approaches him and is shocked to see that his clothes are covered with blood.
She immediately notifies police. Sergeant White responds to the call. What we had was a 3-year-old boy wandering through
the parking lot, carrying $1. Where did you find this boy? NARRATOR: When police ask the boy his name
and where he's from, he simply repeats a chilling phrase. ROBERT WHITE: All he would say was Pedro killed Mom.
Mom's wrapped in a blanket. NARRATOR: Bob White now believes he's investigating a homicide.
Eventually, police are able to coax out the boy's name, Phillip Reyes. Checking local daycare services, police
learned that Phillip was the son of Nancy and Guillermo Reyes, owners of a local hair salon.
Police locate the boy's father quickly. But they can't find Phillip's mother, Nancy Reyes.
ROBERT WHITE: And then our next step was to take the child to a child psychologist.
NARRATOR: There, he reveals other details of the story. Can you tell me about what did Pedro do to Mommy?
NARRATOR: In a confusing mixture of English and Spanish, Phillip says that Pedro hit his mother
and that Pedro drives a gray car. According to the psychologists, the boy also claims Pedro hit his mother with a palo, the Spanish word
for stick. White then interviews the boy's father. ROBERT WHITE: He tells us that their marriage was perfect.
They had known each other since they were high school sweethearts. You know, they'd been together for 10 or 15 years.
You know, picture perfect marriage. NARRATOR: But as police dig deeper, they find that a great deal about Nancy
is far from perfect. For years, Nancy had been struggling to support Phillip and two other children in California
and her extended family in Ecuador. With money tight, she recently borrowed $5,000
from a childhood friend, who was now a reputed methamphetamine dealer. White's ears perk when he hears the drug
dealer's name, Pedro Nunes. Phillip's words ring in his mind-- Pedro hit Mom. White puts Nunes on a national wanted list,
and police eventually track him down in Phoenix. Just as little Phillip said, Nunes' car is gray.
A search of the car reveals evidence that White hopes will enable him to bring justice to Nancy Reyes.
ROBERT WHITE: Inside the vehicle, you can see dark stains that we think is blood.
It turns out later it is blood. And they're everywhere. NARRATOR: Using a DNA sample taken from Phillip,
the crime lab verifies that it is his mother's blood. White thinks it's damning evidence.
But Pedro offers up a reason for it to be there. He claims Nancy cut her wrists in a suicide attempt.
Nancy had attempted suicide in the past. Despite police suspicions, Pedro's story
has some credibility. Given Phillip's testimony, Sergeant White is ready to charge Nunes with murder, but the district
attorney isn't. I've been a prosecutor for 16 years. And I think what you learn over a course of a career
is that it is better to have all your ducks in a row, and don't jump in too quickly.
NARRATOR: Langer argues that there's not enough hard physical evidence and that Phillip's age makes
him a less than credible witness. ANNE LANGER: The three-year-old was still way too young to ever
testify, and to put him in front of Pedro in a courtroom, I really didn't think that he'd be
able to stand up under the pressure of direct or cross examinations. NARRATOR: It's a bitter pill for White to swallow.
Our whole case was circumstantial evidence. Although it was good circumstantial evidence,
it's still circumstantial. But without the person, without some kind of means or manner of death, you can't really do anything.
NARRATOR: White's investigation stalls, and with it, the only hope of finding justice for Nancy.
But now, with the discovery of the skeleton deep in the woods, a new chance for justice may be possible.
ROBERT WHITE: When you walk up to where it's at, the first thing you see is a rib cage and hip and partial leg.
About 10 or 15 feet away from there was a skull with some hair on it. NARRATOR: White takes another long hard look at the remains
and picks out one small detail that might help refuel the investigation. ROBERT WHITE: One thing I saw right away
was a ring laying in the dirt, and I have a picture of Nancy in our office. And that ring is on her finger on that picture.
We need to bag this up. Can we get an evidence bag over here for this please? NARRATOR: A comparison of Phillip's DNA with a sample
of mummified tissue taken from the remains provide Sergeant White with the hard evidence he
needs to confirm that this skeleton is Nancy Reyes. But Sergeant White still can't take the case back to the DA
yet. He first needs to know how Nancy died. Since the remains are nearly skeletonized,
a medical examiner cannot perform an autopsy. White turns to the one person who might be
able to answer this question-- forensic anthropologist Dr. Turhan Murad. I think a lot of people are surprised
and will continue to be surprised at what can we learned from bones. That's one of the reasons I like doing what it is that I do.
NARRATOR: Dr. Murad takes on the case with one condition-- that White tell him nothing but where he found the body.
I prefer that investigators, when they bring in something like these remains to us, that I not know too much
and give them what I feel is then my more objective opinion as to what the bones are saying.
NARRATOR: The day the remains arrive, Dr. Murad hears from White. ROBERT WHITE: I called Dr. Murad on the phone, explained to him,
you know, this is what I want. How did this person die? NARRATOR: Before Dr. Murad can begin unlocking the secrets
of these bones, he'll need to clean them of all remaining flesh. It's a task that involves one of the oddest tools
at Dr. Murad's disposal-- the bug box. Inside is a colony of domestic beetles. Their diet is decaying flesh.
TURHAN MURAD: The dermestid beetles will eat all the dried flesh off. They don't like feathers.
They don't eat hair. But they'll clean up a skeleton very, very clean without having to get our hands into a bunch of muck.
NARRATOR: It will take about four days for the beetles to do their work. Only when they are done can Dr. Murad
begin to shed light on the mysterious death of Nancy Reyes. Coming up, Murad discovers injuries,
but they may not be consistent with Phillip's story. Fractures to her head might have resulted from a fall
down the steps. NARRATOR: And later, if this man died in the woods, whose blood is in the bedroom?
We discovered blood on the frame rails, on the rug, and on the walls. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" continues.
Three-year-old Phillip Reyes is standing by his story that he saw his mother beaten to death by Pedro Nunes.
But so far, police have been unable to do anything about it because they have no physical proof
that she was murdered. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Turhan Murad is trying to find that truth
by examining Nancy's bones. As a first step, Dr. Murad removes the remains from the bug box.
Over the past four days, they have been cleaned by a colony of flesh eating beetles.
The bones are at last pristine and ready for him to examine. Next, Dr. Murad zeros in on Nancy's skull, where
he observes several fractures that could point to her cause of death. This skull needed to be reconstructed,
and that's what took the most time. There were lots of fragments. There were these fractures to the top of the head.
I reconstructed some of the bones that had been broken from her face. I glued them together, and I, in marking pen,
indicated where various of the fractures were. NARRATOR: With the fractures clearly marked,
Dr. Murad begins to see a telltale pattern. TURHAN MURAD: She had a fracture across the front of her face,
across the maximal, which contains the upper teeth, and underneath her nose. It's called a LeFort 1.
It's a type of fracture that occurs commonly in people if they're hit in the face.
NARRATOR: While this kind of the LeFort 1 fracture might have contributed to Nancy's death,
it's not proof of murder. TURHAN MURAD: People in an automobile accident if, in fact, they were to hit the steering
wheel with this portion of their face or maybe the dashboard, they might have a LeFort type fracture.
NARRATOR: But then Dr. Murad discovers another fracture, one that might provide the answers he's looking for.
There was a fracture that went around to the back of her head, almost completely around to the right side.
And then at the back, there was a fracture that radiated down and went underneath her skull.
This was a huge fracture. NARRATOR: Such a fracture would have certainly triggered massive cerebral hemorrhage,
causing the brain to swell. It's a condition that could easily have been fatal. Dr. Murad now suspects that Nancy suffered some sort
of trauma to the head at least twice and that one of those blows proved fatal. But he doesn't yet know what caused those fractures.
TURHAN MURAD: Fractures to her head might have resulted from a fall down the steps,
some kind of blunt force in any other fashion. NARRATOR: Without hard evidence that Nancy was murdered,
the DA will not bring charges against Pedro Nunes. Our whole case was circumstantial evidence.
So they really were knocking down my door, saying, come on. And I said, I can't just do that if I don't have the evidence.
So we're going to wait again until we get an answer from this forensic anthropologist.
NARRATOR: The skull has told Murad all it can, and now he must turn his attention
to the rest of Nancy's bones, hoping they will provide more clues to what caused her death.
He quickly discovers more injuries. Her ribs were broken as well. The fractures to her ribs even further suggested blunt force,
not just to her head, but also to her thorax and her chest. NARRATOR: The fractures in the ribs
confirm what Murad already knows, that Nancy received multiple blunt force trauma.
Still, they don't reveal what caused that trauma. But Dr. Murad's next discovery does.
This is a humerus proximal end with a very unique feature here. I found a cut mark that was really unusual.
And it was on her left humerus. Humerus is upper arm bone. NARRATOR: The humerus is the single bone
that makes up the upper arm. One of the major bones of the body, it averages two inches in diameter.
Nancy's humerus is cut in two. TURHAN MURAD: It was a lot of force that created that break.
On the lateral side of the humerus, there was a tiny radiating fracture going around the bone.
That suggested that this was done with a heavy instrument enough to crack the bone
in this hairline fracture. But most interesting is right before the fracture there
was a blunt edge about halfway through the bone, and it was straight. That suggested a cut of some type.
NARRATOR: For Dr. Murad, a cut mark is a significant find, because cuts can often bear impressions of the cutting implement itself.
TURHAN MURAD: When you cut a piece of wood or anything with a saw, there's some material that is removed,
and it creates a flat area at the bottom of the cut. That area is called the kerf.
NARRATOR: To uncover the secrets this kerf might hold, Dr. Murad must examine this bone under his microscope.
TURHAN MURAD: I can see that the bottom of the cut was wide. That says something about the width of the blade.
If it was V-shaped, you could suggest, well, it was a sharp blade. This was not sharp.
It was flat on the bottom, OK? It's a wide blade. NARRATOR: The tumblers of Dr. Murad's mind
suddenly clicked into place. A cut mark with a wide curve indicating a dull and unsharpened blade.
A blade that was weighted enough to have broken the bone when it struck. Repeated blunt force trauma to the head.
The bones have spoken. With this final clue, Dr. Murad thinks he now knows what killed Nancy Reyes.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] All that's left to do is call Sgt. White and report his findings.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up next, Dr. Murad presents his conclusions to Sgt. White.
TURHAN MURAD: There was this, kind of, silence for a moment. And then he said, you know, it's interesting you
should say that. NARRATOR: And later, what happened to this man's skull. BETH MURRAY: I received an assortment of skull fragments,
and over half of those were less than 2 by 2 inches. NARRATOR: That's next on Skeleton Stories.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] For Nancy Reyes, murdered in front of her 3-year-old son, justice is long overdue.
But forensic anthropologist Dr. Turhan Murad is about to deliver it. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Dr. Murad has found evidence that Nancy died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Now after examining the base of a cut or kerf on Nancy's arm bone, he's ready to tell police exactly what he thinks
caused that fatal head trauma. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] --note first. I'll give you a call back, OK?
NARRATOR: Dr. Murad phones Sgt. Bob White and reports his scientific findings. Nancy Reyes was beaten to death, and the instrument used
was a shovel. NANCY REYES: What are you doing? Shut up! TURHAN MURAD: The cut suggested a wide, flat-edged instrument
of some type. And the kind of tool that comes immediately to mind is that it was a shovel.
And if in fact a shovel was present to create that cut in her left humerus, then these other blows
that were done to her head might have also been done with a shovel. NARRATOR: With the murder weapon revealed,
there was little doubt as to whether Nancy was murdered. TURHAN MURAD: This was not an accident.
Someone doesn't fall down, and do this kind of damage to their head, and then cut a bone quite like this.
So this suggests, certainly, homicide. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: The detailed revelation is what Sgt.
White has been waiting for. ROBERT WHITE: One thing in any homicide case, you have to prove or you have to be able to show
how the person died. What Dr. Murad did was show that the injuries she sustained
to her head caused her death. [POLICE RADIO CHATTER] NARRATOR: But there is one problem, Philip told
police that his mother was hit in the head with a stick not a shovel. ROBERT WHITE: The little kid was saying Pedro used a "pala."
Our understanding, pala was stick. NARRATOR: But police soon realized they had been misinterpreting Philip's story all along.
TURHAN MURAD: Unfortunately or fortunately as the case might be, the word for "shovel" and the word for "club"
are a lot alike in Spanish. It's "pala" for a shovel, and "palo"-- ends in an O--
for a club. But now having said that there was a shovel present, it all fit together.
ROBERT WHITE: The information Dr. Murad gave us made the child's story credible,
and that final piece from Dr. Murad that sealed Pedro's fate right there. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
--area's called the kerf. NARRATOR: With Murad's discovery and with what they've learned
from interviews in the field, investigators feel they can finally paint a portrait
of Nancy's tragic last hours. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] On the day of Nancy's disappearance,
Pedro Nunez picks her and Phillip up from the hair salon where she works. Investigators suspect the plan was for him to drive them
to the bank, where Nancy will give him an installment on the money she owes him.
[SPEAKING SPANISH] NARRATOR: But Pedro is not in good shape. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] ROBERT WHITE: Pedro is, by his own admission,
on a seven-day drug-binge of methamphetamine. NANCY REYES: What're you doing? ROBERT WHITE: He doesn't have any patience,
and he's very violent. [INTERPOSING VOICES] NARRATOR: He tells her that he knows
she has the cash from the salon's register and that he wants all his money now. No!
Get away from me! ROBERT WHITE: We suspect she told him "no," she wouldn't give him any money.
He does not take "no" for an answer and grabs whatever is available-- NANCY REYES: What're you doing?
ROBERT WHITE: --a shovel. Shut up! [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NANCY REYES: No! Get away from me!
PEDRO NUNEZ: Get out! NANCY REYES: Ow! PEDRO NUNEZ: Unh! NARRATOR: As little Phillip looks on helplessly,
Pedro begins viciously beating Nancy. [THWACK] One blow snaps Nancy's upper arm bone.
This is the injury that creates the telltale kerf. But Pedro doesn't stop there.
He swings again landing the shovel square on Nancy's face causing the Le Fort fracture.
A third blow contacts Nancy's head from the right side creating a second massive break.
Inside her skull, her badly-bruised brain swells creating intense pressure, which cuts off vital brain functions, and Nancy dies.
ROBERT WHITE: He grabs a blanket-- PHILLIP REYES: Mama! ROBERT WHITE: -rolls her up in the blanket,
and throws her in the back of the car. And then he drives off. And he has to do something with the kid,
so he drops him off the first place that he knows he will be found. And that's the grocery store.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Thanks to Dr. Murad's findings, after 12 long months of investigation, prosecutors are finally able to file murder
charges against Pedro Nunez. ANNE LANGER: Murad's work gave me the physical evidence
that I needed to feel confident about taking this case to trial. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
NARRATOR: But there's a final twist in the case. Nunez is being held in an Arizona prison
for assaulting a police officer when authorities track him down for questioning.
But just as the charges are ready to be filed for murder, guards discover Nunez in his cell, dead.
He has hanged himself. ROBERT WHITE: I was very disappointed, because I, personally, wanted him to stand
trial for what he did to Nancy, and to her son, and her whole family. It's very bittersweet.
I'm sad that we couldn't bring the case to justice, but at the same time I'm very happy for the family
that they didn't have to go through it. TURHAN MURAD: The fact is it all came together,
and all the authorities and the family were satisfied with the conclusions. So the pieces fit together.
Literally and figuratively, the pieces came together. [BELL TOLLS] NARRATOR: Coming up, what begins as a straightforward suicide
ends in a courtroom battle. This case was the first time I was ever called to testify at trial.
NARRATOR: When Skeleton Stories continues. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] 20 miles north of Harlan, Kentucky, a grim search is on.
Behind the neat bungalows of a quiet rural area, police are combing the shadows for a dead man.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Tom Westfall, a 35-year-old post office clerk, has been missing for three weeks.
According to friends, Tom was a fun-loving guy who loved to be outdoors. Friends affectionately called him Tomcat.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] But according to his wife, Daisy, Tom had recently lost his zest for life
even though the couple was soon expecting their first child. He had been acting depressed and restless
for the past several months. He also began to drink and spend several nights away from home.
Then, Daisy tells police, Tom went hunting one day and never came back. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Daisy directs investigators to where Tom often hunted, a 15-acre patch of woods that begins right
behind the Westfalls' house. After just 20 minutes, police pick up a scent. It was a strong odor of decay, very nauseating.
Putrefying, almost. NARRATOR: Police followed the smell to its source, a collection of human remains.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] It's a grisly scene, [DRAMATIC MUSIC] a decomposed torso surrounded by scattered arm and leg bones.
WAYNE EDWARDS: The temperature had been in the mid 90s for approximately two weeks, and there was
very little flesh on the body. NARRATOR: Near the body, they find two objects. WAYNE EDWARDS: What we saw there was an empty whiskey
bottle, and a 20-gauge shotgun, and we found fragments of the skull. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
NARRATOR: And the skull was shattered to bits. JEFF ENGLAND: Literally, the skull was in 42 pieces.
So the only way that they could identify this as being his body was to have dental records brought in from him.
NARRATOR: The county coroner quickly compares the corpse's teeth to Tom Westfall's dental records.
He looks for cavities, fillings, tooth and jaw anomalies, anything that will link this skull to Tom.
It's a perfect match, and evidently, an open-and-shut case. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] For experienced detectives, a body, a bottle, and a shotgun
make for a puzzle with a simple solution, suicide. MARK HAYNES: Just the way the body laid,
it did give the appearance of maybe somebody that had been drinking and had shot themselves,
whether accidentally or intentionally. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: It seems that Tom Westfall
had been even more depressed than his wife suspected. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] The state police fly the remains to Louisville,
where Kentucky's chief medical examiner is waiting to declare a cause of death and close the case.
He speculates that Tom Westfall shot himself in the forehead, right above the nose.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] But because the skull is in so many pieces he can't be sure. GEORGE NICHOLS: Well, I cataloged and described
the bony fragments, but knew as soon as I enumerated them that this case needed the evaluation
of a forensic anthropologist. And at that point, I called Dr. Murray. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray. My job is to figure out who and how.
To me, that is the job of the anthropologist. To take the unknown, put a face on that person.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: What's left of the skull is sent to Dr. Murray's laboratory
at the College of Mount St. Joseph. BETH MURRAY: I received an assortment of skull fragments.
There were approximately 42 reasonably-sized fragments and over half of those were less than 2 by 2 inches.
The medical examiner's office determined that it was a super nasal entry, meaning above the nose,
and a right temporal exit. NARRATOR: To confirm that Tom Westfall shot himself, Dr. Murray must put his skull back together.
Until the skull is reconstructed, you really can't be 100% positive as to what caused
this amount of fragmentation. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: And so, Dr. Murray begins the painstaking
reassembling of Tom's skull. BETH MURRAY: I take the fragments, and I spread them out, get a good look at them,
and try to determine where in the skull they might have come from. If it has teeth in it, obviously it's from one of the jaws.
I got a-- a cranium-base region going here because we got foramen magnum going there.
But there are other areas of the skull that are kind of generic. So some matches are easy, some matches are more difficult.
I just look for edges that meet up. NARRATOR: Like a hobbyist picking through a jigsaw puzzle
on the dining room table, Dr. Murray looks for patterns in the edges of the different fragments.
BETH MURRAY: I can also use certain natural tracts on the skull like the sutures--
the joints between the skull bones or the vessel grooves inside the skull. And those can lead to a confident match.
Once I've made all of the matches that I think I can make, the next step is going to be to apply the glue.
NARRATOR: To make the most accurate reconstruction, Dr. Murray employs a tool so simple
it almost seems like child's play-- --play is around with some of this-- NARRATOR: --a sandbox.
The purpose of the sandbox is that I need something that will support the bones as they dry, I can press the bone into that
and it will give it some stability. NARRATOR: As she begins her work, she quickly sees that Tom Westfall's
skull appears to have been blown apart from the inside. Some of these pieces are warped to the point
that we're not going to be able to glue them together again. NARRATOR: Exactly the kind of damage often caused
by the blast of a shotgun when the barrel is pressed directly against the head. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
These warped bones suggest a close-range shotgun blast, because a shotgun releases a burst
of gases along with pellets causing an explosion inside the skull. BETH MURRAY: And what happens is there's an actual explosion
of gases from the muzzle, inside of the skull, that heaves the skull out in many directions.
The skull can withstand a lot, but there's no way it can withstand that internal explosion that goes
on at the muzzle of a shotgun. [BOOM] NARRATOR: When the muzzle of a gun is pressed to the head,
it's called a contact wound. Many contact gunshot wounds are self-inflicted. This discovery seems to lend credence to the police's theory
that Tom killed himself with a shotgun. But as Dr. Murray puts the last few pieces of the skull
into place, she realizes that one key assumption about Tom Westfall's death is wrong.
It's a discovery that contradicts everything the investigators have suspected so far.
The original accounts delivered with the remains said super nasal entry, meaning above the nose.
But as I was able to reconstruct the face, there wasn't a thing wrong with the forehead.
NARRATOR: There's little doubt that a shotgun blew apart Tom Westfall's head. But now with Dr. Murray's discovery
that there is no entry wound in the forehead, the question is did Tom commit suicide after all?
JEFF ENGLAND: Normally, if someone's going to commit a suicide with a shotgun, they would have to do it in front of them.
He would have had to brace the shotgun up against his forehead, and either through a mechanism
or using his toe, pulled the trigger. NARRATOR: With the theory of suicide now thrown
into question, Dr. Murray will have to dig much deeper to unlock the secrets of these bones.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, Dr. Murray makes a shocking discovery that raises the question if Tom didn't shoot himself,
then who did? BETH MURRAY: The seeds of doubt were planted that this was a suicide.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray has rebuilt the skull of 35-year-old postal worker Tom
Westfall. Everything was pointing to suicide until she discovered there was no entry wound in the forehead.
Now it's time for Dr. Murray to figure out exactly where Tom was shot. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
A contact blast to the head will typically leave telltale marks around the edge of the entry wound.
JEFF ENGLAND: It will leave a powderous residue on the particular area where that discharge was.
NARRATOR: Dr. Murray finds exactly such powder marks. However, these marks are around a hole
in Tom Westfall's right temple, not in his forehead. A more thorough examination revealed a close-contact entry
wound to the right temple, where the powder burns were still evident. NARRATOR: Dr. Murray is now certain
that the pellets entered Tom's skull through his right temple exploding his head
into dozens of fragments. With the entry wound in the temple and not the forehead,
the theory of suicide is now looking very unlikely. Even a grown man with a very long arm-reach would have
a difficult time putting that shotgun up against the side of his head and pulling the trigger.
Then obviously, the next assumption is someone killed him. JEFF ENGLAND: I really don't think
we would've gotten anywhere had her examination and conclusions not pointed us to the fact that this did
not appear to be a suicide-- [DRAMATIC MUSIC] --it appeared to be a homicide. NARRATOR: Now that they suspect homicide,
they look to the one person who was able to direct them to Tom Westfall's body, his own wife, Daisy.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Detectives return to the Westfall home in eastern Kentucky for a closer search.
The house is deserted. Tom Westfall's wife, Daisy, pregnant with their first child
has gone to Florida to be with her family for the birth. The only thing that we noted of significance
was that the bedroom happened to be cleaner than the rest of the house. The house was dirty, it had a very unkempt appearance.
The bedroom, in comparison, was clean, and it was very obvious that the walls had been recently cleaned.
NARRATOR: Intrigued, the detectives begin to question the Westfall's neighbors. One of them remembered something he thinks the cops should know.
MARK HAYNES: Around the time of Mr. Westfall's disappearance, a mattress company had delivered a mattress
to the Westfall residence. And he thought this was real unusual in the fact that Ms. Westfall was in the process of going out of state.
NARRATOR: Using records of the Westfall family's credit cards, detectives track down the business where Daisy Westfall
bought her new mattress. We interviewed the delivery drivers, and they told us that they thought
it was odd, because there was no old mattress there to pick up. MARK HAYNES: Based on that information,
we began searching local dump sites that are known for people to dump trash and property.
Within about two miles of the Westfall home, we were able to find a mattress and box springs.
NARRATOR: The mattress and box spring are stained a deep brown. A stain all too familiar to detectives on the street,
it's blood. JEFF ENGLAND: They did DNA analysis on that, then determined that was the blood from the victim.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Now police are finding puzzle pieces of their own, and the puzzle is starting to fit together.
Their next step is to return to Westfall's bedroom. WAYNE EDWARDS: The lab personnel were
able to use a chemical known as "luminol," which shows the presence of blood in a crime scene.
NARRATOR: Luminol is a compound that reacts with the iron in hemoglobin. Even if blood has been carefully scrubbed off of a crime scene,
luminol sprayed onto a surface can show traces of blood like glowing under a black light.
POLICEMAN (ON RADIO): Falsified object. NARRATOR: In late August 1996, police technicians
sprayed the Westfall bedroom with luminol. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] We then played a black light on the luminol,
and it showed a very large presence of blood in the bedroom. We discovered blood on the frame rails, on the rug,
and on the walls. NARRATOR: At last, the police can put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
POLICEWOMAN (ON RADIO): Stolen vehicle, incoherent juvenile. NARRATOR: They bring the dumped mattress
and box spring back into the bedroom and examine the blood spatters. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
MARK HAYNES: And there was blood on the upper part of the mattress, box springs, and bed frame which
would indicate that someone was shot on the bed and that they lay there for a short time,
and blood actually dripped all the way down and caused a pool of blood on the floor.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: The turn-around in the Westfall case that started in Dr. Murray's lab has
reached its bloody conclusion. Police still don't know exactly what happened. But they know that Tom Westfall died in his bed
and did not die by his own hand. In September 1996, detectives from Kentucky State Police
fly to Orlando. They want to talk to Daisy Westfall about Tom's death. All right.
I mean, however I can help, you know? MARK HAYNES: She denied having anything to do with the crime.
At that time, we let her know that we had found the mattress and box springs, that we had evidence, that there
was blood in the bedroom. NARRATOR: As Daisy Westfall's defiance begins to falter,
detectives play their ace in the hole. Blow by blow, they detail Dr. Murray's findings.
The entry wound to the right temple, the powder residue, and the unlikelihood of such a wound
being self-inflicted. Her story started to change. She then started to speak of how abusive he was.
MARK HAYNES: And at that time, she did admit that she had shot him. NARRATOR: Daisy presents police with her scenario
of how she killed her husband. She states that Tom's shooting was an accident, an accident that occurred while she
was trying to defend herself. [HEARTBEAT] Her story was he had the gun, she pushed away,
and all of sudden, it went off and shot him. [GUNSHOT] NARRATOR: It's a gripping scenario,
but police believe that it doesn't add up with the forensic evidence. I mean we all know it couldn't happen.
The evidence Dr. Murray provided us with would indicate that he was shot in the temple at a close range
with the shotgun. NARRATOR: With Dr. Murray's evidence and Daisy's new admission, commonwealth attorney Jeff England brings
the case before a grand jury. On September 22, 1996, Daisy Westfall is indicted for murder.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, the surprises in this case are far from over. Some of the biggest shocks of all
will unfold at Daisy Westfall's trial. BETH MURRAY: What seemed so black and white to me
became so gray once it was in the courtroom. NARRATOR: That's next on Skeleton Stories.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Murray's findings have convinced police that Daisy Westfall shot her husband dead in an act
of cold-blooded murder. But when Daisy is confronted by Dr. Murray's evidence, she tells police that her abusive husband came after her
with the shotgun and that it went off by accident while she was trying to defend herself.
It's time for the jury to reach a verdict. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] In June 1998, Daisy Westfall goes on trial for the murder
of her husband, Tom. Early in the trial, commonwealth attorney Jeff England calls Dr. Murray to the stand to describe for the jury
her rebuilding of Westfall's skull. This case was the first time I was ever called to testify at trial.
JEFF ENGLAND: Dr. Murray presented as clear a case as she could on her examination.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] BETH MURRAY: My job was to instruct the jury on what a 20-gauge shotgun at close range would do to a skull
Mr. Westfall's skull was actually given to me as I sat in the witness stand. That's pretty compelling to a jury,
to actually come face to face with the skull of the deceased. NARRATOR: Dr. Murray's testimony is simple,
because there is evidence of a close-contact wound, and because the entry wound was in the temple and not
the forehead it's highly questionable that this is a suicide or an accidental shooting.
On that fact, the State builds its case for premeditated and cold-blooded murder.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] With testimony from police and other witnesses, England assembles for the jury his version of Tom Westfall's
death on July 25, 1996. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] According to the prosecution, Tom comes
home that night intoxicated. It isn't the first time. TOM WESTFALL: There's a lotta places that I'd
rather be than in this place. MARK HAYNES: He had told her that he had a girlfriend
and that he was going to be leaving her. NARRATOR: That night, she waits until her husband is asleep,
then she loads his shotgun and walks into the bedroom. She places the shotgun against her husband's right temple
and fires. [GUNSHOT] The blast releases a fury of shot pellets and expanding gases.
[GUNSHOT] The pellets punch a hole through Tom's skull. [GUNSHOT] Almost instantaneously--
[GUNSHOT] --the build up of gas bursts the skull into dozens of pieces. Death is immediate.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] In the early morning hours, Daisy Westfall works desperately to cover her tracks.
Despite her advanced pregnancy, she drags her dead husband 100 yards through the woods.
MARK HAYNES: She attempted to make it appear as a suicide. She placed a shotgun and a whiskey bottle
next to the body of Mr. Westfall. NARRATOR: She returns to the house, discards the bloody mattress, and orders a new one.
Later, she begins telling friends and neighbors that she's worried Tom might be suicidal.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] But now, it's the defense team's turn to present their version of what happened.
And it begins with the heart-rending tale of domestic abuse and misery. MARK HAYNES: Ms. Westfall's defense was the fact
that she was a battered spouse, and that she had been abused, and that Mr. Westfall was a terrifying man to her.
NARRATOR: Taking the stand, Daisy recounts years of abuse that culminate in a chaotic, violent night.
The jury gasps when she says that on July 25-- [SHOUTING AND FIGHTING] --a drunk and raging Tom Westfall
had raped her even though she was eight months pregnant. Then he held her at gunpoint.
TOM WESTFALL: Give me the gun! NARRATOR: When she pushed him away, husband and wife fell over and the gun discharged killing Tom.
BETH MURRAY: She alleged that it was over a struggle with the gun. I don't understand how a woman who is pregnant
can struggle with a grown man with a shotgun and manage to shoot him at close-contact range
in the temple. NARRATOR: Daisy admits that she scrubbed the walls, moved the body, dumped the mattress,
and tried to lead police astray, but only out of panic. Not out of guilt. After both versions of the story
are presented, it's time for the jury to reach a verdict. Very difficult decision for the jury.
In fact at one point, the jury came back deadlocked, and they were sent back out to deliberate further.
NARRATOR: But after two days of deliberations, the jury brings back their verdict, not guilty.
JEFF ENGLAND: They didn't like Mr. Westfall, they probably thought he was a bad person.
Here she was eight months pregnant, and he was out having an affair. NARRATOR: Daisy is convicted on the lesser
charge of tampering with physical evidence at the scene. The judge sentences her to five years of probation.
For investigators in the Westfall case, the acquittal remains a lingering disappointment.
And for Dr. Murray, the verdict was a useful reminder of the border between the hard realities of science
and the volatile ways of human affairs. BETH MURRAY: I was satisfied in my testimony,
I was satisfied in my work. If I just poke the case in the right direction, then you know,
I've done something good. [MUSIC PLAYING]

A three-year-old boy found wandering in a parking lot has witnessed a murder.

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 anthropologists reveal murder truths in two cases: Nancy Reyes and Tom Westfall, challenging initial conclusions of suicide and accidental death.

Key points

A Chilling Confession. A young boy claims, 'Pedro killed Mom,' leading police to investigate a homicide.
The Murder Weapon Revealed. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Turhan Murad identifies a shovel as the murder weapon.
Misunderstood Words. Police misinterpret a child's description of the murder weapon, complicating the case.
A Bittersweet Conclusion. Pedro Nunez is found dead before facing trial for the murder of Nancy Reyes.
The Investigation Comes Together. Dr. Murad's findings provide crucial evidence, leading to charges against Nunez.
The Discovery of the Skull. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Murray reconstructs Tom Westfall's skull, revealing shocking evidence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

All he would say was Pedro killed Mom.

A chilling statement from a young boy.

3:15WatchSep 17, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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