Skeleton Stories - Season 1, Episode 5 - Body of Evidence - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A young girl's sudden death raises suspicion. There were statements made by the stepmother that said,
we think her bones were deformed, and that's why she fell. NARRATOR: Can doctor Madeleine Hinkes
figure out if this child's death was an accident, or something far worse? It's hard to be detached when the cases involve little kids.
NARRATOR: Then, a young woman reveals a gruesome secret. A dead body is somewhere in her yard.
JOHN TOBIN: We didn't have any hopes of finding the body at that point. We didn't know where to look.
NARRATOR: Can doctor Dirkmaat uncover a family's disturbing secret? A shovel had been taken to destroy some of the remains
and the evidence. [MUSIC PLAYING] [CRYING BABY] NARRATOR: In his 15 years working the homicide beat,
Detective Richard Rouleau has closed his fair share of tough cases. In the summer of 2003 while going through his office's
unsolved case files, he comes across one of the toughest cases he's faced so far.
RICHARD ROULEAU: There's probably 40 to 50 pages. I gave a copy to my Sergeant Jim Ferguson.
We both took it home, read it word for word. And we realized we had documentation
of a suspicious death. NARRATOR: The death in question is that of a 3 and 1/2 year old girl named Dawn
Cooper, who had died in 1972. MAN: Beautiful little girl. Blond hair. NARRATOR: The 30-year-old police report tells a sad story.
Shortly after Dawn is born, her parents file for divorce, and she goes on to live with her father Ted Cooper.
By all accounts Dawn's a happy and healthy little girl. Until she turns two and her father remarries.
The stepmother had two children. One years old and four years old. Dawn was sort of the stepchild that never
was invited into the family. NARRATOR: Soon after Don lives in with her stepmother,
relatives take note of a disturbing development. Black and blue marks that seem to appear
with increasing regularity on different parts of her body. Then one night Dawn's father brings her
to the emergency room. She was in comatose state. NARRATOR: Her father claims that she
simply fell and hit her head. He goes on to explain that Dawn suffers from a foot deformity,
which can make it awkward for her to walk and maintain her balance. Six hours later, Dawn dies.
A pathologist performs an autopsy but is unable to determine a cause of death. So there was a lot of questions
not only from the investigators that handled this case, but there were questions in the medical community,
too, that went unanswered. NARRATOR: Authorities at the time are particularly suspicious about one very disturbing
finding. RICHARD ROULEAU: The autopsy report documented 35 bruises from the bottom of Dawn's feet
to the top of her head. NARRATOR: But without a definitive cause of death, the investigation stalls.
Rereading the report 31 years later, Rouleau and Ferguson begin to seriously doubt the parents' claim that Dawn's death was accidental.
These injuries were unusual places, bottom of the feet. Extremely difficult to bruise.
NARRATOR: Then they see the photo from the autopsy. JIM FERGUSON: That photograph will never leave my memory.
There's no doubt in my mind, this child was beaten. And virtually no place on her body hasn't been injured.
The number, the sizes, the locations of the injuries that were apparent in the photograph
left me with no other conclusion, that this was a homicide, not an accidental death.
NARRATOR: Now convinced that Dawn was murdered, Detectives Rouleau and Ferguson are determined to make sure
that justice is finally served. You have a child that deserves to be my age right now.
And she wasn't given that opportunity. It doesn't matter in my mind if it was last week's murder or 30 years.
It's still a murder that can't go unanswered. JIM FERGUSON: I don't think there's anything that
can even come close to explaining how I feel about what happened. But I can do one thing, I can try to seek justice.
NARRATOR: They convinced the county DA's office to reactivate the file. Jill DiCarlo a local prosecutor famous for having
tried several other child homicides, takes on Dawn's case. And both my boss and I looked at these photos and said,
this isn't right here. This is not an unknown. Something happened. And you close your office door, you look at the photos,
you cry a little bit, and then you roll up your sleeve and say, I'm going to do what I have
to do to make sure that this baby's name is vindicated. NARRATOR: DiCarlo and the investigators immediately set
about building a case against their prime suspect, Dawn's stepmother. First they confirmed that she and Dawn's natural father
were both still alive, still married, and living in New Mexico. Next DiCarlo must get ready to disprove the stepmother's
likely defense. There were statements made by the stepmother at the time that said, well, Dawn fell a lot.
And she had to wear corrective shoes, and she, we think her bones were deformed,
and that's why she fell. So I felt there was going to be an issue from the defense in the future that this child's
gait was abnormal. NARRATOR: Though DiCarlo and the investigators are confident that Dawn's death wasn't
due to orthopedic problems that caused her to fall, they need evidence. Part of the roadblock that we had
to get past before we could truly put this in front of a jury. NARRATOR: And there was only one way
to obtain that hard evidence. JILL DICARLO: I wanted Dawn's body to be examined so I could have her feet
looked at, her skeletal-- everything looked at, basically. NARRATOR: A medical examiner was brought
in to perform a second autopsy. But to examine Dawn's feet, DiCarlo calls on specialist.
Forensic anthropologist Madeline Hinkes. Everybody deserves justice, if not the first time around
then the second time around. But it's important for the anthropologist, any of the scientists to do the job well
because that makes or breaks the case. NARRATOR: In July of 2003, the investigators and forensic team
removed Dawn's coffin from the above ground mausoleum where it was placed 31 years earlier.
It was very-- very emotional. I was looking at pictures of this child and all of a sudden
the name is on that marble stone, and on the brass plaque that really brought it home
why we were doing this case. We were doing it for Dawn. NARRATOR: Coming up, the coffin is open,
and Dr. Hinkes has to make a painful choice in the name of justice. MADELINE HINKES: It didn't seem right to cut off her feet
after all she'd been through, but it had to be done for scientific purposes. NARRATOR: And later, painstakingly searching
for any trace of burnt human remains, Dr. Dirkmaat comes up empty handed. We weren't finding anything but just little animal bones
and stuff like that of field mice, chipmunks, whatever. NARRATOR: But he isn't ready to give up yet.
When "Skeleton Stories" returns. In 2003, a tiny coffin has been pulled from its crypt
after 31 years. Police believe that a 3 and 1/2 year old child inside the coffin, Dawn Cooper, was beaten to death in 1972
by her stepmother. They are now counting on forensic anthropologist Madeline Hinkes to provide the evidence that will disprove
the stepmother's claim that Dawn's death was accidental, due to malformation of her feet.
My job was to focus on the ankles and the feet to see if there were some difference between the feet,
if there was some sort of pathology or anomaly that might have contributed to being more clumsy than
the average three-year-old. NARRATOR: Once the coffin is pulled from the crypt, it is taken to the county medical examiner's
office to be opened. We didn't know what we were going to find. So to a certain extent there's an anticipation.
Are we going to have evidence that we can obtain? Because you don't know until you actually open the casket.
RICHARD ROULEAU: And once the coffin was open, we were all very taken back and very
startled about the pristine condition that Dawn was in. MADELINE HINKES: There was them the mummified body
of a small child, naturally mummified. Dress, shoes, and socks. NARRATOR: It turns out that Dawn's body has been preserved
by a combination of factors. Her coffin was not airtight, and was placed in an above ground crypt.
As a result, the dry southwestern air worked to preserve her body, not unlike a mummy in the desert.
When I looked at her I can still see that beautiful little child, like I was looking
at the black and white photos. In her hands in the casket sort of tucked in under
her arms was a plaque that had a little prayer on it by Mary Baker Eddie. The prayer was about protecting little children,
guiding their path to heaven. NARRATOR: But most shocking of all is what they see on Dawn's mummified body.
JIM FERGUSON: You could take the original black and white photograph of Dawn on the coroner's table prior
to autopsy and match them to the existing bruises on Dawn now disinterred 30 years later.
NARRATOR: Because dawn died before her dozens of bruises could heal, the tissue where she was bruised
remained flooded with blood. As her tissue dried out in the crypt, this blood stained the skin and bone leaving a permanent record
of her short, sad life. I mean, you can still see impact sites on her skull. It was remarkable.
MADELINE HINKES: It was chilling to see the solid evidence of the bruises that were there.
I hadn't expected that staining would last so long. I think about it a lot. These injuries could never have happened from a fall.
As one of those physicians stated, if she fell from a 40 foot tree and hit every single branch
on the way down, she still wouldn't have enough injuries as to what she sustained.
NARRATOR: But while it's clear to the team that Dawn had been beaten, it is impossible to pinpoint
which injuries caused her death and who was responsible. Hinkes's investigation is the linchpin.
If she can prove that the parents lied to police about the fall, it will be just what Jill DiCarlo needs
to file a homicide charge. The medical examiner's staff takes dozens of x-rays of the mummified child,
documenting as much of the remaining injuries as possible. Then it's time for Madeline Hinkes
to begin her critical analysis of Dawn's feet. But first she needs to prepare herself emotionally.
MADELINE HINKES: It's hard to be detached when the cases involve little kids, because there's no good reason
that they should be at the medical examiner's office. So and being a mother I think probably
makes it more difficult. But part of being a good forensic scientist is not letting those emotions out at that point in time.
NARRATOR: Dr. Hinkes begins her examination by carefully comparing the right foot to the left.
MADELINE HINKES: I was looking for any anything out of the ordinary, or any disparity between the two feet.
And on x-ray I couldn't see any difference. Externally they look OK. They're symmetric, everything seems to be where it should be.
But I needed to look at the actual bones in order to tell for certain if there was anything wrong with them.
NARRATOR: To get a good look at the bones themselves, Dr. Hinkes must remove Dawn's feet
and clean off all the remaining tissue. But it-- it just didn't seem right to cut off her feet after
all she'd been through, but it had to be done for scientific purposes. NARRATOR: But what will Dr. Hinkes learn, and will it
be the hard evidence detectives and prosecutor DiCarlo are counting on to finally
bring this case to trial? Coming up, Madeline Hinkes hones in on the truth. MADELINE HINKES: It was chilling to see the solid evidence.
NARRATOR: And later, Dr. Dirkmaat pieces together clues, but will he be able to provide the answer his investigators
desperately need? DENNIS DIRKMAAT: It's sort of like a jigsaw puzzle when you start out.
NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. [MUSIC PLAYING] Forensic anthropologist Madeline Hinkes
is about to make a very intimate study of a pair of tiny feet. The feet belong to Dawn Cooper, a 3
and 1/2 year old girl who died from head injuries in 1972. JIM FERGUSON: The explanation for all these injuries
and the defense for all these injuries all these years had been Dawn was clumsy because she
had orthopedic problems. NARRATOR: But the more investigators probe into Dawn's last months, the more convinced
they are that Dawn was murdered, beaten to death by her stepmother. JIM FERGUSON: One of the relatives
spoke with stepmom at one time about disciplining children. Stepmom told the relative when Dawn wets her bed, or urinates
on herself, that her method of punishing her is to rub her face it. Which certainly explains a rather
large hematoma on the forehead of Dawn at the time of her death. NARRATOR: Now, three decades later, they
hope Dr. Hinkes will find the evidence in Dawn's bones to lead to a courtroom and a charge of murder.
Before Dr. Hinkes can closely examine Dawn's bones, she must clean the remaining tissue without disturbing
any skeletal evidence. This process is called maceration. The way it's done is to put the body part in water
with a little bit of mild detergent, not bleach or any of those things, because that damages the bone.
And to heat it, which is how I usually do it. In the case of Dawn's feet I knew that the bones would be very fragile,
and the heat would probably do damage. So I just had to soak them. Bones macerated here.
NARRATOR: A week later, the bones emerge fully cleaned, but no longer intact. MADELINE HINKES: The hard part is laying
out in their proper order. NARRATOR: It takes a specialist with Hinkes's experience
in examining young bones to be able to lay them out in their proper order. That's because many of the bones in a child's feet
look the same. Children's feet consist of bone and cartilage, which gradually harden and become more distinct
as children grow. MADELINE HINKES: I maybe had an advantage in that because my dissertation research
involved skeletal remains of 300 children from a prehistoric site. So I was pretty good at figuring out which these little bone
preforms was which. NARRATOR: Another challenge Dr. Hinkes faces is trying to detect any deformities
in these tiny bones. Looking for maybe evidence of fractures, evidence that the joints didn't function properly,
or that there was maybe missing bones or just something that was different or not normal.
NARRATOR: A successful prosecution of Dawn's case now hinges on what Dr. Hinkes can deduce
from slivers of cartilage as tiny as a bird's. MADELINE HINKES: I don't see any obvious pathologies here.
NARRATOR: After a painstaking reconstruction and scrutinizing every facet of the bones and cartilage,
Dr. Hinkes finally comes to an indisputable conclusion. MADELINE HINKES: So I don't see evidence
to support the stepmother's claim that there was something wrong with her feet and that's why she fell a lot
and got bruised all the time. NARRATOR: Dr. Hinkes makes a report to the county district attorney's office.
Based on the examination of the bones there's no reason why she would not have been able to walk properly.
JIM FERGUSON: We were elated, because we knew we could finish this case. That made the case.
We knew that we were there. JILL DICARLO: Without her being able to examine her bones,
that would have always been an unknown. And I don't think that would have been a good unknown for us to have and still
go forward with the case. Crucial evidence for us. NARRATOR: Coming up, a strange twist
in the case of Dawn Cooper. I just hung up the phone with them and started shaking.
We were both in complete shock. You're in disbelief. You're in disbelief. And later, can Dr. Dirkmaat find traces of a body,
or did the murderers cover their tracks too well for justice to be served? JOHN TOBIN: We didn't have any hopes of finding the body if we
didn't know where to look. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. In 1972, 3 and 1/2 year old Dawn Cooper
was rushed to the hospital. Though her stepmother claimed Dawn had accidentally fallen
due to her feet being malformed, finally 31 years later Dr. Madeline Hinkes has determined there is
nothing wrong with Dawn's feet. [CAMERA CLICKS] To build their case against the stepmother,
police began talking to Dawn's extended family. They soon realized that Dawn's family
members are just as eager to see that justice is finally served. JILL DICARLO: And the family, when
we contacted them and said, we are reopening this case. A murder did happen. So many of them, 99% of them were extremely happy
and jumping for joy that we were going to do something, that finally Dawn's killer was going to be brought to justice.
NARRATOR: Drawing on statements from relatives, Dawn's original case file, and now Dr. Hinkes's discovery
that her feet were normal, police can finally assemble their version of Dawn's heartbreaking death.
In June 1970, Dawn's stepmother moves in and immediately begins subjecting her to ferocious discipline.
I told you you have ruined my life. Including repeated blows and beatings. Especially to the face and head.
The injuries are evident on the original autopsy photograph, and verified by the new autopsy conducted
on Dawn's exhumed body. She wanted to get the evil stepchild out of the way. Unfortunately our story didn't have the Cinderella ending.
NARRATOR: By January 1972, the daily battering is taking its toll. Dawn's nervous system is rushing fluids
to the sections of her brain bruised by the repeated blows to her skull. Her brain begins to swell.
This swelling, called a cerebral edema, is especially dangerous because the brain
trapped in the hard casing of the skull has almost no room to expand. As her swollen brain begins pressing against the inside
of her own head, Dawn slips into unconsciousness and collapses. And yet even then, the abuse isn't over.
Our belief is during that time the stepmother would go on and check on her, and most likely based on some
of the bruises we saw on the pre-autopsy photographs our belief is that she was probably kicking her with
her foot to see if she'd move. NARRATOR: But little Dawn can't move. [SIREN] Her father takes her to the hospital,
but it is far too late. She dies at 8:00 AM the next morning, just 42 months and four days after she'd been born.
It's horrific. As a mother it makes you-- just your stomach turn inside out that anybody,
regardless of whether it's your own child or not, that anybody could hurt a child who
is so helpless and defenseless. And it's just, it makes you-- it really makes you sick.
NARRATOR: With the tragic picture finally clear, detectives fly to New Mexico to gather additional information.
Their first order of business was to interview Dawn's stepmother. Then they tracked down Dawn's father at work
and go over his story of Dawn's last day. RICHARD ROULEAU: We met at a gas station
around the corner from his work. We piled into my car and had an interview with him.
MAN: The poor little girl. JIM FERGUSON: He never referred to his daughter as anything other than that little girl.
Stares at his hands, will not look at you whatever. It's too bad what happened, but it wasn't anybody's fault.
My wife's a good woman and she wouldn't do anything. JIM FERGUSON: He didn't answer questions directly,
but there was a very scripted feel to it. You'd ask a question, what happened to your daughter?
Oh, my wife's a good housekeeper. MAN: She's a wonderful woman. RICHARD ROULEAU: He was very--
Great homemaker. RICHARD ROULEAU: Adamant explaining to us that his wife was a great mother,
and that would never do anything to any child. JIM FERGUSON: What happened to your daughter?
She had a convulsion or something, I don't know. NARRATOR: Though Dawn's parents stick to their claim
that Dawn's death was accidental, with the evidence Dr. Hinkes has provided and additional information they've gathered,
detectives can finally obtain an arrest warrant. Arrived at the house relatively early
in the morning. [KNOCKING] When he knocked on the door, we received no response.
Had him knock again. No response. [DOORBELL RINGING] Open up, police. [KNOCKING]
RICHARD ROULEAU: Within about 45 seconds or so a hysterical female about 40 years of age
came to the front door. She instantly was hysterically screaming, what have we done to her mother.
And we were all confused not knowing what had happened. And as we entered into the residence,
walked down the hallway we found the stepmother on the ground with a self-inflicted gunshot wound
to the temple. It appears that she picked up a 25 caliber Beretta and stood at the foot of the bed and shot herself.
NARRATOR: Stunned, the detectives step outside to call Jill DiCarlo. JILL DICARLO: And they told me what had happened.
Ambulance hadn't even arrived yet. I just hung up the phone with them and started shaking.
And I started crying. I was crying for Dawn. NARRATOR: Once the initial shock wears off,
Jill DiCarlo knows she has one more phone call to make to Dr. Madeline Hinkes. [PHONE RINGING]
JILL DICARLO: And I explained to her what had happened, and I think she had some shock on the phone
as well, because it's not an ending you expect. I've never had anything like that happen to me before.
To me it suggested that someone with a guilty conscience. NARRATOR: With the death of Dawn's stepmother,
the Cooper case is finally closed. Dawn's father is not charged with any crime. He still lives in New Mexico.
After a 12 week emotional investigation, Dawn's remains are restored at last to their final resting place.
MADELINE HINKES: Remains were reburied, her foot bones were reburied in little Ziploc bags
labeled left and right. And she got a new casket. NARRATOR: For the law enforcement team
who spent a year calling up this case from the forgotten files and pursuing justice for a long lost child,
their vindication is bittersweet. To a certain extent there is no closure in that case,
because we never had the opportunity to confront stepmom with the information. MADELINE HINKES: I do think about done quite a bit
in watching my daughter grow. I think about her every time I hear about another case
that involves child abuse. There's too many cases like that. NARRATOR: Coming up, from cremated human
remains can Dr. Dirkmaat figure out who this person is? DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We couldn't get any estimates of the stature
of the individual. NARRATOR: That's next on "Skeleton Stories." [MUSIC PLAYING] WOMAN: Finish your medicine.
[INAUDIBLE] mean to me. The decision to do what had to be done. [SCREAMING] NARRATOR: It's 9 AM on a Saturday morning,
and two police detectives of a small Ohio town are performing a strange and chilling task.
Looking for human remains in a suburban backyard. They're here because last night a young woman, Jennifer Gray,
came forward with a terrifying story. That seven years ago her 20-year-old sister
Lucy was murdered, and that her body is somewhere in this yard. JOHN TOBIN: Lucy was mentally retarded,
had the IQ of a six-year-old. Her parents died, Lucy was adopted by this couple when she was like 9 years old.
NARRATOR: According to Jennifer, only a few months after Lucy was adopted her new father
took an interest in her sexually. For over two years he molested and sexually assaulted Lucy,
but while he attempted to keep his behavior a secret, he didn't succeed. The mother had found out that the father was
sexually abusing the victim. And the mother became of course quite upset. JOHN TOBIN: What had happened was
they were getting into a fight on that particular day, and the mother was getting more and more agitated.
NARRATOR: The father continued his abuse, even against his wife's protests. It was then that Lucy's new mother
decided to stop the abuse herself by attempting to kill Lucy. Her weapon was Lucy's own innocent trust.
DANIEL VENICK: Her mother gave Lucy some concoction the mother mixed up which contained some laundry
whitening agent and some heart medication and had her drink it. WOMAN: There you go, drink it up like a good girl.
That's a good girl. NARRATOR: Doing as she is told, Lucy drinks. But the effort only makes the young girl very sick.
JOHN TOBIN: She starts getting ill but she's not dead. She's throwing up and laying on the ground pretty much
almost in a fetal position. NARRATOR: For over an hour Lucy suffers. She's always been nothing but trouble to me, that's all.
NARRATOR: Then her adoptive father takes matters into his own hands. MAN: Don't give me that.
Come on. The father's-- I guess he said, this is it. And he went out and he sort of just physically
stomping on the victim. Stomped her to death, pretty much. She was laying on the ground.
According to the witness she could hear the bones breaking and the air being forced
out of the victim's body. NARRATOR: Then Lucy's parents go to great extremes to try to cover their horrible crime.
DANIEL VENICK: Taking the body and stacked logs on it and doused with gasoline and kept
the fire going all night long. And then afterwards, after the fire died down they cleaned the pit out and removed all the ashes.
NARRATOR: And the family never speaks of it again. Now, seven years later, Jennifer can no longer keep the secret.
JOHN TOBIN: Eventually this is eating at the sister. It's tearing her apart. NARRATOR: It is an incredible and heartbreaking story.
But while detective Tobin is convinced it's true the moment he hears it, he knows other authorities
won't be so sure. Jennifer could be lying. And that's a chance that the district
attorney doesn't want to take. JOHN TOBIN: The district attorney did not want to pursue the case as a homicide
because it lacked a body. NARRATOR: But police know that in this case, asking for a body
may be asking for the impossible. DANIEL VENICK: In this particular case, we didn't have a body per se, because it
had been subjected to this fire at intense heat for hours. JOHN TOBIN: Oh yeah, they sat out there
and they kept throwing wood on it. They were tending to it. They were raking it.
They were using shovels, breaking up bone. Afterwards, after the fire died down they cleaned the pit out, all the ashes.
NARRATOR: Lucy's body was burned, pulverized and hidden. Finding Lucy's remains in such a state
would be nothing short of miraculous. And without them, Jennifer's story can't be verified.
On their initial search, police come up empty handed. JOHN TOBIN: We didn't have any hopes of finding
the body at that point. We didn't know where to look. NARRATOR: But detective Tobin does still have one hope.
A scientist who might be able to unearth what he and the other detectives could not.
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat from Mercy Hurst College. Our job as forensic anthropologist
is about paying attention to minutes details related to the bones, related to the scene.
And that's what we're doing. NARRATOR: The morning after the police's failed search,
Dr. Dirkmaat arrives looking for the details they may have missed. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: This particular situation
they had a lot of information. They had a very good idea of who was involved and what happened,
but they didn't have a body. So the police called us to ask if we could come in and find these remains.
The assumption was that they were burned pretty dramatically. But they had been burned over the course of 10 hours.
A shovel had been taken to destroy some of the remains and the evidence, and then it was taken out of this fire pit,
wheelbarrow dumped somewhere. NARRATOR: But what seems hopeless to police is not hopeless to Dr. Dirkmaat
Even if the remains were cremated and burned and fragmented, there would still be remains.
Even after 15 years, after 30 years. If the remains were there, we would be able to recover them and maybe get some information
as to who this person was. NARRATOR: Investigators direct Dr. Dirkmaat to an area where they believe
the remains were dumped. His first task is to remove the debris without disturbing
any potential evidence. So we set up an archaeological site, and then removing the debris layer
by layer to see what we had. NARRATOR: He painstakingly and methodically sifts through
the soil at this site, looking for even the most minute of clues. Over the course of four hours we
completely excavated this area and found no human remains. OK. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat is starting
to fear that Jennifer's terrifying tale may never reach a jury's ears. But he's not ready to give up yet.
We walked about 25 yards away from that original excavation spot. I found a little piece of burnt newspaper.
And as we explored a little bit further and saw that in fact we had a little burned debris.
So we decided that we should explore this and see if this is, in fact, where the remains were deposited.
NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat searches the area looking for teeth, tiny fragments of bone, anything that might yield
some sort of forensic clue. JOHN TOBIN: We weren't finding anything but just little animal
bones and stuff like that of field mice, chipmunks, whatever. NARRATOR: But eight grueling hours later, just as he's
about to call it a day, Dr. Dirkmaat makes a discovery that could be the key to unlocking the case.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We found few bits and pieces of burnt bone, some of them appeared to be animal,
but then we found a couple pieces that were, in fact, human. DANIEL VENICK: And they're showing to me
and I'm like geez, it looks like a stick. You know if they didn't have their expertise
to tell us what it was, I mean the average Joe Citizen would never know. NARRATOR: It takes Dr. Dirkmaat's
expert eyes to determine what tiny pieces are human bone. DANIEL VENICK: The remains were shrunk.
They were warped. They were fractured, they were fragmented. But in the end we could identify those as human remains.
NARRATOR: By the time he's finished, Dr. Dirkmaat and his team have recovered dozens of boxes
of what could be human bones. But what bones, and who they belong to, are questions that aren't even close to being answered.
And they'll need to be if police have any hope of proving that Jennifer is telling the truth.
So what we did was then collect all the remains into boxes and bring it back to the lab where we could
then carefully excavate it. NARRATOR: Coming up, even with the bone fragments in hand,
the obstacles to making a positive ID seem insurmountable. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: The fragments were so small
and probably had been altered at that fire scene. We couldn't get any estimates of the stature of the individual.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Investigators in Ohio believe that Lucy Gray's adoptive parents killed her and then burned her body
in an attempt to destroy all evidence of their gruesome crime. To build a case against Lucy's killers,
Dr. Dirkmaat must first determine what is bone and what isn't among the thousands of fragments
he's recovered from Lucy's backyard. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: It's sort of like a jigsaw puzzle
when you start out. There's no real pattern to it. You have isolated pieces, so when
we're looking at that these burned bones they are fragmented. They're misshapen.
They're a different color. But there are certain features that you sort of focus upon.
It's a visual thing. We know human bones. And so you have to take a look at the pattern
and see what do you recognize, what is recognizable to you. So we say, OK, well this looks like the body of vertebra.
It's sort of a visual conception of what these bones look like. A bone like this it could be actually a piece of wood.
And then there is a little test of the sound of it, so here's a piece of wood and has
a very different soft sound, whereas this has a little clinking sound. NARRATOR: Over a period of two months
Dr. Dirkmaat combs through tiny pieces of debris identifying nearly 3,000 fragments as being human bone.
But 3,000 fragments still don't add up to a 21-year-old woman. And that's what needs to happen before authorities
can be certain that Jennifer's story is true. Incredibly, Dr. Dirkmaat will try to use these charred
fragments to ID Lucy. He begins by looking for any fragment that could help clarify age, sex, or any
other biological identifiers. First he examines the tooth fragments and roots to see if he can narrow down the person's age.
With only minuscule bits and pieces, Dr. Dirkmaat faces a colossal challenge. The teeth that we did find were fully developed.
So all we could say is that we had an adult. NARRATOR: This small finding is Dr. Dirkmaat's first foothold.
According to Jennifer, Lucy was 21 when she died. Finding adult teeth fits this detail of her story.
He moves on, now looking for anything that could tell him whether these remains may have
belonged to a male or female. But this is a near impossibility. Determining sex is often done by looking
at the pelvis or the skull, or the general size of the bones. But all Dr. Dirkmaat has are splinters.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: In many cases when we're looking at fragments of bone, we go on size as a hint at least as to whether it's
a male or female. It's smaller it tends to be female, larger male. But again, in this case you have modification due to heat
that that will reduce the size. So we have to be careful not to attribute all of these burn remains to females.
NARRATOR: He zeros in on one particular skull feature that forensic anthropologists often used to distinguish males
from females. The brow ridge located above the eye socket. From only tiny fragments Dr. Dirkmaat makes
another key determination. In the eye orbit, since females don't have large brow ridges they
tend to have sharp margins. In that case, we saw an indication of the sharp orbital margins and a number of other features
that gave us the hint. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat knows in this case, it is impossible to get a full positive ID
from these tiny remains. But he has made a key discovery. These bones belong to a female adult, a perfect match
to Lucy's profile. He hopes that this is enough evidence to prove to investigators that this could be Lucy.
Dr. Dirkmaat was able to provide us with a report. He was able to analyze those fragments.
He was able to determine that they were human, was able to tell the sex of the individual
from some of the fragments. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We had spent two months carefully sifting
through this material and identifying every single fragment. So very confident of our findings.
Dr. Dirkmaat's profile, along with the sister's eyewitness account, are enough to convince the DA
to prosecute seven years after the brutal death of Lucy Gray. Murder charges are finally brought
against her adoptive parents. JOHN TOBIN: I think this turned out pretty well. It gave some closure to the sister
and I think mentally it helped her out a great deal. NARRATOR: At her trial, Lucy's mother
argues that she is a battered woman who was coerced by her abusive husband. The jury rules in her favor, and finds her not guilty.
At Lucy's father's trial investigators turned to Dr. Dirkmaat for his testimony.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Part of the process is to present to the jury that you know what you're doing
and that you are an expert in these types of areas, and convincing them that you know what you're talking about
in terms of heat alteration to the bones, in terms of how you figure out age and sex and all that.
DANIEL VENICK: And the fact that we were able to get the remains and have them identified by Dr. Dirkmaat,
and I think that helped the jurors reach their decision. NARRATOR: Jennifer's chilling testimony,
along with Dr. Dirkmaat's evidence, leaves no doubt in the minds of the jury. Lucy's father was found guilty of first degree murder.
He gets life in prison without the possibility of parole. For both Dr. Dirkmaat and the investigators,
this was one of the more difficult cases of their careers. This was a mentally retarded girl that was a child.
It was pretty hard to detach from this. NARRATOR: It was a tragedy that touched everyone involved
in the case, and police and Dr. Dirkmaat believe that their work helped Lucy's adoptive sister
Jennifer move on. JOHN TOBIN: We were able to find the victim. That gave some closure to the sister that allows her
to feel better about herself. We did do a very careful job. We knew what we were talking about,
that we were correct in our assessment and all the bones and determination of age and sex and all that.
And so that was proven out by the guilty verdict that was handed down.

Police unearth the mummified body of a two-year-old 25 years after her suspicious death. A mentally challenged woman is murdered.

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

Dawn Cooper's suspicious death leads to a murder investigation; Lucy Gray's adoptive parents are charged after her remains are found.

Key points

A Gruesome Secret Revealed. A young woman discloses a shocking truth about a dead body in her yard.
Detectives Reopen a Cold Case. Detective Richard Rouleau revisits a challenging case from 1972 involving a young girl's death.
The Autopsy Photo Haunts Detectives. Detectives Rouleau and Ferguson are haunted by a photo that reveals the truth about Dawn's death.
Forensic Examination of Dawn's Body. Forensic anthropologist Madeline Hinkes examines the mummified remains of Dawn Cooper.
A Family's Long-Awaited Justice. Dawn's family rejoices as the case is reopened and justice is pursued.
Stepmother's Tragic End. Dawn's stepmother is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, shocking detectives.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This child was beaten.

JIM FERGUSON's conclusion after seeing the autopsy photo.

4:31WatchSep 17, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.