Skeleton Stories - Season 1, Episode 6 - Basement Burial - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[EERIE MUSIC] NARRATOR: A grisly discovery in a century old farmhouse-- I knew almost immediately that we were
dealing with human remains. NARRATOR: --a stepfather with a checkered past-- ANTHONY PECORA: He was a drifter.
He lived with different women. He had kids in a few different states. NARRATOR: --and the mysterious disappearance of a young girl.
One day she just didn't show up for the bus. She just disappeared. NARRATOR: But a shocking discovery by Dr. Dirkmaat
turns the investigation upside down. We got kind of a bum steer. I thought that this might never be solved.
NARRATOR: Can a few pieces of skeletal remains help expose a decades old family secret?
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: People's lives are sort of in the balance-- you know, whether they go to jail or not,
whether we find out who did this to this particular individual. [THEME MUSIC] [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[CLANGING] [SHRIEK] NARRATOR: A beautiful 19th century farmhouse, hundreds of years old.
Bob Galet and his wife Linda have spent years fixing it up one room at a time. Now, the only renovation that remains is the basement.
BOB GALET: The basement was basically untouched. Half of it was still dark. It was always kind of damp and musty down there.
NARRATOR: As part of the overhaul, they plan to install a new furnace. But to do it, they need to dig a six-inch trench.
BOB GALET: I started digging where I left off the night before. And my wife went to the back of the room.
NARRATOR: After a few minutes of digging, Linda feels her shovel hit something in the dirt.
BOB GALET: She uncovered a length of clothesline cord. So I came over. And I started pulling on the cord.
And I pulled out about eight foot of loose cord. NARRATOR: But the cord is attached
to something under the dirt, something heavy and large. Then we started digging again, scraping actually,
when we scraped about an eight-inch section of what looked to be bone. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
NARRATOR: The Galets immediately phoned the local police department. Detective Richard Kranitz has received similar calls before.
There's a lot of times people find bones that might look like human remains. But it ends up being an animal.
NARRATOR: Kranitz heads to the Galets' farmhouse, assuming they have made this common mistake.
But when he arrives and sees the remains for himself, he knows right away these are not the bones of an animal.
RICHARD KRANITZ: At that point, I knew almost immediately that we were dealing with human remains.
It was the right leg of a body sticking up out of the dirt. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: By 10:00 PM that night,
the Galet house is swarming with police. They determined that they were going to treat it as a crime scene.
They put the police tape all along the road in front of our property. NARRATOR: But just because there's a body in the basement
doesn't mean someone was murdered. RICHARD KRANITZ: Every scene like this we have to treat as a homicide in case it is a homicide.
But I knew that the house was over 100 years old. In the back of my mind, I was thinking
it could have been an accidental death, maybe a farm accident, maybe a natural death and they-- that just
didn't receive a proper burial. NARRATOR: Whether this is the beginning of a murder investigation or not,
Detective Kranitz's next step is to gather as much information he can about the history of this farmhouse.
BOB GALET: They sat us down and asked us history of the house, how long we had lived here, who we purchased it from,
who lived in it before we had. NARRATOR: But the Galets know little about the house's history.
So police turned to neighbors who have lived nearby for decades. RICHARD KRANITZ: Immediately across the street
was a neighbor who told us that at some point in the early '80s, there was a family who lived in that house
that rented the house. He said that the family was a man, a woman, and a young girl.
And he described the family as odd. NARRATOR: Police soon learned the father's name, Travis Boyd.
And neighbors go on to say that he was very controlling of his wife and stepdaughter.
RICHARD KRANITZ: And he told us that every day while he was doing his farming duties, he would see
them working in their garden. NARRATOR: Boyd's wife was Alice Khan. They'd been married less than a year when they moved
in, according to the neighbor. The girl, Katie, was Alice's 16-year-old daughter
from a previous marriage. And it's what the neighbor remembers about Katie that makes Detective Kranitz
suspicious of Travis Boyd. Katie wanted to marry her high school boyfriend after graduation.
But Travis wouldn't let her. RICHARD KRANITZ: He was trying to stop the wedding.
He was trying to prevent her from graduating. NARRATOR: Then, the neighbor says, on a spring day in 1980,
Katie stopped going to school. One day, she just didn't show up for the bus. And she just disappeared.
NARRATOR: At the time, the neighbor heard that Katie ran away with her boyfriend.
But now the discovery of a body in the basement of the farmhouse raises murderous suspicions.
Police wonder if Travis Boyd could have murdered his stepdaughter 20 years ago and buried
her body in the basement. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] The unearthed remains hold the secret to so many questions--
who the bones belong to, how they died, and when. To solve these mysteries, police turned
to forensic anthropologist Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Our job is to examine the site, to examine
the remains, and come up with the story of who this person is, how long that body's been there,
and what happened at that scene. NARRATOR: A few days after the initial call to police, Dr.
Dirkmaat and his team arrive at the Galet home, ready to start their work. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What I want to do
is reconstruct that moment in time that the perpetrators put the body into the grave.
And then before that first shovel load of dirt went back over the body, I want to recreate that point.
NARRATOR: But before Dr. Dirkmaat can make any judgments as to whether it's Katie lying below,
he'll need to properly excavate the body. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: So there's a particular way to excavate.
And it's not just take a shovel and put it into the bucket. Evidence bag. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We want to make sure
that we don't disturb anything within the soil and understand where it's coming from.
NARRATOR: Prior to beginning his excavation, Dr. Dirkmaat must first take stock of the exposed remains.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: There were shoes. There was a rope that was-- appeared to be wrapped around the legs.
NARRATOR: Then he begins to trace the outline of the grave. He does this by listening.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: So at this point, we're trying to find the boundary between the disturbed
and the undisturbed. NARRATOR: The disturbed soil, or the soil inside the grave,
is different from the undisturbed, or the soil outside of the grave. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: So some of the ways that we're
going to figure it out is to listen to the sound in the undisturbed area. So it'll be less solid, more of a hollow sound
over this disturbed area. So it feels like-- sounds like something over here. NARRATOR: With his ear providing a rough outline,
he begins a more exacting test with a brush and a trowel. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What we do is just scrape
down a few centimeters of dirt. And what happens is that the fill within the grave
is a different color. In this case, the dirt had been taken out to dig the hole, put back in the hole.
And when we scraped down, you can see it was very distinctively yellow, whereas when you got
to the edge of the grave, it had dark and light-colored soil as well as being less compact.
NARRATOR: Then, as Dr. Dirkmaat marks the grave's edge, he notices something odd.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: On the edges of the burial pit, as you dig a shovel into the ground, you leave an impression
of the back end of that shovel. In this case, there were some scalloped edges that told us that a spade was used
rather than a straight shovel. NARRATOR: If this is, in fact, Katie, she might actually have been buried with one
of the spaded shovels she herself used in the yard almost every day. With the outline of the burial feature clearly marked,
Dr. Dirkmaat creates a grid using twine and posts. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What I'm going to need is--
pick an edge there and get a measurement from the line. So give me north first, OK?
NARRATOR: These reference points allow team members to sketch out a detailed map of the grave.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: And in that way we have an understanding of where things are located.
If we come across something, we'll see it still in its original position. NARRATOR: Documenting as they go is
essential for preserving and analyzing any trace evidence that might be recovered.
As we excavate it, we're destroying the context. So it's critical that we document it as we go along.
NARRATOR: While accurate, the method is slow. Dr. Dirkmaat estimates that it will take at least 18 hours
to uncover the body below. Only then can he begin his examination and learn whether or not this is the body of Katie Khan.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, as the excavation continues, Dr. Dirkmaat's team encounters an unforeseen obstacle--
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: As we dug around the body, we could see some of the ground surface water
coming up around it. NARRATOR: --when "Skeleton Stories" continues. [EERIE MUSIC]
Police believe that human remains found in the basement of a West Virginia farmhouse could belong to Katie Khan,
a high school girl who lived in the house 20 years ago and who may have been murdered by her stepfather.
To determine if this is Katie, Dr. Dirkmaat must first exhume the body then analyze the remains.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] For 11 long hours, Dr. Dirkmaat and his team carefully remove the dirt and debris.
We're getting pretty close. NARRATOR: It's then that he finds something unexpected.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: As we dug around the body, we could see some of the ground surface water
coming up around it. NARRATOR: Water can affect many aspects of decomposition. And Dr. Dirkmaat soon sees what effect it's had on this body.
The fatty tissue in the body, if it's exposed to water for extended periods of time, will often
turn into this waxy substance. NARRATOR: This substance is known as grave wax or mortuary fat.
Its scientific name is adipocere. And its presence in this case gives Dr. Dirkmaat his first clue about when the body was buried.
The formation of adipocere doesn't take a week or even a year. We don't know the specifics of how long that takes.
But it usually takes an extended period of time in remains that are exposed to water.
The groundwater came up and was enveloping the body for long periods of time. NARRATOR: From the state of the remains,
Dr. Dirkmaat estimates this body has been here for 10 to 20 years. Katie has been missing for 20.
But Dr. Dirkmaat cannot yet be sure that this is her. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] After a painstaking day and a half of work,
enough dirt is finally removed to fully expose the body. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: The final product
that we have here is the original shape, contour, and even details of the grave as it was dug.
NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat takes time to know details of the position and clothes. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We mapped in the remains of the shirt being
pulled up around the chest area as well as the pant legs pulled up to the knees.
NARRATOR: From this, he draws a disturbing conclusion. That bit of evidence gives us a clue
that the body was probably dragged from the feet end. They had to drag the body over the ground.
And as they did that, the shirt came up and the pant legs came up. And then they deposited it in the grave.
He was detailing all of this as he exhumed the body. NARRATOR: To investigators, this discovery
paints a sinister picture. If this is Katie Khan, it would add more weight to the theory
that she was murdered and then dragged down into the basement. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Dirkmaat has learned all he can from the body
as it lies in the grave. He must now remove it and take it to his laboratory where he can examine the remains more closely.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What we do at the scene is not just pick up bones and pick up parts of the body
and throw it in a body bag. As best we can, we want to take it up in one lump mass
and put it into a body bag. At no point do we try to remove the clothing or reach in the pocket to get a wallet.
Our job is to recover those remains, take it to the morgue, and it's there where those relationships
of the clothing and the wallet relative to the body are explored. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat's team brings the body back
to their lab at Mercyhurst College. Here, he will try to answer the investigators'
most pressing question-- is this the body of Katie Khan? Coming up-- [KNOCKING] --investigators try to track down the suspected killer.
But Travis Boyd is a hard man to find. ANTHONY PECORA: He was a drifter. He lived with different women.
He had kids in a few different states. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
[SOFT MUSIC] Investigators are counting on forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat to tell them if the body he's just excavated
from the basement of an old farmhouse is Katie Khan, a teenage girl who disappeared 20 years ago.
They suspect she may have been murdered by her own stepfather, Travis Boyd. But before they can answer that question,
they must first find hard evidence that this is Katie. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] When we're in the laboratory, it's the bones and what
are the bones telling us. NARRATOR: In order for Dr. Dirkmaat to tell anything more from the bones,
he must first cut away the adipocere, a waxy substance that clings to the bone, and then he must clean them.
So that involves what we call macerating the remains. NARRATOR: It's a gentle process of soaking
the bones in a large metal pot filled with warm, almost simmering water. Essentially immersing it in hot water until the flesh
is removed. NARRATOR: Regulating the water temperature is critical. If the bones get too hot, they can burn.
And all the evidence will be damaged. Once that's done, then we create an inventory
and see that we have all the bones. NARRATOR: During this process, Dr. Dirkmaat notes that he's missing one of the most critical body parts
used to identify remains-- the teeth. We don't have any teeth to compare. So there's no real dental records to compare.
And so in this case, it was a little difficult. NARRATOR: This discovery also raises the question,
what happened to the teeth? If Travis Boyd murdered his own stepdaughter, did he try to hide her identity by removing her teeth?
If somebody were to pull out the teeth of an individual, you'd pull off the roots as well.
And you'd be left with the holes in the bone. NARRATOR: But Dr. Dirkmaat does not
find any holes in the jawbones, leading him to conclude that this is not what happened here.
If the individual's still living, the bone will try to heal itself and get rid of those holes.
And so you'll see a process of what we call resorption around those areas. NARRATOR: And resorption clearly took place
with this skull, which means that the teeth were removed before death, not after.
Dr. Dirkmaat comes up with a theory. When somebody has their teeth removed for dentures,
all of the bone is resorbed in that area. And then it sort of leaves a straight line
where the denture is housed. So we could tell that for this individual. NARRATOR: This finding leads Dr. Dirkmaat
to a surprising conclusion. This person wore dentures, an extremely strange finding
if this is indeed 16-year-old Katie Khan. Police are stunned to learn that they've been following
the wrong scent all along. And this new finding could put them back at square one.
RICHARD KRANITZ: We got kind of a bum steer. I thought this might never be solved.
NARRATOR: Now more than ever, the entire mystery depends on what Dr. Dirkmaat is able to learn from the bones.
Investigators are counting on him to figure out who this is. It's very difficult to solve a crime
if we don't first know who the victim is. And we didn't know at this point whether we
had a female, a male, an old person, a young person. NARRATOR: To answer these questions,
Dr. Dirkmaat needs to create a biological profile-- a detailed description of this person's sex,
age, height, weight, and other descriptors based on what he can tell from the bones.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] First, he examines the pelvic bone for clues to the person's sex.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: In females, it tends to be thinner and a little wider here in the body.
We could tell then very definitively that we have a male individual. NARRATOR: The next step is to get an idea
of how old this man was. Dr. Dirkmaat again looks at the pelvis, which is also commonly used to assess age.
Dr. Dirkmaat knows that the bones are worn down and the surface is porous, telltale signs of age.
In this particular case, one area is called the pubic symphysis where the two bones
of the pelvis come together. That area of the skeleton has been researched very well
in modern populations. So we're able to look at this individual and come up with a determination that they
were anywhere from 30 to 60. We can look at the ends of the bones. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat then turns his attention to
the bones of the arms and legs. From these, he hopes to get an idea of how tall this person was.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Once we figured out the age and the sex, we also determined the stature of the individual
by looking at the long bones and measuring them. And there are formula out there that correlate the length
of a particular bone to the stature or the height of an individual. NARRATOR: After a detailed analysis,
the bones have spoken. And they have revealed this is a six foot tall male in the range
of 30 to 60 years old who wore dentures, certainly not the profile of 16-year-old Katie Khan.
Detective Kranitz wonders if this could be a farmhand who couldn't afford a proper burial
as he had originally thought. He then comes to a stunning realization. The description of the person buried in the basement
fits someone else he's been looking for in connection to the case-- Katie's stepfather, Travis Boyd.
In what could be one of the sharpest investigative 180s of his life, Detective Kranitz now
wonders if the man he suspected of murder was, in fact, murdered himself. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[SIRENS] Coming up, detectives track down the Boyd family and get a surprising and different impression of Travis.
He was just a really good person. I can't ever remember him being angry at anybody.
NARRATOR: That's next on "Skeleton Stories." [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Police have just learned that they've
been following the wrong trail. Until today, they suspected that Travis Boyd murdered his stepdaughter and buried her in the basement
of an old farmhouse. But forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat has just determined that the skeleton found in the basement
is a tall older man who wore dentures, not a young woman. In a complete about face, investigators now
wonder if Boyd was the one buried in the basement. Eager to gather more information,
they revisit neighbors who recount again how severe and restrictive Travis was with his 16-year-old stepdaughter Katie.
More striking are neighbors descriptions of Travis's physical characteristics. They sound eerily familiar to Dr. Dirkmaat's report
on the skeleton found in the basement. ANTHONY PECORA: These witnesses told us how he dressed
and how he walked and didn't have no teeth and he didn't wear his teeth. And I mean, it just was--
100% what he told us, these people matched it right up. NARRATOR: If the skeleton in the basement is indeed Travis,
that would explain why police have been unable to locate him despite an exhaustive search
the entire past week. But they have finally located two of his nieces, who provide a strikingly different impression of Travis
than his neighbors. CRYSTAL MARTIN: He just was a good person. He was good hearted.
I can remember my aunt's car had broke down. And he said, just come up and borrow one of mine.
He'd do anything for anybody. KATHY DVRAR: I mean, he just made sure that my mom and my grandmother had everything.
He even bought my grandmother a rocking chair. She just thought that was the greatest thing ever.
CRYSTAL MARTIN: He was more like a father figure I looked up to. He was just a really good person.
He just loved everybody. NARRATOR: But Travis's neighbors and family all agree on one important fact.
No one has seen him since 1980. At the time of his disappearance, his nieces had just assumed he left his wife
and ran off with a new girlfriend. KATHY DVRAR: He was a ladies' man. He loved women.
He really did love them. I mean, he loved them all. Not just one, but all. You just didn't know who he was coming in with.
It would be this one, and then maybe two weeks later it would be somebody else. NARRATOR: In fact, investigators learned that Travis Boyd
had at least 12 children from two previous relationships and was known to move frequently from one place to the other.
ANTHONY PECORA: He was married several times. He lived with different women throughout this part
of the United States. He had kids in a few different states. NARRATOR: His nieces were sad to lose touch with him,
but felt it had everything to do with his drifter lifestyle. Our police department never received
any missing persons report from any of the family members anywhere. NARRATOR: Based on Travis's sudden disappearance
and the fact that Dr. Dirkmaat's description of the body matches his profile, investigators are now
more convinced than ever that the bones in the basement belong to Travis Boyd. But they now need to figure out exactly how
he ended up in his basement. Was it a natural or accidental death followed by a makeshift burial?
Or was something more sinister at work? It's a mystery only Dr. Dirkmaat can help solve.
Unraveling it means finding the answer to one key question. We're hoping he can tell us all he could tell us--
cause of death, how he died. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Back in his lab, Dr. Dirkmaat
is counting on Travis's bones to reveal the answer to that pressing question. What we want to try to do is make
it a scientific determination. NARRATOR: He meticulously examines the skeleton bone by bone and soon notices
a telltale sign of violence-- nicks and breakage on the shoulder blade. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: What I determined
is that the individual had a number of defects of the shoulder blade or scapula.
Those defects took the form of what we could describe as a knife wound. NARRATOR: As he looks more closely,
Dr. Dirkmaat realizes the damage is quite extensive. It wasn't just one defect. There was four to 10 of them.
Also, I noted that the underlying ribs lying underneath the scapula were also damaged.
Some of them were completely broken in half. NARRATOR: Based on the damage to Travis's shoulder
blade and ribs, Dr. Dirkmaat comes to a disturbing conclusion. Somebody had to have stabbed him multiple times
throughout his back and upper torso. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: The amount of force that was used to drive in this weapon
was enough to break not only the scapula, but the underlying ribs. NARRATOR: He's stunned by the severity of the stab wounds.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: It was a pretty significant and traumatic force that was used to create those stab wounds.
NARRATOR: But he's still not sure if these particular wounds alone would have been
enough to kill Travis Boyd. He needs more hard evidence. Coming up, Dr. Dirkmaat is now determined
to give investigators the answers they need to figure out who committed this heinous crime.
People's lives are sort of in the balance-- you know, whether they go to jail or not,
that-- whether we find out who did this to this particular individual. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat has just found evidence that Travis Boyd was brutally stabbed many times
in his back and upper torso. His next discovery paints a picture of an even more
brutal scenario. He finds pellets embedded in the fatty tissue and bones of Travis's torso, pellets consistent
with a shotgun used to hunt quail. RICHARD KRANITZ: There might be hundreds of these pellets
in a shotgun shell. It wasn't a slug. It wasn't buckshot. It was these tiny BBs, maybe a 6 shot, which is commonly
used to shoot flying birds. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We know that in shotgun pellets, they throw out a number of pellets in a cone shape
away from the shotgun. NARRATOR: In all, Dr. Dirkmaat finds 49 pellets in Travis's body.
DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Some were located in the hyoid bone, which is a small bone up in the neck region.
Some were in the upper arm. And then another bunch of them were located in other vertebral elements.
NARRATOR: To help determine if these pellets could have killed Travis and to prove that the shooting was most likely
premeditated, Dr. Dirkmaat must first figure out how close the shooter was to him when the gun was fired.
That's because this type of hunting rifle would only be fatal to a human being if shot at close range.
From a distance, it would inflict superficial wounds. It's those little pellets that are propelled at the target.
And as they go out, they spread out. Depending on where it impacts the object, you have an idea of how far away the end of the shotgun
was relative to the target. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat draws the pattern of the birdshot found on Travis's torso
onto a skeletal diagram. This will help him determine how far the pellets scattered inside Travis's body.
A wide radius would indicate a shot from afar. A smaller radius would reveal that the victim
was shot at close range. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: And so you draw a circle around that, you have
an idea of the distance away. NARRATOR: Dr. Dirkmaat notes the tight grouping of pellets all contained within a small radius.
This proves that Travis was shot at point blank range. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Dr. Dirkmaat reports his findings to investigators.
Travis Boyd was repeatedly stabbed and then shot at close range in the neck with a shotgun.
It's irrefutable proof that he was murdered. With this new evidence, investigators now
have to find justice for a murder victim killed 20 years earlier. One life's not more important than another life.
So the fact that he was somewhat transient and the fact that it went unsolved for a long time
doesn't mean that it became less important. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: People's lives are sort of in the balance--
you know, whether they go to jail or not, that-- whether we find out who did this to this particular individual.
NARRATOR: Investigators recall the stories Travis's neighbors told them, how controlling he
was with his stepdaughter Katie, and how he had forbidden her to marry her high school sweetheart.
They wonder now if she was the one who stabbed and shot him. Though difficult to find, investigators
finally track Katie down. The woman they once thought was buried in the basement
is alive and well and married to the man Travis forbid her to date. Investigators bring her in for questioning.
[INAUDIBLE] you know why you're here and why I'm here. Detective Pecora and I told her
that we would like to talk to her about an incident which probably happened years ago.
She then began to shake. And she told us, you found him in the basement, didn't you?
NARRATOR: Katie immediately confesses to playing a role in the murder. But she claims her mother Alice was the real mastermind.
Investigators then learned that Katie's wedding plans were not the sole motive for murder.
She tells them how her mother and stepfather battled to maintain strict control over the family
and the finances. And you and your mom both buried him? You could tell she was very controlling.
It was all about her and her daughter. I just think he didn't let her have the control over the money
that she wanted. NARRATOR: As soon as Katie finishes her long account of events, detectives drive directly to Alice's house
three hours away. Sheriff's office. [KNOCKING] ANTHONY PECORA: We were met by the mother at the door.
And we explained to her what we were there for and so forth. And we have an arrest warrant for her.
Travis? I haven't seen Travis in years. ANTHONY PECORA: At the time, she first started out saying
that she divorced her husband. And she divorced him up in Michigan. I have the divorce papers. I'll get them.
Sure. [INAUDIBLE] ANTHONY PECORA: And she had this story that she must have had in her head that she made up
for if this would ever happen. NARRATOR: This interrogation is more difficult than anticipated.
And this time they must rely on Dr. Dirkmaat's findings if they hope to score a confession.
We wanted her to know that we believed we knew exactly what happened. So we told her some particulars.
NARRATOR: Upon relaying the chain of events as laid out by Dr. Dirkmaat, Alice begins to break down.
ANTHONY PECORA: And that's when she knew that her story about being divorced back in '85
wasn't going to work. And then she gave us a full taped statement. NARRATOR: Based on evidence provided by Dr. Dirkmaat
combined with confessions from Katie and her mother Alice, investigators can finally piece together
a grim picture of what happened to Travis Boyd on the day he was murdered. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Soon after marrying Travis, Alice schemes to get out of the relationship. But instead of divorcing him, she decides
her only way out is murder. So she thought about this for a long time. And I guess this is all she knew what to do.
I guess she felt she couldn't get rid of him no other way. NARRATOR: And she convinces her daughter to help.
Then it all comes down to one moment while Travis is getting dressed. Alice simply tells her teenage daughter, it's time.
She used her favorite knife. And she had a name for it, which was Pearl. And the daughter had the 12-inch switchblade.
And they attacked him. NARRATOR: Alice strikes first-- [GRUNTING AND YELLING] --stabbing Travis eight times.
Katie strikes twice. Travis slumps to his knees. But he's not dead yet. Then, Alice goes for the shotgun.
She finishes the job-- [GUNSHOT] --with one close-range blast, a blast that Dr. Dirkmaat believes is the ultimate cause of death.
Shotgun pellets very likely rip through a major artery in Travis's neck, causing him to bleed to death.
Katie, get a sheet! come on! NARRATOR: According to Katie, her mother is determined to hide the deed.
What are we going to do with him? Oh my god. I can't believe it. RICHARD KRANITZ: The daughter said that the mother
proceeded to drag the victim from the upstairs down into the basement. NARRATOR: Hours later, the mother-daughter team
uses a garden spade to dig a grave in the basement. They dump Travis's body into it.
That evening, Katie goes on a date with her boyfriend while Alice stays home to clean up the blood
and finished burying the body in the basement. Yes, I'm sorry. Could you please take these off?
NARRATOR: 20 years after the murder of Travis Boyd, Detectives Kranitz and Pecora arrest
Alice and her daughter Katie. Now, it will be up to a jury to decide their sentences.
The investigators and district attorney begin to prepare for the sentencing. They hope that in the courtroom, Travis Boyd
will finally get the justice he's been denied for two decades. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Coming up, Alice Khan shocks the prosecution
with a stunning turn of events-- She was like a block of ice. She didn't show no emotions whatsoever.
NARRATOR: --when "Skeleton Stories" returns. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] 20 years ago, Travis Boyd was savagely
murdered and then buried in the basement of an old farmhouse. Thanks to the work of forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat,
Travis's wife Alice and stepdaughter Katie have finally been charged with the crime.
As the trial approaches, the district attorney asked Dr. Dirkmaat to play yet another critical role
in the case-- to be a key witness for the prosecution. He knows he must be well prepared.
And his reports must be flawless. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Savvy defense attorneys will jump on you.
And the last thing you need is for the reports to be critically analyzed and come up with mistakes.
NARRATOR: The credibility of Dr. Dirkmaat and his work could determine the fate of the two women
and whether justice will be found for the victim. We look at every sentence, every word
that we present in there so that the case isn't dismissed because of the things that we do.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: With confessions from both suspects, it seems that Dr. Dirkmaat's testimony may
be a mere formality to corroborate the defendant's sworn statements. But in court, Alice Khan drops a bombshell.
She pleads not guilty and claims she only confessed to save her daughter. Katie is shocked.
She pleads guilty to third-degree murder and agrees to testify against her own mother.
When she finally takes the stand, she insists the murder was her mother's idea and she was forced into it.
I did feel a little bit sorry for her daughter, because she was such a young child.
It was kind of hard for her to go against her mother. Like I said, her mother was controlling.
NARRATOR: A shaken Katie tells the jury how her mother had been scheming to kill Travis for several months
for a variety of reasons. Because he was mean, lazy, and controlling, she couldn't take living with him anymore.
She should have divorced him or left him. Should have never took a life. Nobody has the right to take anybody's life.
Nobody. So that was wrong. NARRATOR: According to Katie, Alice saw in her young, impressionable teenage daughter
a perfect accomplice, one who would also benefit from having Travis out of her life.
She'd then be free to keep dating her boyfriend and even marry him. Katie describes how her mother's first plan to kill Travis
involved replacing his heart medication with methamphetamine-- speed. She asked Katie to procure the illegal drug.
RICHARD KRANITZ: She had obtained some speed from another student in high school
and gave it to her mother, but it didn't work. NARRATOR: Alice then settles on a more direct method
involving knives and a shotgun. Katie explains that her mother even bought her a knife at a flea market for the day
they would put their dark plan into action. You! NARRATOR: Katie then tells the jury
how she helped her mother murder Travis and dispose of the body. So far, it's just been Katie's word against her mother's
sudden claim of innocence. But now, Dr. Dirkmaat takes the stand. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: Our role is to provide a way for the jury
to sift through this evidence and sift through this testimony and see who's telling the truth and who may be making it up.
NARRATOR: Blow by blow, he methodically presents his forensic analysis, which corroborates Katie's story.
I describe the stabbing with a sharp instrument, likely a knife to the back that impacted
both the scapula and the ribs, and then some of the impact from the shotgun. NARRATOR: After a five-day-long trial,
Dr. Dirkmaat's testimony combined with Katie's story gives jurors a clear picture of what happened
on that day 20 years ago. RICHARD KRANITZ: It was very helpful to have Dr. Dirkmaat there at trial.
NARRATOR: On February 21, 2001, the jury convicts Alice of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy.
According to those at the trial, she handles the verdict with the same coldness she used to kill her husband.
She acted like she didn't care. She was writing a book. And she was telling the story is how her testimony sounded.
She never once said that she was sorry to us. She never said that she was sorry that she'd done it.
It was heartbreaking to know that somebody that you're supposed to love-- you know, she took vows that she was-- that she loved him.
And then she took his life. KATHY DVRAR: She was like a block of ice. She didn't show no emotions whatsoever,
never changed her face expressions of anything. You know, she looked like it-- oh well, you know.
I did it and you all have to suffer for it. You know, she-- nothing. Nothing at all.
NARRATOR: Alice Khan is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
She appealed, but was unsuccessful. Katie is convicted of third-degree murder and given a sentence of 7 to 20 years.
Though justice is finally done, surviving family members continue to feel the pain of their loss.
CRYSTAL MARTIN: I wish my kids would have got the opportunity to see what a good person he was.
I thank him for being there for me when my father wasn't. I really miss him. And I wish he was here today.
NARRATOR: But Dr. Dirkmaat's findings have helped the Boyd family find some closure
and spiritual peace. He did a wonderful, wonderful job. And I really appreciate it.
RICHARD KRANITZ: I think justice was served, because two people carried out a very violent murder.
They were convicted and now are paying the price for their crime. NARRATOR: For Dr. Dirkmaat, science
always uncovers the real story. DENNIS DIRKMAAT: We're looking at the evidence scientifically
and trying to get at the truth. The truth is ultimately important, whether that exonerates a bad guy or convicts somebody
who did it out of desperation.

A basement renovation in an old farmhouse results in the grisly discovery of a boot with a human leg bone sticking out of it.

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

A farmhouse renovation uncovers remains leading to a murder investigation of Travis Boyd, revealing dark family secrets and a confession from his stepdaughter.

Key points

Grisly Discovery in Farmhouse. A shocking find of human remains in a century-old farmhouse raises questions about a missing girl.
Uncovering the Past. As the Galets dig in their basement, they uncover a length of clothesline cord attached to something heavy.
The Investigation Takes a Turn. Detective Kranitz discovers the remains are human, leading to a homicide investigation.
The Body is Exhumed. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Dirkmaat begins the painstaking process of excavating the remains.
A Shocking Discovery. Dr. Dirkmaat finds evidence that the body may have been dragged before burial.
Travis's Mysterious Disappearance. Travis Boyd vanished in 1980, leaving family and investigators puzzled for decades.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We got kind of a bum steer.

Richard Kranitz expresses frustration over the investigation's direction.

0:46WatchSep 17, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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