Skeleton Stories - Season 1, Episode 8 - Fatal Connection - Full Episode | Forensic Files

Yo, come here. NARRATOR: A female skull found in a field that scientists can't identify.
It's very disappointing knowing that this case may never be resolved. NARRATOR: Another woman who vanishes without a trace.
The family wanted to believe that she was alive, but my particular instinct was she was not alive.
NARRATOR: And one year later-- the remains of a third woman found on a farm. That's when I knew something happened to my mother.
NARRATOR: Could these three seemingly unrelated cases be linked? We're believing we have a real serial killer on our hands.
NARRATOR: Investigators hope Forensic Anthropologist David Glassman can help them put the pieces of the puzzle
together. This has never happened to me before. We're talking about cases that span four, five years.
[THEME MUSIC] [DISHES CLATTERING] [DISTORTED BREATHING] NARRATOR: A game of catch in an overgrown
field, a typical sight in any American city. But in this field in Bay City, Texas,
the typical becomes the terrifying-- Yo, come here. NARRATOR: --when two young brothers
make a grisly discovery. ROBERT MERRILL: A couple of boys were out playing, and they came across a skull in the field next to the house.
So they brought it to the attention of their grandmother, who called the police.
NARRATOR: The police immediately search the field, but they don't find much. The remains have been in the open for so long
that animals have scattered the bones. Investigators wonder if it's the body of a drifter
or a victim of foul play. Have the bones been here for years or merely weeks? Finding the threads of truth in this tangle of unknowns
will take the skills of a top forensic anthropologist, a specialist in the stories bones can tell.
They turn to Dr. David Glassman. I don't see death when I'm doing my work. The question of how do I deal with death every day
is I don't see it every day. What I work with is the living evidence, even though the living evidence lies on dead materials.
NARRATOR: Investigators deliver the bones to Dr. Glassman's lab at the University of Southern Indiana.
They need quick answers to two pressing questions-- who is this and how did they die?
My hope always is to take the last remaining aspects of this individual and to create
enough information that we can answer those two essential questions-- who is the person and what is the manner
and cause of their death? NARRATOR: Thanks to the intact skull, it takes Dr. Glassman only moments to find clues
about how this person died. The injury that we see on the side of the skull here
is very, very severe. [GRUNTS] Some kind of implement must have been used. It had to have enough force to not only impact the skull,
but to break it cleanly all the way through into the brain cavity. This was a really hard hit.
NARRATOR: A fatal blow of incredible force, a skull literally caved in. His experience tells him that damage of this sort
would be highly unlikely two result from a fall or a freak accident. Dr. Glassman concludes right away that they
are dealing with a homicide. But who is this? Now Dr. Glassman must try to put a face on this battered skull.
My next step is starting the biological profile. This is the determination of the sex, the ancestry,
the age at death, and the stature of the individual. It provides a picture of who that individual may have been.
What you want from Dr. Glassman is something that can maybe narrow it down so you can narrow your search for a missing person.
NARRATOR: First Dr. Glassman examines the skull to determine the victim's sex. A male's brow ridge or the bone above
the eye is sharper and more defined than a female's. On this particular skull, the pattern that I saw
aligned it with females. There is very little brow ridge area right here. NARRATOR: And this skull has other secrets to reveal.
Dr. Glassman inspects the sutures on the top of the skull to determine the woman's age.
The main sutures are all fused. They're completely closed, suggesting that this person
was older than 35 years. NARRATOR: For a seasoned forensic anthropologist, bones can also speak volumes about a person's ethnicity.
Information concerning the ancestry of the individual is best seen in the facial region right here.
NARRATOR: The positioning of the eye sockets and cheek structure suggest that the woman may have been Latin American.
And her profile also hints at European or Latino descent. If I hold the skull up in anatomical position
and place a pencil on the forehead, you can see that this is pretty straight up and down.
And this is indicative of individuals who are European or more Hispanic ancestry.
NARRATOR: From the one arm bone found in the field, Dr. Glassman estimates the dead woman's height.
From the biological profile, I came to the conclusion that the remains best represent a female of age
over 35 years, possibly Hispanic, somewhere between 4 foot 10" and 5 foot 2 inches.
NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman now reports his findings to investigators. Once you get this profile, you try
to search any database you can to see if a missing person fits that information.
NARRATOR: Investigators comb through thousands of missing persons reports but find no one
who matches this profile. So the remains were stored and the case was left open.
It was simply a missing person and identified remains. NARRATOR: Without new information,
her death will be forever unexplained, her murderer unpunished. That's very disappointing to us knowing that this case may
never be resolved. At this point our case went cold. NARRATOR: But three years later, an incident
occurs that will eventually shed light on this mysterious skeleton. In December 2000, Linda Sandoval receives
an anonymous phone call. Her mother is in danger. And I'm like, what? You know, what is it that you're talking about?
NARRATOR: Linda and a cousin immediately race to her mother's house a few miles away.
The door is locked, and her car was in the carport. Mom? [KNOCKING] So my cousin came in through the window
and opened up the door for us. And I walked in through the door. They found that her keys and her purse were inside.
And then they found a wet spot on the carpet. The carpet's wet. And, you know, I'm like, oh my god, you know?
I'm just, like, not even thinking anything bad or anything. I knew it wasn't good.
But I just, you know, just-- NARRATOR: Linda calls the police. Officers confirm that the wet spot on the carpet
is the result of a hasty attempted cleanup, and what was being cleaned up was blood.
In the driveway, the police find a ring belonging to Lucinda. It too was bloodstained.
That's when I knew. And I said something happened to my mother. He said yes. I said it's not good.
He says no. NARRATOR: Investigators learned through interviews with friends and neighbors that Lucinda Hernandez is a devoted mother
who is highly respected in the community with no history of any kind of trouble.
She was a very beautiful lady, very sympathetic to people who were having problems in their lives.
NARRATOR: One woman brutally slain and left in a rural field, a second woman vanished without a trace.
Coming up, Dr. Glassman identifies the nameless skeleton and investigators find a clue that
links these two women together, when "Skeleton Stories" returns. Lucinda Hernandez has mysteriously
vanished from her home. Police question family members and search her house for clues that might explain
her sudden disappearance. In talking to the family members, I try to find out who is in her life at this particular point.
And Detective Merrill questions me about, you know, my dad, anybody that my mom was seeing.
NARRATOR: Linda tells investigators that her parents had recently divorced and her mother was dating a new guy.
I did give him the name. But I couldn't give him a last name. And nobody seems to know his full name,
all they know is Ernesto itself. NARRATOR: Though Linda has met Ernesto only a few times,
she knows she doesn't like him. One time I called and my mom answered the phone and I heard someone in the background.
I said, mom, who's there? And she said, it's Ernesto. I said, why is he in your house yelling?
What is going on? And she goes, nothing, don't worry about it, everything is fine.
Investigators now wonder if Ernesto could be linked to Lucinda's disappearance. We're trying to see if we can find any evidence that
will tie his name to a face. Because we don't really know what he looks like. NARRATOR: As they comb through Lucinda's house,
the detectives catch the break they need. I find this envelope that had a return address in Mexico
to Ernesto. And inside that envelope there was a photograph. And it had his name on the back of the photograph.
NARRATOR: Now investigators have put a face with a name-- Ernesto Nevez. The family makes copies of that photo
and places it on flyers. The family goes out and spreads it out all over town, trying to get more information on Ernesto.
NARRATOR: Police soon get a call about a man who was pulling down fliers in the neighborhood.
They suspect it's Ernesto. A couple of detectives found him in an alley just a couple
of blocks from where the call had come from. And he was taken down to the police station for questioning.
You know why we called you in here. NARRATOR: There, they find evidence directly linking--
No. NARRATOR: --him to Lucinda's disappearance. Lucinda Garcia. Just show me what's in your pockets.
NARRATOR: He has her house key. What does this key go to? Whoever left that house for the last time locked the door.
And he had the only key in the pocket that could have done that. NARRATOR: Even more sinister are the statements
Ernesto makes when police ask him to help find Lucinda. [SPEAKS SPANISH] During the interview, he makes some statements
along the lines of "if I tell you where she's at, you'll sink me." Another major problem that we had
is that he was talking about Lucinda in the past tense instead of the present tense.
My gut reaction was Lucinda is not alive. The family wanted to believe that she was alive,
but my particular instinct was she was not alive. NARRATOR: Police strongly suspect
that Ernesto had something to do with Lucinda's disappearance. But without a body, they could not charge him with murder.
Instead, they arraign him on charges of kidnapping. You are under arrest. NARRATOR: Prosecutors then persuade the judge to set
bail at half a million dollars. That gave us enough time to investigate him. A big part of it was the flight risk issue.
I mean, he was an illegal alien who very easily could just slip back across the border.
NARRATOR: With Ernesto locked safely away, it is the investigators who look across the border to Mexico
where Ernesto's murky past gradually comes to light. Ernesto Nevez, detectives learn, is
an ex con who did time for manslaughter in Mexico City. From every one we interviewed, Ernesto's personality
was described as volatile. Could be charming at times, but could turn violent fairly quickly.
NARRATOR: Police quickly discover that Ernesto had been involved with another woman who
also disappeared. Her name is Bertha Angelo. She met Ernesto in Mexico while working at the prison
where he was serving time. He had apparently courted her. And when he got out of prison, they were married.
NARRATOR: Shortly after the wedding, Ernesto crossed the border illegally and settled in Bay City.
Bertha soon followed him. Once she got here and found him, she moved in with him.
And she would write letters home, you know, telling the family back home that she's living with him.
And then all of a sudden, all contact stopped. They just didn't know what happened.
They had been unable to locate her. NARRATOR: Now the detectives have linked Ernesto to two missing women--
Lucinda Hernandez-- At this point, we knew that Ernesto was last seen with Lucinda.
He had her key. He had been in her house. NARRATOR: --and Bertha Angelo. We knew that Bertha came up here from Mexico,
had lived with him, and not been heard of in some time. NARRATOR: Police follow Ernesto and Bertha's
trail all the way to the apartment they rented in Bay City. The couple's former neighbors have a chilling
story for the detectives. The last time they had seen the woman that lived with him alive had been the evening
before he moved out. NARRATOR: But even more chilling is the building's location.
The house where Ernesto lived with Bertha is right next to the field where the anonymous remains
of a murdered woman were found three years earlier. At this point, the police began
to suspect that those remains were probably Bertha and that he had something to do with it.
NARRATOR: Investigators asked Dr. Glassman to reexamine the anonymous bones he first analyzed three years ago.
They want to know if these remains could be Bertha. Looking at all of the characteristics of the skull
has led me to the conclusion that this skull belongs to a female of at least 35 years of age
and most likely Hispanic. NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman's biological profile is a perfect match.
Bertha Angelo was a 43-year-old Hispanic woman who stood just five feet tall. But investigators need absolute proof
that these bones are Bertha's. OK. So we ended up having to contact her family down in Mexico.
And they sent in some on envelopes from letters that she had sent home. We realized we may have DNA on those letters.
And ultimately, the match to her remains was made by testing the saliva from the flap on an envelope
that she had licked and mailed home to the family. And it did match up to be Bertha.
NARRATOR: Now finally after three years, the mystery of the unidentified skull is solved.
It is Bertha Angelo. Based on interviews with neighbors and information provided by Dr. Glassman, investigators speculate
on Bertha's last moments. One May night shortly after Ernesto arrives home from work,
neighbors hear screams from their apartment. That evening, they had heard a fight
occur between him and her. [YELLING IN SPANISH] NARRATOR: Given the fractures Dr. Glassman found on Bertha's
skull, he believes Ernesto then grabs a wrench or a similar object and smashes her over the head with it, fracturing
the side of her skull. Such blunt force trauma to her head causes the brain to bleed and swell.
In minutes, Bertha's vital organs begin to shut down and she dies on the floor of her home.
And the next day, he moved out and said that she had left him for another man. NARRATOR: Coming up, as the police are cementing the links
to Bertha and Lucinda, they find a clue pointing to a third missing woman. In the middle of this investigation,
we discovered that he had reported another girlfriend missing. NARRATOR: Next on "Skeleton Stories."
Police believe Ernesto Nevez is responsible for the death of Bertha Angelo, whose remains were found
in the woods in 1997, and Lucinda Hernandez, who disappeared in 2000. They then discovered that a third woman connected
to Ernesto has disappeared-- Susanna Elias, a mother of two young children. Police soon learn that in November 1998,
Susanna met Ernesto on her way to work and they began dating. He moved in with her, and they lived
together for several months before she disappeared. NARRATOR: Ironically, it was Ernesto
who filed the missing persons report on Susanna earlier that year. Detectives tracked down Susanna's daughter
who tells them the last time she saw her mom was on March 5, 2000, when Susanna left
with Ernesto to go to work. When time came for her mother to come home, she didn't come home.
So now he was last seen walking away with her, and she's missing. NARRATOR: Susanna's daughter tells investigators
that late in the evening, she heard the door open and was surprised when Ernesto walked in alone.
Ernesto came home intoxicated. She confronted him wanting to know what happened to her mother.
And he laughed at her and said that she was never gonna see her mother again. NARRATOR: A clear pattern is emerging.
Bertha and Lucinda were also involved with Ernesto. One is dead, the other has vanished.
Investigators suspect Ernesto has killed all three women. We're believing we have a real serial killer on our hands.
And we sure don't want him out of jail at this point. We felt that the most appropriate thing to do
was seek a charge of capital murder against him, alleging all three murders under the serial killer
statute. NARRATOR: But Cox and his team face a daunting challenge. Under the serial killer statute, they now
must prove that Ernesto killed all three women at different times and that the murders were committed
with a common pattern. If they are successful, Ernesto will face life in prison or the death penalty.
If not, Ernesto's sentence could be as little as five years. But the prosecutors don't even have two of the three bodies,
those of Lucinda and Susanna, let alone proof that Ernesto caused their deaths or how.
We're obviously very concerned about going to trial without only a partial set of remains from one victim.
We were concerned about how the trial would go if that were the status of the case.
NARRATOR: Investigators turn to Lucinda's family for help. Together they search the city and its outskirts
for her remains. We'd have 40, 50 people, just family members there to help us out.
They would come home with-- you know, when I say they, my family members and my cousins
and my husband and my dad, wet and dirty because they were searching. They were looking for her.
And they did that, they did it for days. NARRATOR: Then, in November 2001, as the investigation grinds on, a call comes in to the police.
A rancher who was out checking his fences after some bulldozer work had been down on his property
discovered what he recognized to be human bones. We better called the police. I don't think this is cattle bone.
Bones all over here. Don't mess with it too much. I'll be right back. All right, hurry up.
The actual location where they were found was probably 50 yards from the place where Ernesto worked at one time or another.
NARRATOR: Investigators find a shattered skull, teeth, and a few bones scattered on the ground.
The remains are rushed to the lab where DNA is extracted from the teeth and compared with samples taken
from the next of kin of both victims, Lucinda Hernandez and Susanna Elias. Then investigators and family members anxiously
await the lab results. One week later, DNA tests confirm this is Lucinda Hernandez.
Detective Merrill immediately calls Lucinda's daughter. I knew I was going to have to deal with that she really is,
you know-- she's really-- she's really not here. NARRATOR: Now detectives need proof that Lucinda was killed
in the same manner as Bertha-- blunt force trauma to the head. Without that evidence, they may not
be able to bring serial killer charges against Ernesto, leaving open the prospect of a much
lighter jail sentence, possibly as little as five years. Investigators send Lucinda's bones to Dr. Glassman.
And we're hoping he can tell us what happened. We're hoping we have enough to piece
together to tell us a story. He had done such a good job with the first set that he had examined in this case
that we kept him involved in the rest of the case. NARRATOR: But Prosecutor Greg Cox deliberately
doesn't tell Dr. Glassman that this body has any connection to Bertha. His reason, to keep the evidence as strong as possible.
If Dr. Glassman finds a link between Lucinda and Bertha's deaths, that connection will be more persuasive in court
if he finds it without a single hint from the police. The first thought I had when I received those remains
and looked in that paper bag is, boy, do I have my work cut out for me. It appears that they're mostly cranial fragments,
maybe-- maybe they're all from the skull. Let's see as we take them out. NARRATOR: In order to examine the skull,
Dr. Glassman must first reassemble it. It's a tedious job, and it's one that takes a long period of time.
Because you know you're constructing a puzzle that's three dimensional and also that many of the pieces
that you need to deal with may not be present. Well, I've been working on the skull for about four hours now.
And it's pretty much coming together. I'm, in fact, pretty surprised that so much of it
really was recovered. NARRATOR: And it's only when Dr. Glassman assembles the last piece in the puzzle that the shocking truth becomes
apparent. In the back of the skull, there's a small entrance wound that would have
been associated with a gunshot. The exit of that would have come through, it appears,
through the eye on the left side of the face. NARRATOR: The bones don't lie. Lucinda's face was blown apart by a gunshot
through the back of her head. Coming up, ironically, Dr. Glassman's discovery could derail the prosecution's serial murder
case against Ernesto. We were concerned about how the trial would go. NARRATOR: Next, on "Skeleton Stories."
Dr. Glassman has just made a discovery that may be damaging to the prosecution's
case against Ernesto Nevez. He has found a bullet wound to Lucinda's skull, but the wounds he found on Bertha's skull
were blunt force trauma. Without a common pattern connecting the way Lucinda and Bertha were killed, the prosecutors cannot prove that
Ernesto is a serial killer. You can't charge a person with being a serial killer
if they just go around and commit several different murders unless you're able to connect those murders together
through some sort of common practice involved in the course of the murder. That's a DA's nightmare trying to put that together
to present a case to a jury. NARRATOR: But what Dr. Glassman finds next raises doubts as to whether the bullet actually
caused Lucinda's death. There are so many fractures, some are going from forward to back, some
are going from side to side. Some of them are very short, others are very, very long.
NARRATOR: At two points, in particular, he finds evidence of massive blunt force trauma.
There are two areas-- one above the eye right here and the other on the forehead
that indicates that there were two substantial blows. NARRATOR: These fractures also reveal
the order in which this violence was done to Lucinda Hernandez. Since the fractures extend into and even across the fragments
that were torn away by the bullet, he concludes the fractures must have happened first.
The evidence showed that the exit wound from the bullet went through areas that had already been fractured
from a blow to the face. I can't really say what the need of the last gunshot was,
maybe it was just a final ending of this situation. NARRATOR: Based on Dr. Glassman's findings
and interviews with Lucinda's family, investigators believe they now know what happened to Lucinda
Hernandez on her final day. In the wake of her divorce after 36 years of marriage,
Lucinda is upset and vulnerable. She was really at the lowest point, I really feel,
in her life and really upset about she and my dad not being together. And that year was really a hard year for her.
NARRATOR: During this time, Lucinda gets involved with Ernesto Nevez. People like Ernesto are able to get the confidence
of people really easy. I mean, that's what makes them so good at what they do. NARRATOR: But Lucinda soon learns that Ernesto
has a volatile temper. Some of the family members that the police interviewed were very concerned about her relationship
with Ernesto because she had explained that he was very jealous. And they were concerned for her safety.
NARRATOR: On December 12, 2000, Lucinda tells Ernesto she is leaving him. He begs her to stay.
What are you doing? What are you thinking? NARRATOR: But she refuses. No, I don't think so. You're staying here.
- No, I'm not. - I didn't say you could-- - Did you do this to me? - That's nothing.
I don't care. That's nothing. You're leaving, but not the way you think. NARRATOR: He then grabs her and beats her
to death with two ferocious blows from a wrench or some other heavy tool. The blunt force trauma is so severe that it causes
her brain to bruise and swell. Soon all normal brain functions cease and Lucinda dies.
It was a severe, severe beating. NARRATOR: Then Ernesto hauls her body to the ranch near his old job site,
and after a single gunshot to the back of her head, he dumps her over the fence.
With Dr. Glassman's newest evidence, investigators can now connect Lucinda's death with Bertha's.
This was another victim of Ernesto's. The fact that, again, we were dealing with a Hispanic female who died from a blow to the head.
NARRATOR: These grisly signposts provided by Dr. Glassman convinced police that they can establish a consistent pattern
in Ernesto's behavior. But they're still not sure if it's enough to bring the much heavier charge of serial murder.
As prosecutors prepare for their case, they're still missing one major element. We were very close to trial at this point.
And we're still headed toward a trial with a missing body. Bye-bye. NARRATOR: Susanna Elias, the third alleged victim,
has not been found. Coming up, without the third body the prosecution is hoping Dr. Glassman's findings will be enough to make
the case for serial murder. I was worried about what I'd be able to say. NARRATOR: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
[SCREAMS] Three women associated with this man, Ernesto Nevez, have vanished. Two have been found with their skulls battered in.
But a third woman, Susanna Elias, is still missing. To strengthen their serial killer case against Ernesto,
prosecutors need her body, but they cannot delay the trial any longer. Then just three months before the trial is set to begin,
a Bay City resident walking his dog makes a gruesome find. The dog ran up in the direction of a tent that
was part of a homeless camp. Whatcha got there? When he went up to retrieve his dog,
he saw what he believed to be a human skull in the leaves on the ground. He calls the police.
The police respond and began their investigation at that point. Did you find the bones back in here?
- Yeah. - OK, and you're closing it? [INAUDIBLE] NARRATOR: Investigators confirm that these
are human remains and meticulously recover every bone. They didn't know if it was someone who
had died at the homeless camp that was nearby or if it was something that was a result of foul play.
NARRATOR: But detectives on the Ernesto Nevez case hope this is the lucky break they've been waiting for.
They immediately compare the teeth in the skull with Susanna's dental records. They were the remains of Susanna Elias.
NARRATOR: Now that they have found the three bodies of the women who were involved with Ernesto Nevez,
the next step is to prove that Susanna was murdered in a similar manner to Bertha
Angelo and Lucinda Hernandez. That is the key piece of evidence prosecutors need to try Ernesto as a serial killer.
They felt it was wise to bring Dr. Glassman in again. Hello. No, impossible. They are continually asking me questions.
And what I tried to tell them is, we're not going to say anything till we get a good look at these remains and we do it systematically.
And then we'll be able to come with some decisions. NARRATOR: Again, the prosecutors carefully hide their suspicion
from Dr. Glassman that these bones are linked to the earlier cases. As Dr. Glassman examines the skull,
he immediately finds unusual depressive fractures all over it. Many of these areas of impact have
a very distinctive marking, a circular marking about the same size. And this is consistent with some type of blunt trauma
with a circular kind of tool, something like a hammer. It appears that one went through right here as well.
The blow was strong enough that it went all the way through into the brain cavity.
This can cause trauma to the brain. No! The brain can swell. The brain can be bruised, it can hemorrhage and bleed.
It certainly can be fatal. To me this was a crime of hatred and violence. NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman reports his findings
to the investigators. With this and what they've learned from Susanna's family and friends, they piece together the chain of events
leading up to Susanna's death. Ernesto and Susanna had been dating for six months.
Ernesto had become very jealous because he thought that she was seeing someone else.
Everybody that we talked to told us how much of a jealous person he was, that once he got his hands on a female,
he didn't want any other man to see her, talk to her, anything. Susanna got up to leave for work one morning,
and very unlike the normal routine, Ernesto left with her. NARRATOR: Susanna gets nervous when she sees
that he is acting strangely. She tries to get away, but he chases her and smashes her
over the head with a hammer. The repeated blunt force causes her brain to swell.
Soon the swelling becomes so severe, her brain stops functioning and Susanna dies.
Then Ernesto leaves her body in the forest. This was a severe attack. Susanna's murder was more calculated,
but it was still pursuant to the same scheme. NARRATOR: Prosecutors now believe they have enough evidence for a serial killer
case against Ernesto, but it won't be easy. All the evidence they have is completely circumstantial.
They have no murder weapons or hard scientific evidence linking Ernesto to any of the crimes.
Tying these cases together was very important because the jury had to see the whole picture and the common behavior
to really be able to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he was responsible.
NARRATOR: Investigators once again enlist the help of Dr. Glassman, this time to testify about the three bodies he has analyzed
over the past five years. I received a phone call from Detective Merrill. And Detective Merrill told me that we're
planning on going to court. NARRATOR: After years of intentionally hiding the details of Ernesto's story from him,
Detective Merrill now lifts the veil of secrecy. And I asked him, well, what case
are we going to court on, as I've worked for many, many cases for Detective Merrill.
The most unusual thing is he just kept reading off my case numbers, case number this, then case number that, then
case number this. This has never happened to me before. We're talking about cases that span four or five years
found in different counties. It just has never happened like that. NARRATOR: Now Dr. Glassman compares the three
skulls for the first time. For all three of the victims, an implement had been used
in order to create the defect. And for all three of them, fractures were complete,
went all the way through into the brain case, very violent acts on all three of these women.
It makes you wonder whether or not Ernesto has other women in the past that we have not recovered their bodies.
And this is just a long list of violence covering a great number of years. NARRATOR: Coming up, will Dr. Glassman's testimony
be enough to convince a jury that Ernesto Nevez is guilty of serial murder? You got juries, 12 people that you
have no clue what they think. NARRATOR: Next on "Skeleton Stories." Police are convinced that Ernesto
Nevez killed three women-- his wife Bertha Angelo in 1996, his girlfriend Susanna Elias
in March 2000, and his next girlfriend Lucinda Hernandez nine months later. As they start the trial, prosecutors
hope that Dr. Glassman's findings along with the evidence they've gathered will convince a jury that Ernesto Nevez
is guilty of serial murder. I don't know that I'm ever confident when we go into a trial that we're absolutely going to win.
You've got juries that 12 people that you have no clue what they think. NARRATOR: The prosecution begins by depicting
Ernesto Nevez' pattern of behavior with all three women. He would lure them with his charm, but then turn brutal.
So one factor that was present in every relationship that Ernesto had and in all of these murders was jealousy.
If the relationship was about to break up, if the woman was about to leave him, he was going to kill her so that no one
else could have her. Rather than walk away from a relationship, his deal was to kill 'em instead.
NARRATOR: The prosecution then asked Dr. Glassman to take the stand. I knew my testimony was important
because what I was going to show was that each of these victims were not only killed, but they were killed very violently
and very deliberately. Oh, no! And that there was also commonalities between each one of the three victims
and how they met their death. NARRATOR: Dr. Glassman must convince the jury that all three women were killed the same way.
If he fails, the serial murder charge may fall apart and Ernesto Nevez could go free.
For each one of the victims, I showed photographic illustrations of what the damage was
to the skull and took them through fracture by fracture, impact by impact, what I had seen on these skulls.
Probably some of the closest attention they paid in the whole trial was when we showed the photographs of the skulls
and the similarities between the injuries. They were completely wrapped up in that.
I mean, really just sent it home that these were very violent actions that happened to these poor victims.
NARRATOR: The jury retires on October 12, 2001. Four hours later, word comes that they
have reached a verdict-- guilty. They did find him responsible for all three murders.
And they did find that they were part of a common scheme. NARRATOR: The guilty verdict is a victory
for the investigation team. Prosecutors press for the death penalty. The defense argues that Ernesto's
impoverished childhood and mental deficiency are cause for leniency. The jury comes back with their sentence--
life in prison. Ernesto Nevez will be eligible for parole in 2045 when he's 89. Until then, his routine of charm, courtship, and murder
has been stopped cold. I was pleased with the verdict. Ernesto was a truly evil man.
There was no justification for what he did to these three women. NARRATOR: The prosecutors and victim's families
are grateful to Dr. Glassman for his meticulous work. Without Dr. Glassman's testimony,
we could not have had tied these cases together and pursued this case as a capital murder.
It makes it a lot easier when you have people like Dr. Glassman and his caliber of expertise
to be able to come in and piece everything together for you. Those three women died.
And this man needed to pay for that. And Dr. Glassman helped us make sure that that occurred.
I really believe if it weren't for Dr. Glassman and the other forensics that Ernesto would be free.
And there wouldn't be any justice for my mother or any of the other women. NARRATOR: And Dr. Glassman himself
is proud of the contributions he made to the case. In all cases, I feel a strong responsibility to the victim.
But this was especially important, because here I was dealing with three individuals, three individuals that suffered
a pretty heinous death. And it was very very important to me to do the best job that I could.

Three women who were romantically involved with the same man vanish and their bones are found at different times and locations, leading investigators to believe they face a serial killer.

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 anthropologist Dr. David Glassman helps link three murders to serial killer Ernesto Nevez through detailed analysis of victims' remains.

Key points

A Grisly Discovery. Two young brothers find a skull in a field, leading to a police investigation.
The Search for Answers. Forensic Anthropologist David Glassman is called to help identify remains.
A Mother's Disappearance. Linda Sandoval receives an alarming call about her mother's safety.
Linking the Cases. Investigators discover a connection between multiple missing women.
DNA Confirms Identity. DNA tests confirm the remains found belong to Lucinda Hernandez.
Dr. Glassman's Shocking Discovery. Dr. Glassman uncovers a bullet wound in Lucinda's skull, complicating the murder case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We're believing we have a real serial killer on our hands.

Investigators suspect a serial killer is involved.

0:45WatchSep 23, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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