[music playing] narrator: no one in thisquiet, residential community saw or heard anythingunusual on the day a neighbor wasbrutally attacked, but a store's securitycamera, a fingerprint, and forensic computeranalysis helped to identify a suspectin another state within 12 hours of the crime. [theme music]
narrator: in 1997,eskalene deborde moved to a residentialneighborhood in knoxville, tennessee. she lived just a few blocks awayfrom her daughter and grandson. liz noffsinger: so assoon as i became pregnant, she moved to knoxvilleto be with me. she was very family oriented. she liked beingwith her children. narrator: the area wasvirtually crime free.
-if you were to matchup the different sectors of this county, uh, i thinkmost everybody in knox county would agree withyou that it's one of the safest placesin our county. -they're all families. lots of children inthe neighborhood. nice yards, picket fence. you know, the-- thequintessential american story. very nice.
narrator: eskalene workedat home, using her computer to type medical transcriptionsfor the university of kentucky. she spent the rest of herfree time with her family. -my mother saw mychild every day, and they talked on thephone numerous times. she would miss him. she'd have to walk thetwo blocks from her house to my house because shesaid, i need-- you know, i need a grand-fix.
i've gotta-- i'vegotta be with him. narrator: late in theafternoon on august 20, 2001, liz realized she hadn'theard from her mother since talking toher that morning. she always called mearound 5:00, 5:30. if she wasn't at my house,she would always at least call around 5:00, rightbefore dinner-- 5:00 or 5:30. and i hadn't heard from her. so around, um, 6:30, ibegan to get concerned.
narrator: calls to eskalene'shome went unanswered and weren't picked up byher answering machine. so i got in my car anddrove to her house. and her door was lockedand the blinds were closed. my mother loved light,so this looks different. so i used my key to walk in. and that's when ifound her on the floor. narrator: her motherhad been murdered. 911 operator (on phone):female speaker (on phone):
was the door lockedwhen you came in? liz (on phone): yes. things are justall over the place. and the-- her-- her, uh,wallet is out of her purse. and there's credit cardsstrewn all over the floor. there's like-- they'vegone through things. the phone wasunplugged down here. that's why her answeringmachine didn't pick up. and they've gonethrough cabinets
and-- and her back window'sclosed. (crying) mama! mama! oh, mama, don't die! narrator: the househad been ransacked and it appearedas if someone had gone through eskalene's jewelry. the bruises and cutson her hands and arms were defensivewounds, indicating that she had foughther attacker.
eskalene's wallet was empty. and while some of her creditcards were found on the carpet, most of them were missing. -uh, he took everythingout of the wallet. took time to look at everylittle piece of paper in the wallet andfound the pin code numbers for the credit cards. narrator: investigators foundno signs of forced entry. -it told us it was a possibilitythat she knew the person
or that, for somereason, they surprised her at the front of the house. and that the door wasopened for whoever this was. -well, we really didn't know. the first impression wouldbe someone that she knew, because of no forced entry. narrator: but eskalene'sdaughter didn't believe it. -she was so reserved, so--she was very quiet and, again, a very, very, um, um,easy-going person.
i can't-- i could never imagineanybody knowing her, um, anybody she knew wouldwant to hurt her. narrator: in the kitchen,the investigators found a soda can, a drinkingglass, and a cigarette butt on the floor. -this perpetrator had spenta considerable amount of time in the residence, hadtaken time to eat some food and drink some cola andjust was in control. narrator: liz alsotold detectives
her mother's car was missing. -we were able to relayto other agencies throughout the area to be onthe lookout for her vehicle, because we only could assumethat whoever had murdered eskalene debordealso had her vehicle. narrator: investigatorscanvased the whole neighborhood, but no one had heard orseen anything unusual. -in a matter of probably20 minutes of my arriving on the scene, i had somewherein the neighborhood of 60,
65 people working on that crime. -unfortunately, if it'snot solved within a 24 hour after the fact, thingscan happen very quickly. evidence can be destroyed. the case is gettingcold very quickly. narrator: in time, they woulddiscover an important clue inside eskalenedeborde's computer. there were no signsof forced entry at eskalene deborde's home.
but her daughter liz toldpolice that her mother often left her front door unlocked. -she was trying tomake it easier for me, if i had something in myhands or i was holding my son, i could just come in and nothave to fiddle with keys, and-- she was thinking about me. narrator: there were plentyof clues in the townhouse. -we found latent prints,uh, on two glasses. the location of the prints onthe glasses led us to believe,
or did confirm, that someonehad a hold of the top of the glasses carryingthose in there. narrator: the prints wereentered into the automated fingerprint identificationsystem known as afis and compared tomillions of prints in a nationwide database. the search did notimmediately produce a match. -sometimes it takes, uh, amatter of hours, maybe even days, because you're lookingat several million entries.
narrator: the biologicalsamples from the rape test kit were sent to theforensics lab for testing. first, the sample wasplaced into a vial with a stain extractionbuffer, which breaks down all nonbiological particles andproteins surrounding the dna. phenol/chloroformwas then added, allowing the dna to congeal. and this was analyzed using apolymerase chain reaction test. the result was believed tobe the killer's dna profile.
next, forensic analystsexamined eskalene's computer and with the help of heremployer's mainframe computer, found an important clue. -when we looked at eskalenedeborde's computer, we discovered that she had sentout an email at 12:21 the day that she was found dead. [typing] that led us to believethat she was alive and obviously had beenworking on her computer
prior to whoeverhad entered her home before she hadcontact with them. narrator: and investigatorsfound evidence that eskalene's computerhad automatically logged off three minutes aftersending that email. that meant the time of herdeath was some time after 12:30. -we were trying to get a timeframe for the death itself. we were also trying,at the same time, to learn if therewas anything out
of the normal in the community. narrator: neighbors told policethere were magazine salesmen going door to door on theafternoon of eskalene's murder. -many people relayedto us that these people had been in their--their residence or in their subdivisionduring the time of 11:00 in the morning upuntil almost 4:00 pm. narrator: local ordinancesrequire sales organizations to have permits for eachand every salesman selling
door to door. but there had been no permitsgranted to any sales groups that week. sheriff tim hutchison knew thattraveling sales groups from out of state usually stayat the local motels. typically, a companyvan would pick them up at the motel in the morning,take them to a neighborhood to sell door to door,and then take them back to the motel atthe end of the day.
-we've had problems in thepast with some of these people being very pushy, trying topush their selves in on women. and getting inarguments or fights. and so that set an alarmbell off the minute that the word cameback to us at the scene that there were some magazinesalesman in the neighborhood that afternoon. narrator: detectivescanvased several local motels but turned up nothing.
back at the crimescene, investigators followed another lead. eskalene's wallet was emptyand her daughter told them it was normally fullof credit cards. detectives thoughtthe intruder may have stolen them andtried to use them. -so we started lookingthrough the drawers trying to find past bills which wouldhave those credit card numbers on them, which companiesthat they were with.
and so by doing that, uh, wefound which cards were missing. narrator: police asked the bankto notify them if anyone tried using one of those stolen cards. they never dreamtthat the killer would walk rightinto their trap. only a few hours aftereskalene deborde's murder, officials at herbank told police that someone tried to use oneof her credit cards at an atm at a local gas station.
narrator: and they had retrievedabout, i think, $80 or so, out of the atm. narrator: detectives checkedthe a atm surveillance video. they saw tall, thin man, wearinga white shirt and black tie, standing at the machinefor eight minutes. afterwards, he picked up adrink and went to the counter to pay for it. it appeared he was asking thestore clerk for directions. -whoever used eskalenedeborde's card,
was dressed wearing thewhite shirt and black tie, led us to believe that wasone of the magazine salesmen who, in fact, hadbeen in her residence. all the neighbors we spoke tosaid the magazine salesmen that came to theirresidence were wearing white shirts and black ties. narrator: detectivesquestioned the store clerk and she clearlyremembered the customer. he told her he wasfrom new york city
and ask for directions tothe motel on paper mill road. police went immediatelyto the motel and they spotted two vans,similar to those used to transport thetraveling salesmen. across the street, police alsosaw eskalene deborde's car, which was immediatelyprocessed for fingerprints. -when we spoke withthe magazine salesmen that we're at thesuper 8, we discovered that one of themagazine salesmen
didn't show up for theirpickup point at 4:00 pm. narrator: that salesman was21-year-old roger broadway. -when we first spoke withthe manager of the magazine salesmen, he was reluctantto give us information. narrator: when the sheriffthreatened to impound his vans, the supervisor changed his mind. -he started telling us thatthere was one individual that worked for him that was fromnew york city that had got word that his relatives weresick, and he immediately
needed to leave to go back home. narrator: the manager admittedthat they recruited salesmen with criminalrecords, but claimed they were rehabilitated. -the manager of themagazine salesmen told us that many of thepeople that they hire are from halfwayhouses in inner cities, just to give them theopportunity to make some money and get out of the city.
narrator: roger broadwaytold his employer that he had a familyemergency and needed to go back to newyork city immediately. -the manager took rogerbroadway to the bus station, purchased him a busticket, and sent him on a bus back to new york. narrator: policeknew they needed to catch broadway beforehe got off that bus. -if he'd have made it back tonew york, where he was from,
it would be reallyimpossible to find him there. -he's on home turf then. and those people, if theyknow you're after them, they can hide out for long--sometimes long periods of time. -he would have wentunderground, i'm sure. narrator: a background checkrevealed that roger broadway had served a prison termfor aggravated robbery. detectives checkedwith the bus company and were told the buswould take interstate
highway 81 to new york. and they also toldpolice exactly where the bus would beduring its journey. shortly after midnight, policeasked sheriff's officers in virginia to try tointercept that bus. [sirens] narrator: sheriff's deputieswere able to catch up with the bus they believedwas carrying roger broadway on interstate81 in virginia.
when they pulled the bus overand sheriffs walked on board, roger broadway surrenderedwithout incident. in his luggage, investigatorsfound bloody clothing, eskalene deborde's engagementring, and her car key. -he held something in hispocket that my mother wore and it was violating, i guess. the experience i had was that itwas a very violating experience that he would even touchsomething that was her, that touched her, i suppose.
narrator: broadway'sfingerprints were compared to those on thedrinking glass at the crime scene and oneskalene's car window. a computer programidentified small shapes within the fingerprintscalled minutia, shown here in green squares. hundreds of thesepoints matched. -those prints belong to thesuspect, uh, roger broadway. narrator: investigatorstook a blood sample
from broadway for dna testing. as expected,broadway's dna profile matched the biologicalsamples at the crime scene. -the scientist told usthat, uh, the odds of this being incorrect, theodds were greater than the populationof the world. narrator: based onthe forensic evidence, prosecutors believe broadwayentered eskalene deborde's unlocked townhouseintending to burglarize
it, not knowingshe was upstairs. narrator: eskalene was workingupstairs on her computer. and she sent herlast email at 12:21. the computer logged offthree minutes later. eskalene must haveheard someone downstairs and gone to investigate. -what do you thinkyou're doing there? -stop!-don't-- (whimpering). narrator: after ascuffle, broadway
killed eskalene, thencut the telephone cords. before he left,broadway helped himself to a soda and cigarettes. he took eskalene'scredit cards and her car. then drove to the atmfor cash and directions. he never realized the store'ssecurity camera, normally used to prevent robbery, in thiscase, helped solve a murder. broadway then ditched thecar, told his supervisor he needed to leavetown, and took
the first bus to new york city. -i aspect of a number of ourmore senior citizens that live alone wouldhave been terrified that there was amadman on the loose. so, we were very fortunatethat we didn't have to live throughthat and try to calm the fears of a numberof our citizens here. narrator: when he saw theamount of forensic evidence, roger broadway plead guilty tomurder and aggravated robbery.
in return, he wassentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 50 years. -roger broadway showed noremorse for what he had done and to me i think hereceived the-- the best penalty that wasavailable to him. and i hope he has the rest ofhis life to think about that. narrator: liz noffsinger wearsher mother's engagement ring to keep the memory ofher always with her. -i love you.
and i miss you. that's about the only thing icould say to my mom right now. or i wish you were here. narrator: but she says shewill not allow a killer to ruin what remainsof her family. -i don't want my son to rememberhis grandmother that way, and i don't want toremember my mother that way. i want to rememberher how she lived. i don't want to rememberher how she died.
narrator: officials in tennesseehave introduced legislation to regulate companieswho use convicted felons as door-to-door salesmen. -no one here knew that--that this convicted, violent felon wasin our neighborhood selling and working. and so we would like tosee a law on the books where the people must registerwith local law enforcement if they have a criminal record.
-i would like to feel asthough i had something to do with changing theindustry and making it safer so if someone doesknock on your door, they are licensed andbonded and they have identification withtheir picture on it. narrator: even if thoselaws were to be passed, detectives warn people tobe extremely careful when dealing withdoor-to-door salesmen. -you don't knowtheir backgrounds.
you don't know whatthey're capable of. you really don'twhat their intentions are once they getinto your home. so i would stronglyadvise not allowing people into your residencethat you don't know. -you know, lock your doors. i don't care where youlive, how safe it is. this is a safe communitywhere murders never occur, but it did here.
narrator: forensic computeranalysis, dna testing, fingerprint analysis, and astore's security camera all worked together to solve a casewithin 12 hours of the crime. -the collection ofthat evidence, the way it was collected here,the way it was preserved, maintained, is atextbook example of how any investigation,and particularly a homicide investigationshould be run. -thank goodness, thankgoodness that we do,
that we have thetechnology and the tools to be able to do that. so it's essential that-- thatthe forensics, the science is a part of the process.