Cold Case Resolutions #9: One in 705 Million

I bring you this column out of my pure fascination with cold cases, forensics, police work, and all things mysterious. As an active duty Police Officer, I hold an interest in all cases especially those that bring justice to light in the end. It has long been said one should not forget where they came from, and the same should be said of forensics. It is not uncommon to find a digital fingerprint scanner in any given police station, capturing high resolution images and instantly thrusting them into state and federal databases. A gun can't be fired anymore without leaving experts a plethora of evidence. Private labs are making incredible strides with new methods of DNA sequencing, regularly cracking long dormant cases. However, before these methods were accepted, there was skepticism. Was this nonsense, or the cutting edge of forensics? Though this case wasn't necessarily cold, it spotlights the genesis of one of the tent-poles of modern forensics, opening the door for countless cases to be solved throughout the next century.

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Richmond Virginia, September 19, 1987. In the morning hours, Richmond Police were called to check on an abandoned vehicle. Officers learned the vehicle appeared in front of the caller's house overnight and was left running. After determining the vehicle belonged to Richmond resident Debbie Dudley Davis, Officers decided to check on her at her nearby apartment. After not receiving a response at the door, a neighbor offered a spare key, allowing police to enter. Davis was located in her bed, face down. Partially dressed and with her hands bound behind her back, Davis had apparently been strangled to death by a black sock tied around her neck, tightened like a tourniquet using a vacuum cleaner hose extension. The brutality of the scene was even worse than it appeared on the surface, as semen stains were found on the bed sheets, and semen and pubic hairs were found on the victim's body, making it apparent she was also raped. Detectives were able to surmise a neighbor's rocking chair was moved by the intruder allowing him to climb through a kitchen window, and after the murder, the intruder stole Davis' car before abandoning it four blocks away, likely because they couldn't drive a stick shift.

Richmond Virginia, October 3, 1987. In the early morning hours, a little after 1 a.m., Marcel Sleg arrived home. Sleg's wife, Dr. Susan Hellams often worked late hours at the Medical College of Virginia. After hearing movement upstairs Sleg assumed Hellams was settling into bed. Careful not to disturb her, he quietly showered and headed upstairs to join her in bed. However, Hellams was not in bed. Sleg located her lifeless body in the bedroom closet, two belts tied around her neck, hands bound behind her back, with her skirt pulled up and undergarments removed. In addition to bruises and abrasions consistent with a violent beating, Hellams' body also showed signs of sexual assault. Semen was located on the victim's lower body and clothing. The screen had been cut from a second floor window, directly outside the victim's bedroom. Given timelines later established by detectives and the movement heard upstairs, it is believed Hellams was already dead and the intruder was still inside the home when Sleg arrived. The killer escaped through the window while Sleg tiptoed to the shower.

Richmond Virginia, November 22, 1987. The parents of, Diane Cho return home around 2 p.m. They did not see their daughter and assumed she was sleeping her weekend away, like many high school students have been known to do. Given the time of day, Mrs. Cho decided to wake Diane. The night before was like any other. Mrs. Cho gave, Diane a haircut, and headed to bed along side, Mr. Cho close to midnight. As they headed to bed they could hear, Diane typing a paper for her English class. With this in mind Mrs. Cho likely figured, Diane needed rest after burning the midnight oil. She went to the bedroom and found her daughter in bed, but she was not asleep. Diane was face down, nude, her mouth covered by duct tape, and her hands bound behind her back with rope. The rope restraining her hands was also tied around her neck. Diane had clearly been raped at some point during the incident, as semen and pubic hair was found on her and the bed sheets. The screen outside her unlocked bedroom window had been removed.

Arlington Virginia, December 1, 1987. The phone rings with no answer for several days. Reg Tucker is trying to get in touch with his wife Sue. Reg had recently moved back to his home country of Wales and Sue would soon be joining him once she wrapped up their affairs in Virginia. A neighbor had also been trying to contact, Sue, to no avail. After days without seeing her, the neighbor tried to enter Sue's condo and was met with the stench of death. Police were contacted and upon entering the residence they found, Sue in bed, decomposing, face down, nude, with her hands tied behind her back by rope, and other end of the rope tied around her neck. Sue was covered with a sleeping bag, and her body laid across a blanket. Her discarded nightgown was strewn across the floor. Semen stains were found on all three items, as well as, Sue's body. Pubic hairs were found on the sheets and in the bathroom, as well as on a washcloth taken from the residence and thrown in a bush nearby. The killer apparently broke a basement window and entered the home. Sue is believed to have been murdered on or around November 27, just days after the murder of Diane Cho.

Noticing a pattern, investigators from Richmond and Arlington shared information on these cases. In addition to the murders, there had been nine attacks in the same areas in which the victim survived, but there had not been such an attack in several years. Each victim described a black male in his 20's wearing a mask. Many of them were bound the same way the murder victims were. DNA samples from each of the murders were sent to Lifecodes, a DNA laboratory in New York which focused on DNA analysis for paternity tests. The Detective leading the investigation, Joe Horgas, asked the FBI to help him create a profile for the killer. The FBI Behavioral Science Unit determined the killer wouldn't stop attacking women willingly and only death or incarceration would prevent his attacks. This meant gaps in time between the other attacks and the recent murders could be explained by the killer being imprisoned, and recently released. A number of suspects matching this profile were identified and Horgas began sifting through them.

Eventually  he came across a man named, Timothy Spencer who fit the bill perfectly. He had been released after serving time for burglary and was living in a halfway house in Richmond. The halfway house was in close proximity to each of the Richmond crime scenes, and because Spencer was required to sign out and sign in each time he left and returned to the halfway house, it was clear he was absent during the time of each murder, returning shortly after. Spencer was also away from the halfway house, visiting his mother in Arlington for Thanksgiving, placing him near the home of Sue Tucker around the time of her murder. Detective Horgas was able to use this information to obtain a grand jury indictment and place Spencer under arrest for burglary. During interrogation Spencer wouldn't give up any useful information, but he did agree to provide a blood sample. The blood sample was provided to Lifecodes for comparison with the semen, blood, and pubic hairs from the murders, and within a few weeks, new ground was broken in the forensic world.

The DNA from Spencer's blood sample was a perfect match to the other evidence. With DNA evidence never used before in a criminal case and this being the only evidence the prosecution would have to convict Spencer, a special hearing took place to determine if DNA would be admissible in court. After hearing the details of DNA analysis, Judge Benjamin Kendrick determined DNA is reliable and would be admitted. At the trials, the juries in each case apparently agreed. After being presented the evidence and learning the likelihood of someone having the same DNA profile as Spencer was one in 705 Million black males, with only 10 million black males living in the North America, the juries convicted Spencer of each murder and he was sentenced to death.

After several years of appeals, trying in vain to disprove the legitimacy of DNA evidence, Spencer was executed, and just as the FBI Behavioral Science Unit thought, Spencer's attacks on women finally ceased.