paper was light gold in medieval times i want tobacco sugar [Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong [Music] in hawaii investigators find a body inside a makeshift coffin but to find the killer they must first rely on insects to help them identify the victim a body is discovered under a pile of curbside trash in oklahoma though police identify a suspect it falls to a bug expert to prove murder in mississippi a young family is found brutally murdered in a rural home to expose a killer's guilt examiners must find a way to establish when they die when a killer leaves no trace of himself at a crime scene investigators can turn to the insects left behind for answers forensic entomologists can find justice for the victims of homicide by following the trails of predators and parasites [Music] [Music] in this episode some of the names have been changed on october 24th 1994 a man driving along the old cali highway in oahu hawaii noticed something lying in the woods just off the road as he approached the object he realized it was a large toolbox curious as to what he had found he pried the box open inside were the badly decomposed remains of a human body he called 9-1-1 officers and forensic technicians from the honolulu police department responded to the scene blunt force trauma on the skull indicated this individual had been murdered no form of identification was located near the male victims remains hundreds of insects were found in and around the makeshift coffin [Music] having found little evidence to tell them who this victim was or when he had been murdered investigators contacted renowned forensic entomologist dr lee goff as an expert in insect growth and development dr goff analyzes bugs found on a corpse and estimates how much time has elapsed since a person's death in the toolbox he found over 250 species of insects including a colony of long-legged ants that had nested inside the victim's skull [Music] after collecting dozens of samples he returned to his lab at the university of hawaii an examination of the skeletal remains revealed that the male victim was between 50 and 60 years of age and approximately six feet tall [Music] damage to the skull was consistent with injuries caused by massive blunt force trauma [Music] other than observing that the victim had extensive bridge work done on his teeth no other identifying features were found investigators began searching through previously filed missing persons reports looking for a match with their victim though there were a few potential matches homicide detective hal fitchett knew that until they could be certain of the man's identity solving this case would be nearly impossible in all homicide cases you've got to make identification of the body or skeletal remains in any case to make it solid for a jury to understand that this was a victim and this is how he died and this is who he was and how it happened in order to firmly establish the male victim's identity investigators first needed to determine when he died dr lee goth believed that the insects found in the makeshift coffin held the answers typically what we look at are life cycles of individual insects or succession patterns of insects onto the body as the first fly lays its egg and starts the clock the eggs hatch the maggots begin to feed on the body they change the body and as they do this they make the body attractive to yet another group of insects and you have successive waves of insects invading this particular body each one utilizing a different part of the body among the various insects found dr goff identified the black soldier fly entomological research has shown that the black soldier fly will not become attracted to a body until decomposition has been underway for at least 30 days but dr gough also located newly hatched fly larvae or maggots that had come from the black soldier fly knowing it takes an additional 60 days from the time the soldier fly arrives to the time its eggs hatch and begin to mature into adults he concluded that the victim had been deceased for at least 90 days but the presence of the ant colony inside the skull indicated the victim had been dead much longer the ants were there basically looking for a somewhat dry place in which to establish their colony they were looking at a protected type of an environment a good place to establish the colony and they're they're primarily just as a shelter as opposed to using the body as a food source to determine when this victim died dr goff now needed to determine how long the ant colony had been present inside the toolbox he began research into how ant colonies grow and develop you're going to find several different forms that are going to be present within the colony each one doing a different job initially you're just producing workers servicing the queen making sure the colony is maintained obtaining food but then you reach a certain colony size at that point this colony is large enough that they want to look at establishing other colonies generally a colony reaches that size in 12 months then the queen begins producing other reproductive ants dr goff found such ants identifiable by their wings which allow them to leave the colony and go on to form their own knowing that the ants had not arrived until the soldier fly larvae began to hatch dr goff estimated that the victim had been dead about 15 months but then he factored in additional time it would have taken for the insects to penetrate the toolbox ultimately he estimated the victim died 18 months before his body was discovered using dr goff's analysis investigators were quickly able to identify a missing persons report filed 18 months earlier that closely matched their victim's description they contacted the man's family members the children told police that their father 55-year-old charles osborne had disappeared in april 1993. they had last spoken with him on the phone shortly before he disappeared charles the father of three was the co-owner of a marble and tile installation business [Music] he was described as a dedicated craftsman who took great pride in his business and the quality of his work the family didn't believe he would have just walked away from his livelihood co-workers said that they last saw him at a job site in waikiki where he was in the process of remodeling condominiums photographs of charles osborne were handed over to police looking to verify that the victim found in the toolbox was in fact charles osborne investigators forwarded the photograph and the skull to the nearby united states army central identification laboratory there forensic anthropologists have spent years trying to match human remains found around the world to military personnel who have been classified as missing in action since the second world war to identify the remains dr robert mann uses a process called video superimposition [Music] using photographs of a missing serviceman examiners use video cameras to generate an image of the face [Music] the image is then projected onto a monitor then the face is superimposed onto a video image of the unidentified skull guided by the spatial arrangements that make each person's face unique examiners look to see if the bone structures line up with the contours of the face in the photograph you take the skull that is recovered from a site and then you take a photograph of the individual who you think it could be and using two different cameras you overlay those images and you match up the bony landmarks beneath the skin with the the features that you see above in the skin overlying the bone using photographs of the skull found in the toolbox and pictures of charles osborne examiners looked for similarities using the extensive dental work as their guide examiners found a perfect match with the suspected victim the man found murdered inside the toolbox had been positively identified as charles osborne now investigators needed to find out who had put him there and why [Music] by analyzing the insects recovered from a crime scene forensic entomologist dr lee goff had helped authorities identify decomposed human remains 55 year old contractor charles osborne had been murdered 18 months before and his body hidden inside a toolbox now police in honolulu hawaii struggled to identify his killer looking to retrace the victim's movements prior to his death investigators tracked down other contractors who worked with osborne around the time he disappeared [Music] they recall that the last time they saw him he had gotten into a heated argument with his business partner while working to remodel condominiums in waikiki his partner and long time friend ross horton said he needed more money to finish the job osborne refused in fact he accused horton of using company money to purchase drugs ross horton denied the accusation and then stormed off the job site when they returned to the condos the following day there was no sign of charles osborne however they noticed a pool of reddish-brown liquid on the floor believing it to be some sort of cleaning solution they thought nothing of it the construction workers agreed to accompany investigators to the former job site in waikiki [Music] though nearly two years had passed they hoped to uncover evidence of murder criminalists began searching the residence though the floors had been tiled over and the walls painted technicians managed to locate a few minute traces of what appeared to be human blood the samples were collected and sent on for a more detailed analysis in the lab examiners compared the genetic profile of the blood found in the apartment to known samples of the victim they matched something violent had happened to charles osborne inside that condo and for homicide detective hal fitchett all of the circumstantial evidence pointed to ross horton so now the objective was to locate ross horton and we contacted individuals here with the state of hawaii and they were able to give us possible potential addresses where mr horton may be residing so he did follow up with those areas and i did locate an address ross horton was ultimately tracked down to an address in oakland california police there were notified and when horton showed up for work he was taken into custody honolulu detectives traveled to california to interview the suspect horton was shocked that after so much time police were able to identify charles osborne's remains confronted with the evidence against him orton confessed to the murder horton said that after the other contractors had left the job site the day he and osborne argued he returned to confront his partner he needed money to buy drugs but when osborne refused to give him more company money he became enraged [Music] the confrontation escalated into a fight which quickly spiraled out of control later that evening to conceal his crime horton placed charles osborne's body inside his toolbox and disposed of it off the side of a highway a jury found ross horton guilty of second-degree murder and sentence him to life in prison with the help of dr lee goff's insect analysis authorities were able to identify the victim and his killer in oklahoma investigators must also rely on bugs but this time to disprove a murder suspect's alibi [Applause] on the morning of august 8 1993 in the small town of stroud oklahoma a resident on her way to work suddenly became overwhelmed by a foul odor it was coming from a large pile of trash in front of her neighbor's home she examined the garbage concerned about a potential health hazard then she noticed a human hand protruding from the debris she quickly called 911. dispatchers learned that the residence where the body was found belonged to 44 year old lito cisneros and his wife linda howell when police arrived they began rummaging through the trash under the mountain of debris wrapped in a blanket investigators found the lifeless body of a middle-aged man from cuts and blood stains on his t-shirt it was clear he had been stabbed to death technicians collected all of the garbage including fly larvae that had covered the body neighbors confirmed that the victim was in fact lito cisneros and they hadn't seen his wife linda howell or lito's vehicle in some time fearing there could be more victims inside investigators cautiously made their way into the house no one including the victim's wife appeared to be home agent jackie johnson of the oklahoma bureau of investigation worked the case [Music] when we entered the house and we couldn't locate linda who we had been told also lived there we were very concerned for her welfare because the car had been missing so we also we were also afraid that she was a victim [Music] their fears appeared to be well founded in the kitchen there were signs that a violent struggle had taken place technicians found blood spatter on the wall and floorboards and hidden beneath the refrigerator investigators located a steak knife the evidence was collected and sent to the crime lab for processing oklahoma authorities were faced with a dead body and a missing woman [Music] an apb was immediately put out on lido's vehicle investigators knew that if they didn't come up with answers and quickly more victims could turn up [Music] authorities in stroud oklahoma had few clues in the murder of 44 year old lito cisneros whose body was found under a pile of trash in front of his home [Music] with the victim's wife and the couple's vehicle unaccounted for authorities struggled for answers at autopsy the medical examiner determined that lito cisneros had died as a result of multiple stab wounds to the head and chest a knife with a 5 8 of an inch wide blade had caused the fatal injuries the level of decomposition indicated that lito had been dead a few days but with the additional insect activity it was difficult to pinpoint a specific time of death further examination failed to yield any clues to the killer's identity police turned to forensic examiners at the oklahoma state bureau of investigations crime lab there examiners scrutinized the knife found hidden under the victim's refrigerator for clues the blade measured 5 8 of an inch wide the same dimension as the weapon that caused the fatal injuries but technicians could find no traces of blood on the blade the handle had been wiped clean of fingerprints desperate to generate a lead investigators began interviewing local residents one recalled seeing leto at a bar on thursday august 4th four days before his body was found she started screaming and she said he wasn't alone according to the witness lido and his wife linda howell got into a heated argument and that was not unusual linda began screaming at her husband humiliating him in front of the other patrons the witness also overheard linda threatening to kill leto before she stormed out of the bar lito followed her out and never returned the witness had not seen leto since that night but she had seen linda howell heading out of town in lito's car a few days later yeah i'm pretty sure suddenly investigators were no longer concerned that the victim's wife was in any kind of danger agent jackie johnson we found that linda had been seen two or three days following lido's last sighting and therefore we were aware that she was okay and she had also been seen in lido's car the fact that she had left town made us suspicious that she might have been involved [Applause] but efforts to locate her in the missing vehicle had been unsuccessful then a week later a farmer in a nearby county found an abandoned vehicle parked on his property a check on the license plates revealed that it belonged to lito cisneros and according to the farmer it had only been there a day linda howell had to be close by within hours authorities learned that linda had friends that lived close to where the vehicle had been abandoned the area was put under surveillance a short while later the tactic paid off police spotted a car passing through the small town and sitting in the passenger seat was a woman fitting linda howell's description when questioned the woman identified herself as linda howell she was taken into custody and then transported back to stroud oklahoma [Music] when questioned linda admitted that she and lito had gotten into a fight at the bar on thursday evening august 4th [Music] but she claimed she and lito had made up by the following morning [Music] in fact things were going well between them but on saturday august 6th her ex-husband lucky lee lancaster showed up at their house unexpectedly lancaster wanted to get back together with his ex-wife i didn't hear anything and so i believed him when the two men began to argue linda took off when she returned a short while later lucky was standing in the kitchen holding a bloody knife i killed him he had killed leto during the fight linda howell was placed under arrest for her role in covering up the murder you decide to answer questions now without your lawyer being present she believed that after the murder her ex-husband returned home to california we contacted lucky's parents and they were very accommodating and giving us an address where we could contact lucky in california we contacted the california officials and they located him on the beach and actually brought him in for us to speak with [Music] authorities traveled to san clemente california to speak with the suspect [Music] they learned that for the past several months lucky had been living in a homeless shelter under questioning he insisted he had not spoken to linda howell in more than a year and denied that he was recently in oklahoma a review of the shelter's records corroborated his statements he would sign in for his food every day and show an identification and by checking those records we were able to establish that he had been in california six to seven months and had not left california prior to the homicide that meant linda howell's story was a lie now she explained her marriage to leto was rocky and without an alibi she knew she would be blamed for her husband's death she said the last time she saw leto was on saturday morning august 6th when he left town to visit some friends when he hadn't returned by the following day she decided to visit friends of her own in a nearby county it seemed someone was trying to frame her for the murder [Music] investigators weren't buying the story to prove that linda had killed her husband investigators needed to establish that lito was already dead on august 6th the day linda claimed she last saw her husband alive the only evidence authorities had to firmly establish a time of death were the insects collected from the victim's body the bugs were sent to forensic entomologist dr neil haskell a professor at st joseph's university in rensselaer indiana the oklahoma bureau of investigation investigator jackie johnson had collected entomological evidence primarily maggots from the decedent's body we can use those maggots larvae of of a particular species of of fly to estimate how long the body's been there based on their growth and development of these insect life stages dr haskell has spent the last 18 years researching the relationship between insects and decomposing human remains to understand that relationship and to determine the life cycles of insects on a corpse most of his studies have been done using pigs that have died of natural causes pigs are readily available anywhere in the world and many many of the pig organs and tissues are almost identical to the human organs and tissues so we find that it is a very very adequate model to and probably the closest animal we can find and we find relatively no difference in the in the rate of decomposition of humans and pigs nor do we find any difference in the insects or the sequence of insects that are attracted to both humans and pigs based on those studies dr haskell concluded that the common blowfly larvae collected from the crime scene were in the third stage of development meaning they were very close to becoming adult flies [Music] but to determine how long it took them to reach that stage dr haskell consulted the weather data for the days leading up to the discovery of the body heat speeds up the development process cold slows it down he found it hadn't been warm enough from august 6th to august 8th to account for the advanced stage of development that meant leto could not have died on august 6th as linda had claimed his death likely occurred more than 90 hours before he was discovered which would put the murder in the late evening hours of thursday august 4th the night lito and linda fought at the bar entomologically this was very easy to prove because we had fully mature third stage maggots and and we had the temperatures available for their growth and development and it was very consistent with more of a 96 hour interval time of death rather than the 36 hour interval and so we could refute the 36 hour interval as not being true and we went with a 96 hour interval which was consistent with her being with the the her husband the decedent at that time and him dying shortly after she was with him dr haskell contacted agent johnson with his findings [Music] linda howell was subsequently charged with murder police believe that after arriving home from the bar on thursday evening august 4th the fight between linda howell and vito cisneros escalated after stabbing him to death linda dragged his body to the curb covered him with debris and left him with the garbage to be picked up in a few days based on dr haskell's analysis linda howell pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison an hour's drive from the mississippi state capitol of jackson the rural community of summit offers an escape from bustling city life [Music] it's a sleepy little town and in 1993 it seemed an ideal place for one family to spend some quality time together on the evening of december 16th police received a frantic call a man reported that he had discovered his family dead inside his remote vacation home officers from the pike county sheriff's office and from the mississippi highway patrol were dispatched to the scene fifty-year-old michael rubinstein told the officers that when he hadn't heard from his 24 year old stepson daryl perry in some time he drove from his louisiana home to check on him when he entered the residence michael found daryl and daryl's 22 year old wife annie dead annie's four-year-old daughter crystal was also dead when detectives made their way into the residence they were immediately struck by the smell of natural gas in the living room police found the badly decomposed bodies of daryl and annie perry in an adjacent bedroom police found the lifeless body of crystal lying in her bed police removed the bodies and sent them for autopsy [Music] the following day investigators from the mississippi highway patrol began looking for clues to explain the deaths aside from the smell of natural gas detective alan applewhite was left with few answers due to the state of decomposition there was no way that we could determine the cause of death the room was not disturbed in any means it didn't look like there'd been a struggle we had two victims in a den area with nothing out of place police turned to the medical examiner for answers the level of decay and the development stage of insects observed on the bodies suggested the family had been dead at least two weeks that meant they had likely died in early december believing a gas leak inside the residence was responsible for the deaths the coroner began a more detailed analysis almost immediately he realized these deaths were not accidental both daryl perry and 22 year old annie had died from multiple stab wounds crystal had been strangled the young family found dead inside an isolated mississippi vacation home had been brutally murdered [Applause] [Music] after autopsies revealed that a family of three had been the victims of homicide police in pike county mississippi returned to the remote vacation home where the bodies had been discovered [Music] now they were looking for clues that could lead them to the killer [Music] but investigators found no signs of forced entry and all the windows were securely shut technicians processed every surface hoping to find any fingerprints that may have been left behind but they found none whoever had committed these murders had been very careful not to leave any traces behind the lack of any signs of a violent struggle or forced entry led investigators to suspect that the victims likely knew their killer hopeful the victim's family could provide useful information investigators traveled to louisiana to interview daryl perry's mother doris and her husband michael rubinstein who had discovered the bodies michael explained that he had driven the family to his remote mississippi retreat in early november his stepson daryl and daryl's wife annie had recently gotten back together after a long separation annie's young daughter from a previous marriage desperately needed a father figure in her life for her sake daryl and annie wanted to make the marriage work they hoped some quiet time together as a family would make them closer michael offered to let them stay at his mississippi residence [Music] he said he last spoke to daryl by phone on november 16th but the last according to daryl everything was going fine but after a month went by without a word michael returned to the residence on december 16th that's when he discovered the bodies the rubinsteins told police that while daryl and annie were separated annie had dated a reputed drug dealer named tony harris harris was rumored to be a violent man police quickly located the suspect and brought him in for questioning [Music] but tony harris denied any knowledge of the murders and he had a solid alibi for the first week of december when the murders had likely occurred he later agreed to take a polygraph test which indicated he was telling the truth the investigation ground to a halt that's about 12 50. how are you doing mr curry then a few days later daryl perry's brother david came in to speak with police david believed their stepfather michael rubinstein had committed the murders [Music] he said that he daryl and their stepfather had been involved in insurance scams for years and from past experience david believed that michael rubinstein would have no problem killing for money david gave information that rubenstein and he and daryl and other family members had been involved in over the years that rubenstein primarily made a living off of insurance scams he told us of a death where a hunting accident where a pardoner was killed back in 1979. following up on the lead investigators reviewed the case files for the 1979 death of rubenstein's business partner [Music] according to court documents the business partner was killed during a hunting trip when rubenstein's gun accidentally misfired no criminal charges were ever brought but two weeks before the accident the partner had made rubenstein a beneficiary of his life insurance policy but when rubenstein tried to collect on the policy the insurance company refused to pay he decided to take the insurance company to court your honor one never knows when tragedy is going but the law stated that if the policyholder dies within two years of signing the paperwork the insurance company is not required to pay witness to shooting there rubenstein was reportedly furious at the decision [Music] believing they were closing in on a suspect and a motive detectives began interviewing other family members they learned that rubenstein had taken a 250 000 life insurance policy on four-year-old crystal and the policy was dated two years and two months before the young girl was found murdered though incriminating it didn't prove murder we knew now of a motive which was a 250 thousand 000 life insurance policy and it was just not enough for the d.a to accept the case when mississippi police reviewed witness statements however they found something that had previously gone overlooked [Music] several residents who lived near the vacation home where the victims were found murdered had seen rubenstein in town on november 16th the suspect previously claimed he hadn't gone to the residence until mid-december when he discovered the bodies to prove murder investigators needed to establish that the family died during rubinstein's trip to mississippi in mid-november not in early december as the coroner had indicated [Music] and the only evidence detectives had were photographs of the insects taken at the crime scene [Music] authorities in summit mississippi believed that a fifty thousand dollar life insurance policy had led fifty-year-old michael rubinstein to murder his stepson and his stepson's young wife and child though the suspect had been seen near the crime scene on november 16 1993 the coroner's report indicated the family had died in early december [Music] to resolve the conflicting information and firmly establish a time of death detectives contacted esteemed forensic anthropologist dr william bass of the university of tennessee in knoxville for more than 30 years dr bass has conducted research at a three-acre facility known as the body farm using human bodies that have been donated for scientific research dr bass has become an expert in how individuals decompose after death in law enforcement you're frequently called upon to determine the length of time since death and to do that you need to know what the decay rate is and what the decay sequence is in humans so this is one of the things that i got interested in is determining the length of time since death and in order to do that then you need to look at how the body decays how long does it take for that decay to occur uh what are the the factors like temperature and the insects and so forth that help you to determine the length of time since death the larvae of the common blowfly observed in crime scene photographs were about 14 days old suggesting the family died in early december but that didn't tell the whole story when dr bass examined the remains and factored in the temperature data he concluded from the level of decomposition that the victims had been dead a month before they were discovered on december 16th [Music] after examining photographs of the home where the bodies were found dr bass believed he could explain the inconsistency i agree the maggots are only 14 days old but you've got two things going on at the same time you've got these bodies decaying inside of a house you've got the flies outside of the house it takes the flies a few days to begin to get the smell hey there's a dead body in there then they have to figure out how do i get from outside inside so i can lay my eggs on this decaying body bill this is dr bass the university of tennessee in knoxville after weighing all of the evidence dr bass concluded these victims had been dead 25 to 35 days before being discovered that put the time of death at mid-november exactly when michael rubinstein had been seen near the residence [Music] based on dr bass's analysis mississippi authorities now had enough evidence to arrest michael rubinstein he was charged with three counts of murder police believe that when michael's financial problems became too much he began plotting to kill his family members and then profit from their deaths on november 16 1993 two years after taking out a life insurance policy on four-year-old crystal he drove to the residence where daryl annie and the child were spending time together [Music] there he brutally murdered the young family [Applause] fifty-year-old michael rubinstein received two life sentences for the stabbing deaths of daryl and annie perry for the murder of four-year-old crystal he received the death penalty some killers are skilled at removing any trace of themselves from a crime scene but nature has its own way of leaving clues behind forensic entomologists can kick-start a dying investigation and find proof of murder by uncovering evidence left behind by predators and parasites