0:00

This is the Real.

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This is the New Real.

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This is Shattered Souls. I'm your host,

0:09

Karen Smith. This podcast contains

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graphic language and is not suitable for children.

0:15

This is the New Real.

0:19

Welcome back. This is episode eleven.

0:27

At around nine o'clock in the morning of October

0:30

two, twelve, a frantic

0:32

call came into center.

0:39

Quick, Andy, how did you hear her?

0:41

Though? I don't know? Cut

0:44

her copper from call. Okay, let me get you out

0:46

to far rest you well, mama, dae ca

0:56

Okay there, tell me exactly what happened.

0:59

I don't know what your coming to rescue?

1:02

Are you with her right now? Okay?

1:05

How old is she

1:06

at? That doesn't

1:08

make you okay?

1:11

So we are sorry, sir, We are sending

1:13

rescue. Is she awake? No?

1:19

That voice is veteran firefighter

1:22

Derek Dorsey. His wife

1:24

Kim was found in the bedroom unresponsive.

1:28

Derek's life saving instincts kicked in

1:30

as he desperately tried to revive his

1:32

wife with CPR. The

1:34

operator continued to pray information from

1:37

him as paramedics rushed to

1:39

the house. Okay, sir, so you

1:41

think she's beyond any resuscitation.

1:47

Rescues on the way Okay. Rescue

1:50

fifty drove the short distance from the station.

1:53

Derek tried to piece together what may

1:55

have happened to his wife, who now

1:58

lay naked at the foot of the bed. Blackout

2:01

curtains made the room very dark,

2:03

so he moved a table lamp onto the floor

2:06

to try to see any injuries. And

2:08

Derek was still on the line with dispatch.

2:12

Do you have to tell me exactly what she did?

2:14

What happened? I

2:17

can't see, I'm trying to see. Derek

2:22

immediately thought about the prescription

2:24

medication that Kim had been taking for depression.

2:27

The label clearly said to stop taking it

2:29

only under a doctor's care, but Kim

2:32

was very independent, a strong willed

2:34

woman, and she would be the type to simply

2:36

do it herself. He suspected

2:38

that she had committed suicide as

2:41

the result of withdrawing herself too quickly

2:43

from the pills, a concern that had

2:45

crossed his mind in the past. The

2:47

fire truck rounded the final corner and

2:49

sped up the street. Moments

2:51

later, Kim was pronounced de ceased.

2:54

Patrol officers were called to the scene, and

2:56

they quickly dispatched detectives to the

2:58

proposed suicide. The house

3:01

was barricaded with crime scene tape and everyone

3:03

waited in the driveway for homicide

3:05

and the crime scene investigators to arrive. This

3:08

is lead homicide Detective Larry

3:11

Kaskowski. When I first went

3:13

off to the scene, I got there, took a quick look around,

3:15

met with the troll officers there, and

3:19

I was then passed with going down

3:21

to the Police Memorial Building to interview

3:24

Kim's husband, Derek. The initial

3:26

walked through that I saw, it was obviously

3:29

a violent scene. I didn't spend

3:31

a whole lot of time there because we really wanted

3:33

to talk to Derek. Though. At that point Derek

3:36

Dorsey had covered Kim's body with

3:38

the comforter from the bed, which forensically

3:40

speaking, could have been a complete disaster.

3:44

Sergeant Karen Dukes, he had

3:46

covered his wife's body, which

3:48

is often something that we look at when

3:51

a suspect knows his victim,

3:54

a lot of times they will cover them

3:56

out of shame, and so initially

3:58

we were a little concerned earned about the fact

4:01

that he covered his wife's body with a blanket.

4:03

When you first arrived at a scene and you're taking

4:05

everything in, there are things that kind

4:07

of bother you until you can resolve them.

4:09

And that was one of the things. This is Lead

4:11

Prosecutor London Kite, and

4:14

I just remember like the bedroom just being

4:16

an absolute dis after body was

4:18

laying in the end of the bed and evidence

4:21

of her husband, who you wouldn't

4:23

think, you know, he's been in enough of prime scenes

4:25

unserved being a firefighter, but he covered

4:28

her body. Karen Duke's

4:30

the reason why he covered his wife's body

4:33

is because she was naked. It

4:35

was a way of really instead of

4:37

being a guilty, shameful thing, and it

4:40

ended up being a thing of perspect where

4:42

he wanted to cover her body so

4:44

all of these strange men and strange

4:46

people walking in his house wouldn't

4:48

see her. So in such a vulnerable

4:51

way. Officers

4:53

could not remove that comforter. Because

4:55

the body fell under the jurisdiction of

4:57

the medical examiner, there was no

4:59

way to see the extent of Kim's injuries

5:02

until she was uncovered, so the

5:04

scene remained stagnant and the only

5:06

available initial information was coming

5:08

from Derek Dorsey. As a seasoned

5:10

first responder, Derek would certainly

5:13

have noticed any signs of foul play.

5:15

There was no sign of fourth entry in the house. He

5:18

had firsthand knowledge of Kim's medical

5:21

history, so there was no reason to

5:23

suspect any manner of death other

5:25

than suicide at that point. Kim's

5:27

battle with depression was a source of

5:29

worry for Derek for some time,

5:32

and it seemed as if his worst

5:34

nightmare had come to fruition. Karen

5:37

Duke's, well, I think the whole reason

5:39

we were thinking of suicide is because

5:42

the husband, Derek. That's what

5:44

he said when he called it in

5:46

and he was pacing around. Apparently

5:49

they've been having problems, or she had been having

5:51

problems, and she had been contemplating

5:53

the idea of suicide. So when he came home and founder

5:55

dead, he assumed that she did it. Tragically,

5:59

the truth was far, far

6:02

worse. Two

6:04

crime scene investigators were dispatched to

6:06

the scene, which was still being worked as a

6:08

possible suicide. Both of the investigators

6:11

had less than a year on the crime scene

6:13

unit, but it was well within their capacity

6:16

to work as suicide without the assistance

6:18

of a senior detective. When the homicide

6:20

investigators and medical examiner investigator

6:22

arrived, interviews were done and

6:24

the initial paperwork was filled out. Everyone

6:27

entered through the front door and walked single

6:29

file into the foyer, passed

6:31

the staircase to the left, and through

6:33

the living room into the master bedroom,

6:35

where Kim's body was still covered on the floor.

6:38

On the way through the house, everyone noticed

6:41

the kitchen. It was in complete

6:43

disarray. Drawers were open and

6:45

various items were thrown onto the floor. A

6:48

cell phone, TV remotes and other

6:50

items had been tossed into the sink. The

6:53

master bedroom was situated to the left of the

6:55

living room and it was quite large,

6:57

with a king sized four poster bed

7:00

and oversized ornate furniture. It

7:02

was still dark, lit only by flashlights

7:05

and the lamp moved by Derek, but

7:07

detectives could see various bloodstains

7:10

on the bed and on the floor. The

7:12

investigators began to formulate questions

7:14

to ask Derek Dorsey based on the dubious

7:16

blood evidence, since none of it seemed

7:19

to align with a suicide. The

7:21

crime scene detectives took their initial photographs

7:24

and the medical examiner investigator used

7:26

a gloved hand to carefully pull

7:28

the comforter off of Kim's body with

7:31

one glance. Dispatch was

7:33

contacted to change the status of the call

7:36

from suicide to homicide. Kim

7:39

Dorsey's body was bloody, beaten,

7:41

and bruised. The comforter

7:44

had not only covered her, but

7:46

it also concealed not one, but

7:48

several weapons that the perpetrator

7:51

used to kill her with a vengeance.

7:54

It was a horrific scene. Everyone

7:57

went outside to regroup. Calls

7:59

were made to the Chief of Detectives and

8:01

of the state Attorney. Based

8:04

on this new information. The lead

8:06

crime scene investigator knew that she would

8:08

need the help and guidance of a senior detective,

8:11

and she called for help. This

8:13

is Detective Kim long. I

8:15

was contacted by the

8:17

crime scene sergeant that was at the scene.

8:20

Kim, we have this scene. They're flood

8:22

they're shooting trajectory that needs to be

8:25

analyzed. I'm gonna need you to come out

8:27

here tomorrow. The day that I actually received

8:29

a call, it was our days off. We were going

8:31

back to work the next day. I remember

8:33

asking, first Bard, do you want me to

8:35

come out and look at it now before you guys

8:38

do anything else? I would prefer to

8:40

And she's like, no, No. I had

8:43

somebody come out here, another crime

8:45

scene investigator, one that had a little seniority.

8:48

He came out and he said, Oh, it's not that

8:50

much. You guys be able to do this in like one day.

8:53

The crimes investigator didn't even really want to go out

8:55

there in the first place, because I'm sorry, he wanted

8:57

to go to dinner. You heard

8:59

that that senior

9:01

investigator left them there to

9:04

figure it out on their own and went

9:06

to dinner. So already

9:09

she be an inexperienced as a

9:11

supervisor in the crime scene you because she's never

9:13

worked as a crime scene investigator, kind of

9:16

relying on this senior investigator

9:18

telling her, you know, won't take that long at all. She

9:20

made the call come out there. Why not let me just

9:23

go ahead and come out there that

9:25

day while you still have the body. We

9:27

like to see the scenes as it is,

9:30

undisturbed, before anything's moved, including

9:32

the body. When I got there the next day,

9:34

I remember walking in after

9:36

just getting a brief synopsis, You're going, oh, this

9:39

is gonna take more than a day. That

9:42

supervisor is the same one that I've

9:44

spoken about in previous episodes and

9:46

in retrospect. I'm

9:49

glad that detective left and

9:51

gave me and the others the privilege

9:54

of working that scene for Kim Dorsey

9:56

instead There's a whole

9:58

lot more I could say right now, but I will

10:00

let the tenor of my voice tell that story.

10:03

They can live with their choices. The

10:07

two investigators looked at each other, dumbfounded.

10:10

It was getting late and the scene needed

10:12

their efforts. Limited or not, They

10:15

worked the scene hour after hour, photographing

10:18

and collecting numerous pieces of evidence

10:20

from the bedroom, including the comforter, a

10:22

revolver, a kitchen knife,

10:25

and three bloodied, broken

10:27

pieces of a pool queue. The

10:30

homicide detectives took Derek Dorsey

10:32

downtown for an interview to unravel his

10:34

timeline and discuss how such

10:36

obvious injuries escaped his notice.

10:39

Detective Larry Kiskowski, there were

10:41

just a lot of unanswered questions, a lot

10:43

of questions that needed answers at that point, being

10:46

early in investigation, so we wanted

10:48

to make sure that we uh were able to

10:50

get their statement and lock

10:52

him into what he found

10:54

when he got home and day leading up

10:56

to the discovery of his woice body.

10:59

Kim dor SE's body was transported downtown

11:02

and the scene was locked up for the night. When

11:04

Detective Kim Long checked on duty the

11:06

following morning, she pulled up the call on

11:08

her laptop and went to the scene to

11:10

offer her assistance person. When

11:12

I got in there, the body was already gone. They

11:15

had collected some items of evidence. But I

11:17

started looking around and I started noticing

11:19

blood sat patterns. There was a broken pool

11:22

cube broken in several pieces.

11:24

There were things like saturations,

11:27

things in the carpet, and like I think maybe

11:29

two or three different areas. There were bullet

11:32

defects and the door jam

11:34

and in the adjacent walls

11:36

kind of leading toward the kitchen. So this

11:39

raised a lot of reflags to me, there's

11:42

something more that happened in this person possibly

11:44

killed themselves. Senior crime scene

11:47

personnel came out there. That's when everybody

11:49

should have put on the brake. Hold up. We need

11:51

to back out, and we need to reassess

11:53

what we have here and what we're going to do.

11:56

She promptly called my cell phone, and

11:59

she nervously laughed. When I asked her what was going

12:01

on, she just replied, bring

12:03

coffee. The

12:07

call screen gave some of the details, and I

12:09

could see that it had been changed from a suicide

12:11

to a homicide. The complainant was

12:13

the victim's husband, and it didn't seem

12:15

out of the ordinary, appearing at first

12:17

blush to be a domestic related homicide.

12:20

So I drove across town and I stopped for

12:22

four large coffees. I pulled into

12:25

the housing development and the enormous

12:27

steel gates swung open. It

12:29

was unusual to respond to a murder

12:31

in such an affluent neighborhood, but

12:33

money doesn't make anyone immune

12:36

to violence. I turned the

12:38

corner and I parked behind the other three

12:40

crime scene vans. Yellow tape

12:42

was strung across the enormous house, and some

12:44

of the neighbors were milling around the cul de sac.

12:47

I called Kim on my phone and all three of

12:49

them came outside to get their coffee and orient

12:51

me on the few details that were available.

12:55

Kim told me that the others had worked the scene

12:57

since the day before and gave me the story.

13:00

I was really piste off,

13:03

but there was nothing to be done at that

13:05

point but do the best that we could

13:08

with what we had to work with. Kim

13:10

Long the junior crime scene

13:12

investigators that were tasked with

13:15

originally handling this case. Just

13:17

the evidence that we're seeing, we could already say you, this

13:19

is not a suicide, and there's

13:21

a lot more to it and I go back for

13:24

them. Because they were very

13:26

junior, and as a matter of fact, one of them

13:28

I think it was the very first major case

13:30

homicide. They were overwhelmed. I

13:34

put my coffee in the cup holder and put on

13:36

a pair of shoe booties and gloves. The three

13:38

of them walked me through the massive house. In

13:41

the master bedroom, they pointed out the

13:43

areas where evidence had been located the day

13:45

before. There were five bullet

13:47

holes. Two were lodged in the bedroom door

13:49

jam, and three of them terminated across

13:52

the hallway in the kitchen ceiling. Bloodstains

13:55

covered nearly every surface

13:57

of the bedroom, including the upper

13:59

area of the ten foot walls and

14:01

across the ceiling. I thought,

14:04

how is this going to play out? Was

14:07

the scene compromised or was it salvageable?

14:09

Could I reconstruct this crime scene with the information

14:12

and evidence that was left behind. We only

14:14

had the husband as a possible person of

14:16

interest. If his alibi was corroborated,

14:19

this case would become a stranger murder who

14:21

done it, which is the most difficult type

14:24

to solve. The odds of the case resulting

14:26

in an arrest and conviction dwindled as

14:28

time passed and we were already

14:31

twenty four hours into the investigation.

14:34

In that moment, I felt the heavy

14:36

burden settled into my neck and shoulders,

14:38

and I took a breath and remembered

14:40

that control of a scene only begins

14:42

on my arrival. Nothing that happened

14:44

prior to that moment was in my charge, and

14:47

it was now our job to work together for

14:49

the victim. Kim

14:52

and I looked at the photographs taken of Kim

14:54

Dorsey the day before. She

14:56

had suffered numerous bruises, a stab

14:58

wound to her neck, a broken nose,

15:01

and black eyes. What became

15:03

very obvious was that she put

15:05

up one hell of a fight against her attacker

15:07

or attackers before she lost the

15:09

battle. Bloodstains covered

15:12

the carpet and walls from one end of that

15:14

room to the other. Her body had

15:16

been positioned on her back, and bruises

15:18

were apparent on numerous areas of her face,

15:21

her chest, and her arms. Bloodstains

15:24

covered her body, and a gray

15:26

T shirt had been pushed up and wadded

15:28

around her neck. On the other

15:31

side of the bedroom, a pair of ripped

15:33

women's underwear had been located on a

15:35

pile of decorative pillows between the

15:37

wall and the bed. A large

15:39

black zip tie was looped through a smaller,

15:42

clear one and hung from the nightstand

15:44

handle. More zip ties were tightly

15:46

pulled around her wrists and her ankle, and

15:49

another one lay on the floor next to the bed.

15:52

The upper drawer of the nightstand was open,

15:54

and a black Taurus gun box

15:57

sat off kilter inside. At

15:59

some point it had housed a pink handled

16:01

Torus revolver found just under the

16:03

foot of the bed. A knife matching

16:05

the ones in the woodblock in the kitchen was left

16:07

on the bedroom floor with the bloody

16:09

blade pointing at Kim Dorsey's

16:12

head. The bottom half of a

16:14

pool queue had been unscrewed from the top

16:16

half and smashed into

16:18

three separate pieces. One

16:21

of the pieces was pressed into her skin

16:23

and left a blanche mark identical to

16:25

its shape along her left side. Kim's

16:29

blood and hair were embedded in

16:31

the broken shards of the pool queue, evidence

16:33

that she had been bludgeoned in the head. Liver

16:37

mortis, the settling of red blood

16:39

cells after death, turned her skin dark

16:41

purple except where pressure

16:43

points left it stark white. In contrast,

16:46

it showed that she had been moved post

16:48

mortem, which likely occurred when

16:50

Derek Dorsey attempted CPR.

16:53

A gun, a knife, a

16:55

broken pool queue, three separate

16:58

weapons used in this massive

17:00

scene that involved a beating, a stabbing,

17:03

zip tie bindings, evidence of a

17:05

sexual assault, blood that was spattered

17:07

across every surface, and five gunshots

17:10

fired into a wall. Nothing about

17:12

this scene was simple or ordinary.

17:15

It was one of the most heinous crime scenes

17:17

I had ever seen. It was extremely

17:20

complex and would require every

17:22

fragment of the thousands of hours of training,

17:24

education, and decade of experience

17:26

I had under my belt. No margin

17:29

of error remained. I

17:33

didn't respond to the Dorsey house knowing

17:35

that I would be spending the next five or six

17:37

days reconstructing a homicide. Beginning

17:40

the process in the middle of another investigator's

17:42

work is a difficult task. Working

17:45

through a complex forensic analysis

17:47

without benefit of the majority of evidence

17:49

in place makes it even harder. After

17:52

reviewing the photographs of the scene from the day

17:54

before, I asked to be left

17:56

alone in the bedroom to begin sorting through

17:58

the blood stains left behind. Well Kim

18:00

Long focused on the bullet trajectories.

18:03

There was no blood found in any other area

18:05

of the house. So logically, all of the violent

18:08

events occurred within that room.

18:10

It was devastating. Blood was on

18:12

nearly every single object and surface.

18:14

It had been dripped, cast off, smeared,

18:17

pooled, transferred, and impacted.

18:20

It was really easy to feel overwhelmed when

18:22

faced with the enormity of a scene like

18:24

that, and the only way to reel it

18:26

in is to take things slowly and

18:28

methodically, one step at a time. My

18:31

doctoral chair, Dr Barb Zembec

18:33

told me that obtaining a doctorate is like

18:35

eating an elephant. You just have to

18:37

take it one bite at a time. It's

18:40

the same thing with a crime scene like this one. As

18:42

I looked around the room, I studied the possible

18:44

cause of each bloodstained area. Nothing

18:48

just happens. Some type of action

18:50

caused blood to be on every surface,

18:52

whether it was gravity or some other

18:54

physical force. I looked towards

18:56

the ceiling and saw smaller droplets

18:59

up high, the result of cast

19:01

off events when a bloody object is swung

19:03

through the air. A large mirror hung

19:05

on the wall next to the bathroom door, and

19:07

it had numerous small droplets spattered

19:10

across the glass. The droplets

19:12

continued up and out in a

19:14

fan pattern. Across the wall, which

19:16

was a textbook example of an impact

19:18

pattern. Unfortunately,

19:20

it wasn't enough for me to simply discern

19:23

the patterns and possible causes. I

19:26

had to sample every single area

19:28

and droplet to find out whose

19:30

blood it was, especially

19:32

since that scene was just so violent.

19:36

Kim Dorsey's injuries were extensive

19:38

and she had several defense wounds, which meant

19:41

that she and the perpetrator were in close contact.

19:44

Whoever did it may have also been injured

19:46

and left blood behind. Separating

19:48

the potential causes of the patterns did

19:51

nothing to prove whose blood it was, and

19:53

it was my hope that the suspect was

19:55

hurt badly enough to leave some of his

19:57

own blood behind. I popped

19:59

a in my DNA case to see how many cotton

20:02

swab packets I had, because I was going

20:04

to need to take dozens, if not over a

20:06

hundred samples. Before

20:09

I started analysis of that impact

20:11

pattern on the mirror. I went to the opposite

20:14

side of the room, near the area

20:16

where Kim's body had been found. I

20:18

looked down at a side table directly

20:20

underneath a window. A

20:22

single dried blood drop

20:25

lay in the center of that marble top

20:27

nightstand. This was an anomaly.

20:30

Why was it there and how was it deposited?

20:33

There were no other similar blood stains

20:35

anywhere near it, so there had to be

20:37

a logical explanation. The

20:40

edges of the stain had begun to peel up

20:42

from the surface, leaving a cracked circle.

20:45

The implications were potentially enormous.

20:48

At some point during the violence, the

20:50

person who was the source of this drop had been

20:52

directly above that table by

20:54

the window. The room was still

20:56

pretty dimly lit because the dark red

20:58

blackout curtains were drawn, so I

21:01

pulled a curtain back and I was

21:03

stunned to see blood stains on the

21:05

window glass behind them. I flipped

21:07

the fabric around and saw matching stains on

21:09

the sheer white liner. I flipped the fabric

21:12

again. Blood had soaked through

21:14

the material and left identical stains

21:16

on the dark red side To the right

21:18

of the window. The white pole cord

21:21

for the blinds was stained red, and

21:23

those blinds had been raised. When

21:25

this was coupled with the blood drop on the

21:27

side table, it meant that

21:29

either Kim Dorsey was ambulatory

21:32

and tried to escape after she was hurt,

21:35

or the perpetrator was injured and

21:37

attempted to flee out of that window. Either

21:40

way, that blood drop did not belong

21:42

there. It became a crucial juncture

21:44

in the investigation. I scraped

21:47

that dried blood drop into a glassy en envelope,

21:49

and there was a gentle knock on the bedroom door. It

21:51

was Karen Duke's. She peeked her

21:53

head around the corner and asked how things were going, So

21:56

I told her about the blood drop and what that

21:58

might mean. She made a quick call

22:00

to Larry Kiskowski and we filled out

22:02

a chain of custody form and she took the sealed

22:04

envelope directly to the State Laboratory for

22:07

analysis with the hope that

22:09

the blood did not belong to

22:11

Kim Dorsey. Because

22:14

the room remained dark even with the curtains

22:16

pulled back, I used the alternate light

22:18

source to view the top of that side

22:20

table, just in case I missed some

22:22

smaller minute droplets. Instead,

22:26

the light illuminated numerous smears

22:28

and possible fingerprints all over

22:31

it in a greasy residue. The

22:33

rest of the house was very tidy and dust

22:35

free, so this evidence was certainly

22:37

out of place as well. I stepped outside

22:40

for a break and called a latent print

22:42

analyst to come and take a look at it, and

22:44

when he arrived a short time later, he

22:46

determined that the entire table needed

22:48

to be transported to the lab, so

22:51

we loaded it onto brown paper and

22:53

he drove it back across town in his van. I

22:56

was already three hours into my investigation

22:59

and I hadn't made it past the first item

23:01

of evidence. Well, we

23:03

worked the crime scene, the homicide

23:05

detectives started chasing leads provided

23:08

by Derek Dorsey, even though

23:10

he wasn't out of the woods yet as

23:12

a possible suspect. Detective

23:14

Larry Kiskowski. Initially on

23:17

Derek gave a decent alibi.

23:19

However, that morning he was supposed

23:21

to pick up an individual that

23:23

was going to do some work for him. So there was

23:26

that concern early on that maybe

23:28

it was a setup. Wasn't on the forefront,

23:30

but it was definitely in the back of the minds of

23:32

myself and the other investigators.

23:35

But once we started going down associates

23:38

and individuals, we were able to determine

23:40

that it was probably somebody

23:42

else that came to the home and

23:45

did it. We felt confident though

23:47

that whoever did it actually knew

23:49

the Dorsees or had some

23:51

connection to them. It wasn't just a random

23:53

act. Sergeant

23:57

Karen Dukes. I do remember

24:00

at one point, because he was a firefighter

24:02

and he had worked the overnight shift, we

24:05

were thinking that if he was a

24:07

suspect, that he could use working

24:09

as an alibi, and so I

24:12

was tasked with going up to his

24:14

fire station and confirming

24:16

that he was either there or

24:18

not there during the entire shift. So

24:21

I got to interview some of his co workers,

24:23

but determined that he did. In fact, he was

24:25

there the entire shift and never left. He

24:28

was always within sight of the other firefighters.

24:31

Prosecutor London Kite obviously

24:33

in a case like this was go forward

24:36

entry, which was a huge fact in

24:38

our minds and investigators and prosecutors.

24:41

So we knew kind of off

24:43

the bat and it would have doing to someone that

24:45

either knew her or he knew

24:48

or it would feel comfortable being in her house.

24:50

So when you're no fourth injury,

24:52

no kicked indoor, the first person comes

24:54

to mind is the hubit. However,

24:57

we were able to grab him off the list

24:59

into or he had primi

25:01

ti albi, so he was scratched off

25:03

the lids. Now satisfied

25:06

that Derek Dorsey was not Kim's

25:08

killer, the detectives began asking

25:11

him who had been at the house recently

25:13

and who might have had motive to commit

25:15

this murder. Derek offered

25:18

three possibilities, a technician

25:20

who had recently been at the house to modify

25:23

the stereo and surround sound systems,

25:26

another repairman who had worked on their computers,

25:29

and a third man who worked with

25:31

Derek at his part time construction company,

25:34

who was a no show for work the

25:36

day after the murder, the Friday

25:38

night fire, the video guy had come to

25:40

the house to work on the surround star system.

25:43

We had obviously had to talk to him to rule

25:45

him out. We had him, We had a computer

25:48

repairment. We also had the individual

25:50

that Derek was supposed to pick up that morning on

25:52

Sunday that was a no show. Why

25:55

was this person that was known to work for

25:57

Derek, was somewhat reliable

26:00

up that morning he doesn't show up. So that there were

26:02

definitely multiple people who

26:04

we had to tracked out and find out where

26:06

they were, what their alibies were. Sergeant

26:09

Karen dukes I was tasked

26:12

with going to interview the audio

26:14

technicians. Now, mind you, I

26:16

had seen that scene and seen how

26:19

violent of a struggle it was for

26:21

the victim, and so I knew

26:23

if I contacted a suspect that you would

26:25

have to have injuries on him

26:27

because she fought. She fought

26:30

hard against him. When you look at

26:32

it from a citizens standpoint, when

26:34

two homicide detectives come in your business

26:36

and they asked to speak to a certain

26:39

technician that went to a certain address, it's

26:41

very alarming, and so you're trying

26:43

to kind of act cool and nonchalant

26:45

about it, but the reality is it's it's kind of

26:47

hard to do that. But we ended up in a

26:50

back room interviewing the

26:52

technician that came out, and he remembered the house,

26:54

he remembered her. But what really

26:56

got me was that he had scratches

27:00

a hole over his hands and arms,

27:03

and I saw that. I got

27:05

this really weird feeling, and I started

27:07

thinking that I was our suspect, and so I

27:10

asked him, I said, what's up with all these scratches

27:12

on her arm? Where did you get him? And I mean I

27:14

was watching him so hard for his reaction,

27:17

and he just very casually. Yeah,

27:19

I scratched myself a lot doing installations.

27:21

I work with wires and I'm putting my hands in small

27:24

spaces, and I mean, he explained it very

27:26

well. For probably two or three

27:28

seconds, I just looked at him, and I looked at all the

27:30

scratches on its hands, and I thought, oh my god.

27:32

But then um ended up he had an alibi.

27:35

Everything worked out for him and we were actually able

27:37

to rule him out. While

27:41

they ran down the leads outside of the house,

27:44

Kim Long the other junior detectives

27:46

and I continued our work at the scene. Kim

27:49

was out in the hallway working on the bullet trajectories,

27:52

and I continued sampling and documenting

27:54

the stains by the window and figuring

27:56

out where to go next. In the

27:59

middle of all of that, my phone rang. It

28:01

was the chief of detectives. I

28:03

pulled off my gloves and tossed them into a biohazard

28:06

bag. Hey Chief, Hi,

28:09

I'm at the medical Examiner's office attending the

28:11

autopsy. There are some pattern bruises

28:13

on her scalp that I need identified to either

28:15

a weapon or some other source. I'm

28:17

going to send you a couple of photos to work with, and

28:19

the doc is gonna wait to open her cranium

28:22

until we hear back from you. Yes,

28:24

sir um, do you have any ideas about

28:26

the cause of them at this point? No,

28:29

They're pretty unusual, so I'll need you to get

28:31

back with me as soon as you can. Okay,

28:33

sir, I'll see what I can figure out. My

28:35

phone dinged several times as the photos

28:38

and text came through. I went into the

28:40

hallway and showed Kim Long the picture

28:42

files and we looked at the bruise pattern.

28:45

The Chief was right, they were

28:47

distinct and very unusual.

28:50

I had absolutely no idea

28:52

where to begin to look for whatever may

28:54

have caused them. The pattern was located

28:57

on the posterior right side of Kim's

28:59

head, behind her ear. The injury

29:02

was about three inches long, and it looked

29:04

like a capital letter T with

29:06

extra crossbars and spaces in between.

29:09

At that point I went back into

29:11

the bedroom and closed the door so

29:13

I could think. I hadn't been able to

29:15

piece together the possible movements of Kim Dorsey

29:18

or the suspect at that point, which made

29:20

the search for something so unusual a

29:22

lot more difficult. The Chief and

29:24

the medical examiner were waiting for my return

29:27

phone call with some semblance of an answer

29:29

before the autopsy could continue, and

29:31

I felt my heart flutter in my chest with

29:34

an adrenaline dump. Just

29:36

breathe, slow down, and

29:38

I looked at the photographs again, and I

29:41

burned that pattern into my brain. I

29:44

walked around the room and looked for anything

29:46

that might remotely match. Going

29:49

back to the window and empty space

29:52

where that side table had been, I

29:54

glanced behind me and I saw

29:56

the large blood stain on the carpet where

29:58

Kim had been found Derek. The

30:01

saturation stain was located right

30:03

next to the large square bedpost

30:06

that was also covered in blood stains. I

30:09

knelt down to see just how

30:11

much blood had been deposited onto that

30:13

wood post. The pattern was indicative

30:16

of more impact spatter. Kim's

30:19

head had been right next to it when Derek

30:21

found her, meaning that the suspect either

30:23

hit, stabbed, or kicked her while

30:25

she was down in that position. If

30:29

Kim was trying to escape through that

30:31

window and she was the one who bled

30:33

on the curtain and table, how did

30:35

she end up on the floor. Again, I looked

30:37

at the photographs for a third time, and

30:39

I held my phone next to the bottom

30:42

of that bedpost, juxtaposing

30:44

the photograph of Kim with the

30:46

square corner, I could

30:48

not believe what I saw. The

30:50

lines on the pattern bruise lined

30:53

up identically with the pattern

30:55

of the bedpost corner, a

30:58

central channel, crossbar, space,

31:00

crossbar, space, crossbar. I

31:02

glanced back and forth between the photo and

31:04

the bedpost several times, and I

31:07

zoomed in to make the picture and the

31:09

corner about the same size. It

31:11

appeared to be a damn good possibility. So

31:14

I called Kim Long back into the bedroom

31:16

for a second opinion, and she agreed,

31:19

and I called the chief, Hey, I

31:21

think I have an answer for you. Oh

31:24

yeah, would you find I have you on speaker phones

31:26

so the emmy can hear you. Well,

31:28

it looks like it matches the corner of the bedpost,

31:31

but I'm gonna send you some photos so

31:33

you can see for yourself. Great. Can

31:35

you stay on the line while we look, he asked, and I

31:37

said, of course I can. Like I'm gonna say

31:39

no to my chief. I took several

31:41

pictures with a millimeter scale next to

31:43

the bedpost so that the medical examiner

31:46

could perform some rudimentary comparisons

31:48

with the bruise. I sent the text, and

31:51

I waited and I could hear mumbling

31:53

on the other side of the phone, and after several

31:56

minutes, the chief got back on the line.

31:58

Hey, great work. Thanks, it looks like a match,

32:01

and the doc says she's going to put it in her notes.

32:05

That was a bittersweet conclusion. The

32:07

bruise could now be explained, but it

32:09

also meant that Kim's head had

32:12

been slammed into the bottom of that

32:14

bedpost with a force hard enough

32:16

to leave that mark. It also helped

32:19

me to begin to reconstruct the final moments

32:21

of her life. Working backward from her

32:23

final position, I now understood

32:25

that she had been upright by the window

32:28

before either being pulled or

32:30

falling backwards into that bedpost,

32:33

where additional impacts were

32:35

inflicted on her body and face. We

32:38

had to wait for the DNA to come back from the sample

32:40

I gave to Karen Duke's from that side table,

32:42

but I was pretty sure at that point that it

32:44

would come back to Kim Dorsey. After

32:49

working into the evening hours, the scene

32:51

was locked up again with a patrol officer keeping

32:54

guard outside, and we all went home

32:56

for some much needed sleep, and

32:58

I did not sleep very well, knowing the

33:01

extent of work that was waiting for me the next day.

33:03

But the next morning we met back at the house and

33:05

started where we left off. For

33:07

me, it meant trying to discern each

33:10

blood pattern to start putting the puzzle

33:12

pieces together. So, using

33:14

yellow measurement tape, I created

33:17

visually separate areas to help distinguish

33:19

one pattern from another. I

33:22

placed letter designators in the corner

33:24

of each area so that I could

33:26

reference them in my report, and

33:28

I started with the impact pattern on

33:31

that mirror by the bathroom.

33:34

Let's go into the science of blood

33:36

pattern analysis for a minute. When

33:38

liquid blood is impacted,

33:41

it behaves in predictable ways.

33:43

Blood is a fluid, and fluids

33:46

are incompressible, so it

33:48

will extrude out when a solid object

33:50

comes into contact with it and there's force

33:52

behind it, the blood will break up

33:54

into droplets commensurate in size

33:57

with that force that are then deposited

34:00

on to the available surfaces. For

34:02

impact patterns like the one on the mirror

34:04

and the wall, some of the resulting

34:07

droplets can be measured, and using

34:09

a trigonometric calculation, the

34:12

angle of deposition can be ascertained.

34:15

When several droplets are measured and a

34:17

two dimensional line is drawn through

34:19

the long axis of each droplet, a

34:22

central area of convergence can

34:24

be seen. This shows the approximate

34:27

height of the central area of that impact.

34:30

Now, in order to pull that pattern out in three

34:32

dimensions, strings or lasers

34:35

can be used to show the area

34:37

of origin, the area in space

34:40

where that impact occurred. In

34:42

this case, I used string purple

34:44

string, and I photographed the height

34:47

and distance away from the wall. The

34:49

central area was five ft

34:51

two inches high and about a foot

34:53

away from the wall. Kim

34:56

Dorsey was five ft six inches

34:58

tall, which would play that impact

35:01

somewhere around her nose or her

35:03

eye, both of which were severely

35:06

injured. And I started to think,

35:08

was she sucker punched? Did the suspect

35:11

blitz attack her? Did she even

35:13

have a chance to fight back or see it coming? And

35:16

I was not sure, so I continued

35:18

my analysis by moving to the floor

35:21

by the bed, where there was a large

35:23

saturation stain. I cut

35:25

through the carpet and the padding, and

35:27

the blood had soaked all the way through to

35:29

the concrete floor. Kim

35:32

Dorsey was badly injured and

35:34

remained in this area for a period of time

35:36

in order to allow that much blood to

35:38

seep into the rug and carpet padding.

35:41

A broken nose would certainly cause

35:43

heavy bleeding. It would also make her

35:46

eyes water, and it could have knocked her unconscious.

35:49

There were zip ties that were still attached

35:51

to the drawer of the nightstand, and

35:54

Kim's ripped underwear had been located

35:56

on top of the decorative pillows covering

35:59

that saturation stain. To

36:01

sequence these events, I knew

36:03

that the impact happened first in order

36:05

to create the pattern on the mirror and the wall.

36:08

The saturation pattern came next when

36:10

Kim went down after being hit or

36:12

punched. The pillows were then tossed

36:15

on top of that blood on the rug, so

36:18

she could have been zip tied while she was

36:20

either unconscious or unable

36:22

to defend herself. The top drawer

36:24

of the nightstand was still partially

36:26

open, with that Taurus gun box

36:29

sitting off kilter inside a

36:31

closed zip tie hung from the dresser

36:33

handle. This led to another set of questions

36:35

that begged for answers. Did

36:38

the killer tie her to the nightstand

36:40

and leave the room? How did

36:42

the gunshots end up in the door jam

36:44

and in the kitchen? Who fired that gun?

36:47

As I worked on the bloodstains in the bedroom, Kim

36:50

Long worked on the reconstruction of the bullet

36:52

defects. She attached

36:54

lasers to the trajectory rods, and

36:57

those lasers pointed down

36:59

at a sharp angle from the kitchen ceiling,

37:02

showing that three of the shots originated

37:04

just above the floor in front of

37:07

the nightstand where the Taurus box was

37:09

found. The other two that were lodged

37:11

in the door jam couldn't be reconstructed

37:13

because the projectiles got wedged in the

37:15

door frame, but it was an easy supposition

37:18

that they likely originated from the same

37:20

area based on the other three. The

37:23

flight path of the bullet

37:25

put her between the wall and the

37:27

bed, closer back towards the night

37:29

stamp. We hypothesized that

37:32

Kim Dorsey had come to after

37:34

being hit in the face and emptied

37:36

all five shots from the revolver

37:39

toward the kitchen while she sat on the floor

37:41

in front of that nightstand. The external

37:43

and terminal ballistics reconstruction assisted

37:46

me with continuing an analysis

37:48

of the events, this time from

37:50

the start of the attack. At this point,

37:52

we knew that Kim Dorsey had been struck in the

37:54

face, rendering her semi conscious or

37:57

unconscious on the floor by the nightstand,

37:59

where the actual assault then took place.

38:01

Her attacker left the room, and

38:04

she regained consciousness, grabbed

38:06

the gun from the drawer, and fired

38:08

all of the rounds toward the kitchen. There

38:11

were still plenty of unanswered questions,

38:13

but the story was starting to unfold

38:15

since we seemed to now have a beginning

38:18

and an end. The next areas

38:20

I had to concentrate on where the upper

38:22

wall, the bed canopy, and

38:25

the ceiling above the nightstand

38:27

to the left of the bed. Hundreds

38:29

of small blood droplets followed numerous

38:32

separate parabolic arc patterns

38:35

across the wall at an angle. They continued

38:37

onto the ceiling and canopy fabric

38:39

and back down toward the floor. On the

38:41

perpendicular wall. These linear

38:44

lines cast off where

38:46

the result of blood being released off

38:48

of an object or weapon as it was swung

38:50

through the air the bottom half

38:53

of that pool queue. The suspect

38:55

struck Kim Dorsey over and

38:58

over again, breaking that pool

39:00

cueue into three pieces,

39:03

which required an enormous

39:05

amount of force. Kim Long they

39:08

contacted the company. The company told

39:10

them how much strength and energy

39:13

and force was needed in order to break

39:15

that particular type of pool cube. It

39:17

was quite a lot to see pitty for with

39:19

it to break apart like that. There

39:22

were several distinct linear

39:24

arcs of blood droplets across that wall,

39:27

and as I marked them, something

39:29

caught my attention and made

39:31

me stop in my tracks. Every

39:34

single swing showed

39:36

only a forward motion. Normally,

39:39

cast off events will evidence forward

39:42

and backward swings,

39:44

but none of the droplets were traveling

39:46

in the opposite direction. I

39:48

stood back for a few minutes and thought

39:51

about how an object could cause

39:53

forward motion droplets but no

39:56

reverse motion droplets, and

39:58

the answer became of yes and

40:01

sadistic. Instead

40:03

of a blitz style attack, a fury

40:05

of swings back and forth, the

40:08

person swinging it paused

40:10

between strikes and brought the

40:12

object down to his side before

40:14

going forward again. He

40:17

struck Kim Dorsey, and then he waited

40:19

to see if she responded, and he

40:21

hit her over and over and

40:24

over and over again, pausing

40:26

between each strike. And

40:29

when I realized this information, I

40:31

put down my equipment and I went outside

40:33

to my van for a break, and

40:35

I stifled a much needed breakdown.

40:39

I took some deep breaths, and

40:41

I took my frustration out on my steering wheel,

40:43

and I bruised the heel of my hand in the process,

40:46

and I can remember yelling fuck, fuck,

40:49

fuck fuck each time I punched it, and

40:51

I had to get it out somehow. And

40:53

after a few minutes after I pulled my ship

40:56

together, I wiped my face

40:58

on a towel and I went

41:00

back inside. It

41:05

was nearing the end of another twelve hour day,

41:08

so we packed up. We locked the

41:10

house again, and we took that day's evidence

41:12

downtown to the property room. And

41:14

I went home and I

41:16

drank a huge glass of ice cold

41:19

water, and I sat down

41:21

on the kitchen floor and I

41:23

cried. The

41:30

next morning, I looked at that wall

41:32

again and just stood there for a minute. I

41:34

had to move on to the additional bloodstains on the

41:36

marble bedposts, the fitted sheet,

41:38

and the footrail of the bed, more

41:41

impacts, and I thought, Jesus Christ,

41:44

the amount of violence here is just unfathomable,

41:47

absolutely unfathomable.

41:52

The homicide detectives continued running

41:54

down leads, and we were late into the third

41:56

day. The three other possible suspects

41:59

the compute you to repair man, the stereo

42:01

technician, and Derek's no show employee

42:04

had all been eliminated through

42:07

substantiated alibis, so

42:09

the detectives were back to square one. They

42:11

went to Derek Dorsey for any

42:13

other possible persons of interest. At

42:16

that point they really started talking

42:19

to Derek Dorsey about who

42:21

he thought might have done it. When

42:23

Karen Dukes arrived at the scene on

42:25

the very first day of the investigation, she

42:28

noticed one piece of evidence that

42:30

would prove to be crucial. The

42:33

first things that I remember about

42:35

this murder is when I walked

42:37

up the front sidewalk. First of all, this is

42:39

a beautiful neighborhood. It's a gated

42:42

community, and it was just

42:44

a really nice looking home, which

42:46

is probably a little different from most of the crime

42:49

scenes that we go into. But the very

42:51

first thing that I noticed as I was walking

42:53

up that front sidewalk was a

42:55

concrete a very small concrete

42:58

statue near the front door that was

43:00

tipped over. You know, as you're walking up,

43:02

you know, you're looking at the door frame to see if there's

43:04

any signs of forced entry someone kicked

43:06

the door in, or how did they gain entry,

43:09

and for some reason that statue being

43:11

tipped over. The first thing I

43:13

thought is someone hid the

43:15

spare key to the front door under that statue,

43:18

and it was tipped over because someone

43:21

knew that there was a key there, or had

43:23

been searching right around the front door and found it

43:25

there. That's that's honestly what I thought. As

43:27

we continued to check all the points of entry

43:29

in the home, we realized we had no fourced

43:32

entry at all. They were both

43:34

hopeful that Derek would be able to provide

43:36

some additional possibilities, and while

43:38

they interviewed him again, we

43:40

continued piecing the evidence together. At

43:43

that point, Kim Long was finished with

43:45

her trajectory analysis and she came

43:47

into the bedroom to help me with the rest. We

43:50

brought in the alternate light source to look

43:52

at the faux marble bed posts,

43:55

which had more smears and prints

43:57

on them, just like the top of that night

43:59

stand under the indow. They had to go to

44:01

the lab for processing, so we

44:03

used a sawzall to cut them away

44:05

from the bedrails, and each one weighed about seventy

44:08

five pounds, and transporting them

44:10

without disturbing any possible fingerprints

44:13

was a challenge. The latent

44:15

prin analyst would have his work cut out for him,

44:17

but we were hopeful that there was some

44:19

ridge detail on the smooth surface that might

44:22

help identify a killer if

44:24

there were identifiable prints on those posts.

44:26

I wanted to make sure that the jurors could

44:29

understand where they'd been located in relation

44:31

to the room if the prosecutor decided

44:33

to use them as a demonstrative in court.

44:36

I labeled the two posts with north, south,

44:38

east, and west delineations at the top

44:40

so that jurors could see which

44:43

sides had bloodstains on them and

44:45

which didn't, along with any latent

44:47

prints. After the bed posts

44:49

were removed, we dismantled the rest of the

44:51

bed and we saw more

44:53

bloodstains underneath

44:55

the footrail. Near Kim's final

44:57

resting place, there was yet

45:00

another area of impact spatter.

45:03

This was a coup de graw, one last

45:05

blow as she lay dying or

45:07

dead at the foot of the bed. Kim

45:10

and I wanted to show Kim Dorsey's possible

45:13

path across the room, so

45:15

we sprayed a chemical called blue Star,

45:18

which is very similar to luminol, all

45:20

over the room with the windows

45:22

blacked out and the lights off. We sprayed

45:24

two bottles across the room and

45:26

instantly we could see Kim

45:28

Dorsey's bare footprints moving

45:31

across the carpet from the initial

45:33

impact by the mirror over to

45:35

that window. We set up a camera

45:38

and took timed photographs so the

45:40

jury could see those horrible details

45:42

as well. With the bed

45:44

now dismantled, all of the impacts

45:47

cast off and other blood stains documented,

45:50

there was one area left, the

45:53

saturation stain where Kim had been

45:55

when Derek found her. We cut away

45:57

the carpeting and saw that it had

45:59

soaked through to the padding all

46:01

the way to the concrete. At that point,

46:04

the other two junior detectives had

46:06

worked their way through the mess in the kitchen. They

46:08

had processed a number of items from the upstairs

46:10

loft area, including the upper

46:13

thin half of that pool queue, a container

46:16

of zip ties, and a green plastic

46:18

drinking cup. Whoever

46:20

the suspect was, he knew

46:22

the interior of this house like the back of

46:24

his hand. We were all hoping that

46:26

the homicide detectives were getting closer to

46:28

an answer after they spoke with

46:31

Derek again. Larry Kiskowski,

46:33

there were definitely multiple people,

46:36

and along with eventually with land Lance

46:45

next week on Shattered Souls, the conclusion

46:47

of the Kim Dorsey case, this

46:50

is the New Real. Opening

46:53

music by Sam Johnson at Sam Johnson

46:55

Live dot com. Underscore music

46:57

by Kevin McLeod at Incompetech dot

46:59

com um All rights reserved by

47:02

Angel Hart Productions h