Forensic Files (1996–…): Season 15, Episode 11 - Watchful Eye - full transcript

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Up next, a state park
employee is killed on the job.

-These kind of things just don't
happen in southwest Minnesota.

-Her clothing and her necklace
were used as a ligature.

NARRATOR: There were
witnesses, lots of evidence,

and even a confession.

-He had been in and out of
both federal and state prison

for most of his adult life.

NARRATOR: But it still took
years to put it all together.

-I needed to keep
working on that case.

[music playing]



NARRATOR: State
parks are usually

safe, quiet, peaceful,
family-friendly environments.

So when Carrie
Nelson had the chance

to work at the Blue Mounds
State Park in Minnesota,

she jumped at it.

-She greeted all of
the campers and hikers

that came through that office.

She was the perfect
person for that job,

that I think she
liked where you help

people and care for people.

That just was her personality.

NARRATOR: Carrie
enjoyed the job.

But on a sunny afternoon
in May of 2001,

a co-worker walked
into the park office



and made a horrifying discovery.

NARRATOR: He found Carrie's
body in a pool of blood.

-The discovery of her
body that afternoon

was certainly pretty
shocking for that area.

-And I remember when
my sister called me,

and she was hysterical.

And at that time, um, I heard
the words, Carrie's dead.

And it was, it was the biggest
shock I've ever had, so--

NARRATOR: Police found evidence
of a life and death struggle.

-There was a fax machine
that the phone was down off

the hook, and a chair
that it looked, uh,

had been damaged in it.

There were papers strewn
about underneath her.

NARRATOR: Unfortunately
there were

no surveillance cameras
in the building.

The cash register
was empty, and so

was the safe in the back room.

Park officials estimated
approximately $2,000

was missing, which
was from camping

fees and souvenir sales.

-The safe was located
back in the office area.

But when you were standing
by the-- the counter,

if you were able to
look straight back,

you would be able to see
the safe from that area.

NARRATOR: A search of the
office revealed a possible clue

identifying the
time of the murder.

-We'd located a note that Carrie
was in the process of writing.

On top of the note she had
written the date and time.

The time was at 2
o'clock in the afternoon,

and she was writing the letter
to her boyfriend, actually.

But it was not completed.

NARRATOR: At
approximately 2:00 PM

there were more than 100 park
visitors and employees on site.

Investigators learned that
Carrie was fearful of one

of those employees,
Steven Barber,

a 26-year-old maintenance man.

-Carrie told one of her friends
that she felt that Barber was

stalking her, and that he just
would not leave her alone.

NARRATOR: Carrie and
several coworkers

knew that Barber
smoked crack cocaine

and was dealing it on the job.

-Carrie had stated that
she was considering talking

to the police about,
uh, possible drug use

by this employee.

NARRATOR: Was it possible
that Barber found out

Carrie was about to turn him in?

The $2,000 could have
been a motive as well.

-Because Barber was
involved in narcotics,

we felt that he,
his motive could

have been to get the
money from the safe.

NARRATOR: Even
more incriminating,

Barber had no alibi for the
time of Carrie's murder.

-My beautiful little girl will
never come running into my arms

again, saying, I
love you, Daddy.

Whoever did this
must be caught so

that they can never do it again.

NARRATOR: For the
medical examiner,

it wasn't difficult
to determine what

happened at the crime scene.

There were perfectly
round blood drops

near both the cash
register and the safe.

DNA tests showed the
blood was Carrie's.

-Carrie could have been struck
in the nose with a hand,

with another object, and
then had a nosebleed.

And then as she was being taken
into the area of where the cash

register was, then she
was depositing that blood.

NARRATOR: Small hemorrhages
in Carrie's eyes

showed that the killer
applied force to her neck.

-I believe more in an
effort to control her,

I think her clothing
and her necklace

were used as a ligature, and,
and then the little hemorrhages

occurred as, as that
event was happening.

NARRATOR: The medical
examiner found

no evidence of sexual assault.

The cause of death was
blunt force trauma.

-It appeared that
she had been struck

with some type of heavy
object that had resulted

in extensive head
and facial injuries,

that I ultimately showed
had led to her death.

NARRATOR: At Blue
Mounds State Park,

there is only one way
in and one way out,

and everyone who enters the park
is supposed to have a permit.

But in a potential
setback, investigators

learned that the entrance
isn't always monitored.

-There is certainly
the possibility

that there were people
that were in that

campground that we
didn't know about.

NARRATOR: The park was isolated.

There were hundreds of acres
in which the killer could

disappear, which
worried investigators.

One camper reported seeing a
car speeding past his campsite,

located a short distance
from the park office.

-He saw this large,
white, boat type of car,

uh, leaving the
area of the office,

going rapidly,
spinning its tires.

NARRATOR: Although he didn't
see the car's license plate,

and couldn't identify
the make or model,

he did recall when it passed by.

It was between 2:15 and 2:30 PM.

-Carrie did work
alone in the office.

The last person to see her
alive was a camper, uh,

who came in at 1:53 and bought
a permit to go into the park.

NARRATOR: And Carrie's body
was found at 2:44, which

put the white car at the scene
at the time of the murder.

Steven Barber, the park employee
who'd been stalking Carrie

before her murder, owned the
car that fit this description.

-Barber owned a white
four-door Cadillac

that we would describe
as a boat-like vehicle.

NARRATOR: When
questioned by police,

Barber denied any involvement.

He claimed he was at his
daughter's birthday party

at the time of the murder.

-He had arrived at the party
about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Given the time frame
of, of the homicide,

he still could not be ruled
out as a possible suspect.

NARRATOR: Police found nothing
in Barber's car or house

that tied him to the murder.

At the crime scene,
next to Carrie's body,

was a wristwatch.

-She's almost, literally,
pointing to it.

NARRATOR: One end of the leather
wristband had been torn off.

-That certainly
suggested that it

had come off in the struggle.

NARRATOR: The watch
wasn't Carrie's.

Steven Barber denied owning it,
and none of Carrie's coworkers

recognized it.

Also near Carrie's body was a
pack of Doral brand cigarettes.

-Carrie was not a smoker, and
we determined that there was

no employees at the state park
that smoked Doral cigarettes,

so therefore we
determined that they

were most likely
left by the suspect.

NARRATOR: Investigators
found no prints on the watch

or on the cigarette pack.

So forensic technicians
used heated super glue

in the office, which
releases vapors that adhere

to the amino acids
in fingerprints.

-It was a fairly monumental
task, because obviously,

with that large number of people
coming through that agency, uh,

there would have been
a tremendous amount

of fingerprints left
on various surfaces.

NARRATOR: With this
technique, investigators

found 135 latent prints.

None of those prints matched
their suspect, Steven Barber.

Scientists also
swabbed the watch

found next to Carrie's body.

They found a mixture of
three different DNA profiles.

One was Carrie Nelson's,
probably a result of her

pulling the watch off
of the perpetrator.

Neither of the
other two profiles

matched the DNA
of Steven Barber.

-We really felt Barber was
our man, and all of a sudden

the forensic evidence starts
coming back and saying,

this is not him.

NARRATOR: Investigators were
finding forensic evidence.

They just didn't have a
suspect to compare it to.

Five days after Carrie
Nelson's murder,

detectives found
what they believed

to be the murder weapon.

It was a decorative rock with
the state park logo, found

lying in a small stream
a mile and a half

from the crime scene.

-It obviously
looked out of place,

and not to mention the
fact that it was missing

from the visitors center, the
same visitors center where

Carrie Nelson had
just been murdered.

NARRATOR: Chips
from this rock were

found scattered
around Carrie's body.

The white car
witnesses saw leaving

the scene would have gone
right by this stream.

-The perpetrator, if he drove
alongside the left-hand side

of the road, could
have thrown it

from the driver's side of
this car into the stream.

NARRATOR: But stream
water had washed away

any potential
evidence that could

have identified the killer.

-I took photographs of the
injuries on Carrie's body.

And I was able to match
up areas of that rock

very well with certain injuries
on Carrie's face and head.

NARRATOR: Investigators
spent hours

comparing the fingerprints
from the crime scene

to all of the park employees
and the campers who

were in the park the
day of the murder.

-Ninety-seven of those
came back to employees,

leaving us with 38 unidentified
latent fingerprints that could

potentially have
been the perpetrator.

NARRATOR: The
prints were entered

into the statewide database
of known criminal offenders,

and there were no matches.

-We were very surprised that we
weren't getting hits on this,

because our assumption
was that, you know,

this was not this
person's first crime.

NARRATOR: The DNA profiles
found on the watch

were also entered into
the statewide database

of known criminal offenders.

Unfortunately, the mixed
samples created problems.

-When we are working
with mixtures,

we are working with
combinations of DNA types,

and so we can't identify
just that single individual.

NARRATOR: Analysts
found 19 potential

matches in the
Minnesota database.

-We were hoping that at
least one of those 19 people

would turn out to
be our, uh, suspect

and that we'd be able to
solve the case that way.

NARRATOR: But it was not to be.

Each of those 19 people was
investigated and cleared.

-I don't think any of
us ever gave up hope.

There's a little bit of you
that doesn't want to relive it,

and then there's a
little bit of you

that wants to know who did it.

-It was very frustrating
for investigators.

You've got eyewitness
accounts of a white car

speeding away from
the crime scene.

You've got a watch that
has DNA evidence on it.

NARRATOR: One year passed, and
then investigators got a break.

An inmate came forward who said
his cell mate, Anthony Flowers,

admitted killing Carrie
Nelson in the state park.

-Mr. Flowers had a very
lengthy criminal history.

He essentially was a
career bank robber,

and had been in and out of
both federal and state prison

as a result of that for
most of his adult life.

NARRATOR: Records showed
that Flowers had broken out

of prison just days
before Carrie's murder,

and was still at large when
the murder and theft occurred.

Strangely, the inmate's
story didn't match the crime,

and neither did the evidence.

-None of his prints
matched those at the scene,

and his DNA eliminated him
as being a contributor to any

of the DNA we found on
the watch at the scene.

NARRATOR: But why
did the inmate come

forward to implicated
his cell-mate?

It turned out both of
them were after the money.

-There was a substantial
reward for information leading

to the arrest of the person
responsible for Carrie

Nelson's homicide.

He would then collect
the reward money,

and then split it
up with Flowers.

NARRATOR: And they also found
evidence that Flowers much

preferred the amenities
of the state prison

to the federal prison system.

-Flowers was a person that
was looking at spending

the rest of his life
in federal person.

And we believe that he wanted
to admit to this homicide

to be put into the state prison
in Minnesota, which would be

a more comfortable stay for
him for the rest of his life.

NARRATOR: Again the
case turned cold.

For the next five
years, investigators

continued to pursue various
leads-- more than 600 in all.

And none of them panned out,
until investigators took one

more look at the
forensic evidence.

After five years of searching
for Carrie Nelson's killer,

scientists decided to
try something different.

By 2006, DNA technology
was much more advanced

than it was in 2001, and the
results were far more precise.

So investigators
asked scientists

if they could re-test the
watch found at the crime scene.

The watch band was
woven from nylon,

and investigators wondered
if sweat from the killer

might have seeped
into the material.

-Sweat itself doesn't really
contain DNA, but what happens

is cells that have
the DNA end up

kind of getting washed off
of the body in the sweat.

And so, then, that's what
gets deposited on the watch.

NARRATOR: Investigators were
able to isolate skin cells

from the wristband, which
they subjected to a DNA test.

The result was a mixture
of two DNA profiles.

-From looking at
the profile, I could

tell that it was probably a
mixture of a man and woman.

NARRATOR: The female DNA
was not Carrie Nelson's,

and the male DNA didn't
match any possible suspects,

or anyone in the
Minnesota DNA database.

But the cigarette
pack at the scene

gave investigators an idea.

-The cigarettes still had the
South Dakota tax stamp on them,

so that suggested,
of course, that they

were purchased in,
uh, South Dakota.

NARRATOR: So investigators sent
the DNA profile to authorities

in South Dakota and asked them
to compare it to DNA profiles

in their state's database
of known criminal offenders.

-I heard back from South
Dakota that we had a hit.

NARRATOR: The DNA from the
watch band matched Randy Swaney,

a 35-year-old petty criminal
who was currently serving

a 30-month sentence in
South Dakota for burglary.

-He was a person
who would case out

places before he'd
burglarize them.

So it is possible that he came
to the state park that day

to initially just case it out.

NARRATOR: But investigators
wondered who had contributed

the female DNA found
on the watch band.

Police went to the
most logical source,

Randy Swaney's wife, Dawn.

As they expected, her DNA was
the other half of the mixture.

-That meant that she
was a possible suspect,

so we had to account
for her whereabouts.

NARRATOR: But investigators
learned that Dawn was at work

at the time of the
murder-- a solid alibi.

-She would wear the watch
to work on occasion,

and this would explain why
her DNA would be on the watch.

NARRATOR: Dawn also provided
this photograph, which

showed Randy Swaney
wearing the watch.

-In one of the photographs,
the pin from the watch band

itself is in the same location
that you can tell from the wear

mark on the watch that was
found, uh, at the scene.

NARRATOR: A second
photo showed Swaney

with a pack of Doral cigarettes.

He also owned a large white car.

-The car that Randy
Swaney and his wife owned

fit that description
of the one seen

leaving the park on the
day of the murder exactly.

NARRATOR: And palm prints
found on the counter

at the crime scene, and on a
piece of paper near Carrie's

body, both matched Randy Swaney.

-If it walks like a
duck and quacks like

and it looks like a
duck, it's a duck.

NARRATOR: In May of
2007, Randy Swaney

was charged with
first degree murder.

-I did not kill Carrie
Christine Nelson.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe
Swaney walked up to the park

office, looked inside, and
didn't see anyone there.

So he entered the office,
opened the cash register,

and that's when Carrie
walked out of the bathroom

and confronted him.

There was a fight.

Swaney hit Carrie,
and she ripped

the watch from his wrist.

Swaney dragged Carrie
to the back room

and forced her to open the safe.

After he took the
$2,000, Swaney decided

not to leave any witnesses.

He picked up the decorative rock
and struck Carrie five times.

The force of the blows
caused his cigarettes

to fall from his pocket.

He left with the murder
weapon and threw it

in the nearby creek,
thinking he had removed all

of the incriminating evidence
from the crime scene.

Little did he know he actually
left most of it behind.

-Life is precious
and fragile, and that

can change in a moment's notice.

You know, Carrie
was killed an hour

before she was supposed
to get off work.

She had plans that
evening with her friends.

NARRATOR: Randy Swaney was
convicted of first degree

murder and sentenced
to life in prison

with no possibility of parole.

-The security measures, both
at Blue Mounds State Park

and at other state
parks, changed

significantly as a
result of this crime.

-You've got a defendant
who adamantly denied

ever being at this
particular spot.

But the forensic evidence
didn't leave any doubt.

Randy Swaney was there whether
he wanted to admit it or not.

-With Carrie, I had a poster.

And I kept that at my desk,
uh, for the entire time

until after the trial was
over, uh, to remind me

that I needed to keep
working on that case.

And so she was always
looking at me, saying well,

I've given you what you need
to get, so get her done.

[music playing]