Forensic Files (1996–…): Season 7, Episode 39 - Marathon Man - full transcript
It was on a cold, wet, winter night
that a woman called police to report her husband missing.
The man was a marathon runner, who had gone for a workout,
but never returned.
Forensic evidence revealed that wherever the man went,
he ran into some trouble.
Deep in the heart of southern California lies
the small town of Valley Center.
About an hour's drive from San Diego,
it's a quiet and peaceful community, surrounded by hills and farmland.
The rustic setting appealed to Jane and Robert Dorotek,
who had been married almost 30 years.
The couple lived on an 18-acre horse ranch they called "Charisma Farms."
To Jane, horses were her life.
EPLER: She obviously was very passionate about her horses,
this was one of her great loves.
Bob preferred the outdoors and camping.
His passion was physical fitness, and he was a marathon runner.
The couple had three grown children,
two sons, and a daughter, Claire, who still lived at home.
Claire was a marathoner and an expert horsewoman.
On a Sunday night in February of 2000,
Jane Dorotek called the sheriff to report her husband missing.
She said Bob had gone running a few hours earlier, but never returned home.
BLACKMON: When she reported him missing,
what was going through my mind - even though he's a jogger,
and ran marathons, they do have heart attacks and things like that,
sometimes when they're jogging.
It wasn't unusual for Bob to take long runs,
but he had never been out this long.
The sheriff and his deputies searched the entire area,
concentrating on Bob's usual running routes.
The search was ended at 4:30 the next morning,
with the discovery of a body.
BLACKMON: I could see some trauma to the head,
as well as a cord wrapped around the victim's neck.
My initial thought in looking at the trauma to the body,
that this was a homicide.
The lack of blood in the area revealed
that Bob's injuries had occured elsewhere.
GANNETT: We found tire impressions in mud, two sets of those,
and we found shoe impressions that weren't usable,
but they were just like deep holes in the leaf litter that was on the ground.
There were drag marks in the mud, from the area of the tire impressions to the body.
And there was a clue that Bob hadn't been jogging that day.
EMPSON: His shoes were very clean, he didn't have any mud,
or any splash marks - water marks - on his shoes.
And the information that I had obtained earlier
was that he had went out for a jog on the previous day,
which had been a rainy day as well.
A piece of Dorotek's head hair was found underneath his shirt on his chest,
suggesting that he had been dressed after death.
And there was another indication that someone else had dressed him.
EMPSON: His shoelaces were tied on the outside of his shoes,
the knot itself was not tied in the middle of the shoe,
as if somebody were to have tied their own shoe.
Whoever dumped the body left mountains of forensic evidence.
Investigators knew if the killer was this sloppy here,
he'd be just as careless elsewhere.
Word of Bob Dorotek's murder spread quickly to friends and family alike.
Forensic scientists began their investigation
by attempting to identify the vehicle at the crime scene.
From the tire impressions in the mud,
they measured the distance between the wheels.
The vehicle was identified as a pickup truck.
Next, they analyzed photographs of the tire impressions.
DeMARIA: First, you have to look at the width of the tire track,
there's different size tires,
second, you look at the design,
every tire manufacturer has multiple tread designs that they make,
designed for different types of road handling.
The pickup truck had three different tire models.
The impressions were compared to the thousands of tires on the market.
DeMARIA: I noticed that the front two tires were the same brand tire,
which was a "Big O" brand.
DeMaria identified the side rear tire as a Firestone Radial,
and the passenger side rear tire as a Cooper brand Discoverer model.
At the autopsy, the medical examiner determined
that Dorotek died due to blunt force trauma to the head,
with some type of hammer.
There were also signs he had been strangled.
Inside his stomach was the undigested dinner Bob consumed on Saturday night,
which meant he was killed on Saturday.
Jane said Bob left home on Sunday afternoon.
Despite his mild-mannered demeanor,
a background check revealed Bob Dorotek and his wife separated just a few years earlier,
although they had recently reconciled.
And Bob had often been at odds with his wife and daughter over the costs of running the horse ranch.
Jane and Claire favored investing more money into the ranch for expansion,
and there was the possibility of a disgruntled employee.
Ranch foreman Leonel Morales had long sided with Claire Dorotek
in the debate over whether to expand the ranch.
EMPSON: We felt it warranted further investigation.
We had an interview with him to see when was the last time he was there,
and what did he do when he was there.
Leonel Morales, Claire and Jane Dorotek all denied any involvement in Bob's murder.
Leonel and Claire each had alibis.
Jane said she was home all day working with the horses.
She cooperated with police by voluntarily allowing them to search her home.
GANNETT: Actually, a homicide detective took me aside before we went in and said
"Now Carolyn, this is a consent search,
all we're looking for is patent, obvious blood.
Don't be crawling under things and looking up,
don't be opening drawers, don't be doing anything,
just be as inobtrusive as possible."
It was muddy, so it's a no-shoe house.
So, to be polite in a consent search -
and this is the only time, ever in my life, I've done this at a scene - took off my shoes.
Investigators examined the house, and especially the master bedroom,
and found nothing out of the ordinary.
But criminalist Carolyn Gannett decided to take a closer look around,
and it was in her stocking feet that Gannett made her discovery.
GANNETT: Just happened to step in one corner of the bedroom,
and I could feel wet carpet underneath my feet, through my stocking feet,
and my heart just jumped because I knew exactly what that was.
The bedroom floor was wet, as if something had recently been cleaned from the floor,
and the carpet had a slight tinge of red.
GANNETT: What really struck me was how easily we could've missed it,
if we hadn't taken off our shoes we would've missed it,
we would not have found that scene at all.
EMPSON: I asked the family if there would be any reason
that we would find blood in the master bedroom.
The family members began to speak -
one was Jane Dorotek's sister by law, who indicated that one of the dogs had cut his dewclaw and had been bleeding.
Investigators decided to conduct more tests to see
if it was dog blood in the bedroom, or something more.
Not long after the murder of 55-year-old Bob Dorotek,
investigators had no shortage of forensic evidence or suspects.
In the master bedroom of the Dorotek's home,
investigators found traces of blood on the floor, that had been cleaned up.
And when they looked closer,
they found even more.
I could see what appeared to be blood spatter all across the comforter of the bed,
I could see blood spatter on the headboard,
I could see blood spatter on the wall, behind the bed.
And there was blood on the brick wall, and on the stove in the corner of the bedroom.
Some had even dripped down into a utility room below.
MERRITT: I looked at the stains on the wall, stains on the brickwork,
and they were all consistent in size - about half a millimeter in diameter,
maybe a little bit less, little bit more -
with medium velocity. It's what I would expect to have seen in a beating.
Merritt's analysis revealed the blood spatter emanated from the top of the bed,
where Bob may have been sleeping.
MERRITT: The shapes of the stains on the wall, and on the nightstand,
showed me the direction they were travelling in.
So I just took strings on the wall - knowing the direction they were travelling in -
pulled them back, taped them onto the wall, which gave me an area of convergence.
That area of convergence told forensic scientists
the location of Bob's head during the attack.
Merritt also found cast-off blood spatter on the ceiling -
created when blood is thrown from a moving object.
MERRITT: There were circular stains on the ceiling directly above the bed,
that's the first indication of cast-off.
The other indication is directional stains - linear stains - going away from that site.
DNA testing confirmed it was Bob Dorotek's blood.
MERRITT: The attack didn't occur out on that road.
That attack, based on the blood stains, occurred in that room.
Inside the home, investigators also found a piece of black rope,
consistent with the rope found around Bob's neck.
EMPSON: I told Jane we were confident,
and there was no doubt,
that Bob was assaulted in the master bedroom.
And the family gasped.
But investigators found no blood anywhere else in the home.
Meaning, the killer had carried the body downstairs,
and out of the house.
Police couldn't find the murder weapon or any bloody clothing inside the home,
and there were no signs of forced entry.
An intruder never takes the time to clean a crime scene.
EMPSON: I've been in law enforcement about 28 years,
I've not seen or known one case where an intruder has come into a house,
murdered somebody inside the house, and cleaned up afterwards.
Police found a pickup truck in the garage.
There were no visible signs of blood,
so investigators looked to see if blood had been removed.
GANNETT: We used fluorescein, we sprayed most of the outside of the truck,
and also the inside, and we did find several areas that fluoresced.
There was one area in particular, on the bed of the truck,
that fluoresced, it was fairly large.
Which was an indication blood had been present, then, washed off.
DNA testing of the hidden blood residue showed the blood was Bob's.
The front tires were type O brand,
the passenger side rear tire was a Cooper Discoverer,
the driver's side rear tire was a Firestone Radial.
All were identical to the impressions left at the crime scene.
The white pickup truck was registered to Jane Dorotek.
Before leaving the residence,
investigators found one last piece of evidence.
EMPSON: In the trash, there were actually several syringes,
and one of the syringes was a large barrel syringe.
Appeared to be a syringe that might be used on animals.
The syringe contained trace amounts of a potent horse tranquilizer,
called Acepromazine.
Toxicology tests did not detect acepromazine in Bob's blood sample,
although it could have been present in amounts too small for testing to identify.
On the outside of the syringe was a bloody fingerprint.
The blood was Bob Dorotek's.
The fingerprint was Jane's.
GANNETT: You'll often hear it's said that
one of the best things you can find at a crime scene
is a suspect's fingerprint in the victim's blood.
Now, how do you explain that?
Three days after Bob Dorotek was found dead on the side of a road,
his wife Jane was arrested and charged with murder.
JANE DOROTEK: Your honor, I'd like to say that I'm innocent.
I loved my husband.
I love him still.
In May 2001, Jane Dorotek stood trial for the murder of her husband Robert.
Prosecutors believe that Jane injected Bob with a horse tranquilizer
while he was sleeping on Saturday night.
She then struck him in the head while he was in bed,
and then, on the floor near the stove.
When Jane threw away the syringe,
she left her fingerprint in Bob's blood.
After dressing the body,
she either carried or dragged it downstairs to her pickup truck.
When she left the body alongside the road,
she did everything but sign her name to the crime.
The clean shoes were proof he had not been jogging.
The shoelaces showed that someone else had tied them.
And the blood underneath his shirt was proof he had been dressed after he was dead.
And then, there were the tire impressions from her pickup truck.
Friends saw Jane late Sunday afternoon at a nearby shopping center,
which is where prosecutors think she threw away her bloody clothes and the murder weapon.
HOWARD-REGAN: Everything that was collected just pointed the finger at Jane Dorotek.
They're all these different pieces of a puzzle,
and when you put it all together, it just pointed the finger at Jane Dorotek.
The motive appeared to be money.
EMPSON: Jane was very interested in spending a lot of money on the horses,
the care of the horses, the boarding of the horses.
GOUDGE: He didn't mind Jane's hobby, Jane and Claire's hobby with the horses,
however, they regularly had disagreements about
how many family resources this hobby should use.
Two years earlier, when the couple separated,
Jane learned that under California law
she would have to pay Bob alimony in the event of a divorce,
since she was the primary wage earner.
GOUDGE: Bob inititally told me that she was extremely angry
about the possibility of having to pay him alimony.
It made her livid.
And that she got very threatening.
HOWARD-REGAN: We found some letters dated the Friday before he was killed,
where he was already looking for a job.
Maybe he said 'this isn't working out,
and we should go ahead and get a divorce',
and she was not about to pay him any alimony.
At the trial,
the defense claimed that Claire Dorotek, with the help of Leonel Morales,
killed Bob Dorotek.
They produced a letter Claire wrote to her father filled with deep hostility over alleged abuse.
STEIGERWALT: She just lived her life in trying to please her father,
and built up a tremendous amount of hatred and resentment
over the years about her relationship with her father.
The defense claimed that Leonel Morales was sympathetic to Claire's position.
HOWARD-REGAN: It suggested that since he basically worked for Claire Dorotek,
and Claire Dorotek didn't like her father,
that he would do anything for Claire.
But police were satisfied that each had a solid alibi.
EMPSON: We were confident that Claire was out of town,
for the weekend, and Jane was the only one that was home.
And Jane was the only suspect in our mind.
REPORTER: Claire, do you know why your mom is pointing the finger at you?
Claire Dorotek and Leonel Morales invoked their 5th amendment right
against self-incrimination, and did not testify.
Jane offered no explanation for how her fingerprint,
in her husband's blood, was found on a syringe containing a horse tranquilizer.
After three days of deliberation,
the jury returned their verdict.
JURY: Find the defendant, Jane Margarie Dorotek,
guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree...
GOUDGE: I was sad, but I was elated that justice was served.
For me, she stole one of my best friends away from me,
and from all his other friends.
And it was the worst kind of theft, really.
Jane Dorotek was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
There was no dispute about the critical role
forensic evidence played in Jane Dorotek's conviction.
STEIGERWALT: The forensics made it clear he wasn't out for a jog as she explained,
the forensics made it clear his shoes were tied and his clothing was put on
after that body was pummeled.
And so, the forensics told a story,
as so often as true when you find a body in a homicide case.
The body itself tells a story.
that a woman called police to report her husband missing.
The man was a marathon runner, who had gone for a workout,
but never returned.
Forensic evidence revealed that wherever the man went,
he ran into some trouble.
Deep in the heart of southern California lies
the small town of Valley Center.
About an hour's drive from San Diego,
it's a quiet and peaceful community, surrounded by hills and farmland.
The rustic setting appealed to Jane and Robert Dorotek,
who had been married almost 30 years.
The couple lived on an 18-acre horse ranch they called "Charisma Farms."
To Jane, horses were her life.
EPLER: She obviously was very passionate about her horses,
this was one of her great loves.
Bob preferred the outdoors and camping.
His passion was physical fitness, and he was a marathon runner.
The couple had three grown children,
two sons, and a daughter, Claire, who still lived at home.
Claire was a marathoner and an expert horsewoman.
On a Sunday night in February of 2000,
Jane Dorotek called the sheriff to report her husband missing.
She said Bob had gone running a few hours earlier, but never returned home.
BLACKMON: When she reported him missing,
what was going through my mind - even though he's a jogger,
and ran marathons, they do have heart attacks and things like that,
sometimes when they're jogging.
It wasn't unusual for Bob to take long runs,
but he had never been out this long.
The sheriff and his deputies searched the entire area,
concentrating on Bob's usual running routes.
The search was ended at 4:30 the next morning,
with the discovery of a body.
BLACKMON: I could see some trauma to the head,
as well as a cord wrapped around the victim's neck.
My initial thought in looking at the trauma to the body,
that this was a homicide.
The lack of blood in the area revealed
that Bob's injuries had occured elsewhere.
GANNETT: We found tire impressions in mud, two sets of those,
and we found shoe impressions that weren't usable,
but they were just like deep holes in the leaf litter that was on the ground.
There were drag marks in the mud, from the area of the tire impressions to the body.
And there was a clue that Bob hadn't been jogging that day.
EMPSON: His shoes were very clean, he didn't have any mud,
or any splash marks - water marks - on his shoes.
And the information that I had obtained earlier
was that he had went out for a jog on the previous day,
which had been a rainy day as well.
A piece of Dorotek's head hair was found underneath his shirt on his chest,
suggesting that he had been dressed after death.
And there was another indication that someone else had dressed him.
EMPSON: His shoelaces were tied on the outside of his shoes,
the knot itself was not tied in the middle of the shoe,
as if somebody were to have tied their own shoe.
Whoever dumped the body left mountains of forensic evidence.
Investigators knew if the killer was this sloppy here,
he'd be just as careless elsewhere.
Word of Bob Dorotek's murder spread quickly to friends and family alike.
Forensic scientists began their investigation
by attempting to identify the vehicle at the crime scene.
From the tire impressions in the mud,
they measured the distance between the wheels.
The vehicle was identified as a pickup truck.
Next, they analyzed photographs of the tire impressions.
DeMARIA: First, you have to look at the width of the tire track,
there's different size tires,
second, you look at the design,
every tire manufacturer has multiple tread designs that they make,
designed for different types of road handling.
The pickup truck had three different tire models.
The impressions were compared to the thousands of tires on the market.
DeMARIA: I noticed that the front two tires were the same brand tire,
which was a "Big O" brand.
DeMaria identified the side rear tire as a Firestone Radial,
and the passenger side rear tire as a Cooper brand Discoverer model.
At the autopsy, the medical examiner determined
that Dorotek died due to blunt force trauma to the head,
with some type of hammer.
There were also signs he had been strangled.
Inside his stomach was the undigested dinner Bob consumed on Saturday night,
which meant he was killed on Saturday.
Jane said Bob left home on Sunday afternoon.
Despite his mild-mannered demeanor,
a background check revealed Bob Dorotek and his wife separated just a few years earlier,
although they had recently reconciled.
And Bob had often been at odds with his wife and daughter over the costs of running the horse ranch.
Jane and Claire favored investing more money into the ranch for expansion,
and there was the possibility of a disgruntled employee.
Ranch foreman Leonel Morales had long sided with Claire Dorotek
in the debate over whether to expand the ranch.
EMPSON: We felt it warranted further investigation.
We had an interview with him to see when was the last time he was there,
and what did he do when he was there.
Leonel Morales, Claire and Jane Dorotek all denied any involvement in Bob's murder.
Leonel and Claire each had alibis.
Jane said she was home all day working with the horses.
She cooperated with police by voluntarily allowing them to search her home.
GANNETT: Actually, a homicide detective took me aside before we went in and said
"Now Carolyn, this is a consent search,
all we're looking for is patent, obvious blood.
Don't be crawling under things and looking up,
don't be opening drawers, don't be doing anything,
just be as inobtrusive as possible."
It was muddy, so it's a no-shoe house.
So, to be polite in a consent search -
and this is the only time, ever in my life, I've done this at a scene - took off my shoes.
Investigators examined the house, and especially the master bedroom,
and found nothing out of the ordinary.
But criminalist Carolyn Gannett decided to take a closer look around,
and it was in her stocking feet that Gannett made her discovery.
GANNETT: Just happened to step in one corner of the bedroom,
and I could feel wet carpet underneath my feet, through my stocking feet,
and my heart just jumped because I knew exactly what that was.
The bedroom floor was wet, as if something had recently been cleaned from the floor,
and the carpet had a slight tinge of red.
GANNETT: What really struck me was how easily we could've missed it,
if we hadn't taken off our shoes we would've missed it,
we would not have found that scene at all.
EMPSON: I asked the family if there would be any reason
that we would find blood in the master bedroom.
The family members began to speak -
one was Jane Dorotek's sister by law, who indicated that one of the dogs had cut his dewclaw and had been bleeding.
Investigators decided to conduct more tests to see
if it was dog blood in the bedroom, or something more.
Not long after the murder of 55-year-old Bob Dorotek,
investigators had no shortage of forensic evidence or suspects.
In the master bedroom of the Dorotek's home,
investigators found traces of blood on the floor, that had been cleaned up.
And when they looked closer,
they found even more.
I could see what appeared to be blood spatter all across the comforter of the bed,
I could see blood spatter on the headboard,
I could see blood spatter on the wall, behind the bed.
And there was blood on the brick wall, and on the stove in the corner of the bedroom.
Some had even dripped down into a utility room below.
MERRITT: I looked at the stains on the wall, stains on the brickwork,
and they were all consistent in size - about half a millimeter in diameter,
maybe a little bit less, little bit more -
with medium velocity. It's what I would expect to have seen in a beating.
Merritt's analysis revealed the blood spatter emanated from the top of the bed,
where Bob may have been sleeping.
MERRITT: The shapes of the stains on the wall, and on the nightstand,
showed me the direction they were travelling in.
So I just took strings on the wall - knowing the direction they were travelling in -
pulled them back, taped them onto the wall, which gave me an area of convergence.
That area of convergence told forensic scientists
the location of Bob's head during the attack.
Merritt also found cast-off blood spatter on the ceiling -
created when blood is thrown from a moving object.
MERRITT: There were circular stains on the ceiling directly above the bed,
that's the first indication of cast-off.
The other indication is directional stains - linear stains - going away from that site.
DNA testing confirmed it was Bob Dorotek's blood.
MERRITT: The attack didn't occur out on that road.
That attack, based on the blood stains, occurred in that room.
Inside the home, investigators also found a piece of black rope,
consistent with the rope found around Bob's neck.
EMPSON: I told Jane we were confident,
and there was no doubt,
that Bob was assaulted in the master bedroom.
And the family gasped.
But investigators found no blood anywhere else in the home.
Meaning, the killer had carried the body downstairs,
and out of the house.
Police couldn't find the murder weapon or any bloody clothing inside the home,
and there were no signs of forced entry.
An intruder never takes the time to clean a crime scene.
EMPSON: I've been in law enforcement about 28 years,
I've not seen or known one case where an intruder has come into a house,
murdered somebody inside the house, and cleaned up afterwards.
Police found a pickup truck in the garage.
There were no visible signs of blood,
so investigators looked to see if blood had been removed.
GANNETT: We used fluorescein, we sprayed most of the outside of the truck,
and also the inside, and we did find several areas that fluoresced.
There was one area in particular, on the bed of the truck,
that fluoresced, it was fairly large.
Which was an indication blood had been present, then, washed off.
DNA testing of the hidden blood residue showed the blood was Bob's.
The front tires were type O brand,
the passenger side rear tire was a Cooper Discoverer,
the driver's side rear tire was a Firestone Radial.
All were identical to the impressions left at the crime scene.
The white pickup truck was registered to Jane Dorotek.
Before leaving the residence,
investigators found one last piece of evidence.
EMPSON: In the trash, there were actually several syringes,
and one of the syringes was a large barrel syringe.
Appeared to be a syringe that might be used on animals.
The syringe contained trace amounts of a potent horse tranquilizer,
called Acepromazine.
Toxicology tests did not detect acepromazine in Bob's blood sample,
although it could have been present in amounts too small for testing to identify.
On the outside of the syringe was a bloody fingerprint.
The blood was Bob Dorotek's.
The fingerprint was Jane's.
GANNETT: You'll often hear it's said that
one of the best things you can find at a crime scene
is a suspect's fingerprint in the victim's blood.
Now, how do you explain that?
Three days after Bob Dorotek was found dead on the side of a road,
his wife Jane was arrested and charged with murder.
JANE DOROTEK: Your honor, I'd like to say that I'm innocent.
I loved my husband.
I love him still.
In May 2001, Jane Dorotek stood trial for the murder of her husband Robert.
Prosecutors believe that Jane injected Bob with a horse tranquilizer
while he was sleeping on Saturday night.
She then struck him in the head while he was in bed,
and then, on the floor near the stove.
When Jane threw away the syringe,
she left her fingerprint in Bob's blood.
After dressing the body,
she either carried or dragged it downstairs to her pickup truck.
When she left the body alongside the road,
she did everything but sign her name to the crime.
The clean shoes were proof he had not been jogging.
The shoelaces showed that someone else had tied them.
And the blood underneath his shirt was proof he had been dressed after he was dead.
And then, there were the tire impressions from her pickup truck.
Friends saw Jane late Sunday afternoon at a nearby shopping center,
which is where prosecutors think she threw away her bloody clothes and the murder weapon.
HOWARD-REGAN: Everything that was collected just pointed the finger at Jane Dorotek.
They're all these different pieces of a puzzle,
and when you put it all together, it just pointed the finger at Jane Dorotek.
The motive appeared to be money.
EMPSON: Jane was very interested in spending a lot of money on the horses,
the care of the horses, the boarding of the horses.
GOUDGE: He didn't mind Jane's hobby, Jane and Claire's hobby with the horses,
however, they regularly had disagreements about
how many family resources this hobby should use.
Two years earlier, when the couple separated,
Jane learned that under California law
she would have to pay Bob alimony in the event of a divorce,
since she was the primary wage earner.
GOUDGE: Bob inititally told me that she was extremely angry
about the possibility of having to pay him alimony.
It made her livid.
And that she got very threatening.
HOWARD-REGAN: We found some letters dated the Friday before he was killed,
where he was already looking for a job.
Maybe he said 'this isn't working out,
and we should go ahead and get a divorce',
and she was not about to pay him any alimony.
At the trial,
the defense claimed that Claire Dorotek, with the help of Leonel Morales,
killed Bob Dorotek.
They produced a letter Claire wrote to her father filled with deep hostility over alleged abuse.
STEIGERWALT: She just lived her life in trying to please her father,
and built up a tremendous amount of hatred and resentment
over the years about her relationship with her father.
The defense claimed that Leonel Morales was sympathetic to Claire's position.
HOWARD-REGAN: It suggested that since he basically worked for Claire Dorotek,
and Claire Dorotek didn't like her father,
that he would do anything for Claire.
But police were satisfied that each had a solid alibi.
EMPSON: We were confident that Claire was out of town,
for the weekend, and Jane was the only one that was home.
And Jane was the only suspect in our mind.
REPORTER: Claire, do you know why your mom is pointing the finger at you?
Claire Dorotek and Leonel Morales invoked their 5th amendment right
against self-incrimination, and did not testify.
Jane offered no explanation for how her fingerprint,
in her husband's blood, was found on a syringe containing a horse tranquilizer.
After three days of deliberation,
the jury returned their verdict.
JURY: Find the defendant, Jane Margarie Dorotek,
guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree...
GOUDGE: I was sad, but I was elated that justice was served.
For me, she stole one of my best friends away from me,
and from all his other friends.
And it was the worst kind of theft, really.
Jane Dorotek was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
There was no dispute about the critical role
forensic evidence played in Jane Dorotek's conviction.
STEIGERWALT: The forensics made it clear he wasn't out for a jog as she explained,
the forensics made it clear his shoes were tied and his clothing was put on
after that body was pummeled.
And so, the forensics told a story,
as so often as true when you find a body in a homicide case.
The body itself tells a story.