[Music] in the pre-dawn hours a house catches fire in wisconsin [Music] investigators determined that the blaze is a smoke screen designed to hide a more horrific act of violence but the heat of the flames leaves the crime trail cold in southern florida a series of fires becomes more than a coincidence people are dying and the community is frightened detectives must work quickly to calm fears and catch the killer before he strikes again at a crime scene everything is considered a potential clue but a fire can destroy everything in its path challenging forensic investigators at every turn [Music] and making each arson a trial by fire [Music] in this episode some of the names have been changed [Music] 2 30 in the morning november 25th 1996. [Music] most of la crosse wisconsin slept but one of its residents woke up to an alarming site your neighbor's house is on fire what's the address he noticed smoke pouring from his neighbor's house fire trucks raced to the scene [Music] arriving moments later to find it consumed by flames if anyone was home firefighters feared they were trapped inside lacrosse firefighter dan skyles knew he and his men had to get in quickly if they hoped to get anyone out alive but there appeared to be no way in so instead of my normal routine of putting my shoulder into that door and pushing it open i decided to sit down and use my legs to kick the door open firefighter skyles kicked open the door and discovered the floor of the kitchen completely destroyed by the fire with no path to guide them they relied on each other making their way through the flames looking for anyone who was trapped inside the person on the nozzle yelled out that he had a victim we picked him up i dragged him as far as i could before i ran out of air despite their best efforts firefighters pulled a man's lifeless body out of the burning rubble it was the homeowner 64 year old donald harmacek and firefighter dan skyle suspected something else was wrong there was blood on his head and i thought that was unusual for a victim in a house fire to have any type of blood on him it was at that moment firefighters suspected they were dealing with something more than an accident the body was transported to the morgue for autopsy [Music] la crosse wisconsin detectives dave schatzly and kerry joholski interviewed the neighbor who phoned police and although he saw the flames he said he did not see or hear anything out of the ordinary [Music] once the fire department declared the house safe for entry fire investigators went to work deputy fire marshal gene brink began the preliminary investigation to determine the fire's point of origin a fire investigator in determining the cause of the fire starts in the area of lease damage the outside of the house or the living room where there was no fire and works back to the area of most damage the house was cluttered with books and magazines detectives opened them and found money hidden inside but the victim's wallet was found empty on the table as firefighters packed up fire marshal brink went down to the basement and inspected the debris looking for some explanation for the blaze i want to show you why i think i'm convinced we had a set failure in our investigation we determined that the fire had started in the basement that's where the greatest burn had occurred we found one area under the kitchen where the fire had burned on top of a pile of magazines where there was no heat producing device in the area we had a set fire at that one particular place this was an arson lacrosse arson investigators checked the outside perimeter of the house they needed to find out who started the fire and why they noticed a broken basement window investigators believed whoever started the fire may have entered through that window in the snow one of them discovered an undisturbed shoe print leading away from the house since it was dark he covered the print with a metal trash can in order to preserve this possible clue the autopsy was performed at the veterans hospital in madison wisconsin [Music] the medical examiner found deep circular wounds in the victim's skull the force of the blows caused severe hemorrhaging and trauma rendering him unconscious and unable to escape the fire [Music] now along with arson authorities believe they were also investigating a murder okay everybody we want to get a briefing in and get some job assignments early the next morning at the la crosse police department investigators compared the information they gathered so far detective joe dunham was one of the lead investigators on the case the coroner thought it was a gun shop and then he determined later it was a blunt instrument to the head that killed mr hermitchak there's a footprint on the east side of the house in the snow detectives also needed to follow up on the most promising clue so far the footprint left in the back of the house at the crime scene technicians arrived to make a cast of the frozen shoe print the snow's hardened crystalline structure captured the most intricate detail but it had to be handled carefully so as not to destroy the print before a cast was attempted the shoe print was photographed just in case hot sulfur which solidifies on contact with the cold snow was used as the casting medium the sulfur hardens almost instantly ensuring the snow does not melt before the cast is created it recorded every groove and pattern of the shoe print the newly formed cast was sent to the wisconsin state crime lab [Music] inside the house blood spatter stained the furniture in the surrounding floor forensic scientist nick stalkey reconstructed the fatal scenario the stains that were on the front of this chest of drawers were two to six millimeters in size those are indicative of a stains that you would see at a beating or or a stabbing he stretched pieces of string back from the bloodspatter to determine the position of the victim at the moment of the attack [Music] by the point of convergence of the bloodstains i was able to determine the mr harmasek was beaten just in front of this chester drawers we did find a hammer that was in the area of these blood stains the chest of drawers and the hammer were sent to the crime lab for analysis a la crosse police officer spoke with shirley otto the victim's longtime companion so right now you can't think of anybody that would want to do any harm to him she and donald harmacek had been together for over 20 years she told the officer they had a good relationship that donald was well liked and everyone called him by his nickname pops shirley also told the officer that donald had been upset recently because his house had been repeatedly burglarized la crosse police detectives joe dunham and brad berkey looked into police reports and arrest records involving burglaries of the harmonic residents they found no shortage of names it appeared perpetrators considered donald harmac an easy mark he was someone that we knew kept money in his residence and he had been targeted in the past by various burglars police went to question a known local petty thief named adam talbridge but when he heard the police he ran looked like a promising suspect back at the station he denied any involvement with the harmonic homicide talbridge claimed he panicked when he heard the police that is why he ran he agreed to cooperate and allowed his tennis shoes to be tested [Music] they were sent out for analysis to the state crime lab where forensic scientist jerry kota jarvi was analyzing the footprint casts from the crime scene there are a lot of shoes that have the same size and tread design but it's the unique characteristics that identifies that shoe to that impression like cuts in missing pieces and wear and so on he determined that the footwear worn at the scene was an air walk tennis shoe the same type worn by tallbridge but when he compared the casts to the sneakers he found the shoes were the wrong size adam talbridge was not their man then kota jarvi discovered something unusual there were actually two separate and distinct shoe prints one on top of the other he concluded they were now looking for two suspects not one detective berkey realized they had to rethink their investigation detective and dunham and i both believe that there might be more to this i mean that information pointed us in the right direction investigators still had no idea who killed donald harmacek and they faced an even greater challenge they were now looking for two suspects and their hope was that the newly discovered shoe prints would lead them straight to the killers [Music] sixty-four-year-old donald harmacek was murdered and his house set on fire to cover up the crime investigators discovered they were now searching for two suspects but so far the crime scene yielded a limited number of clues and detectives brad berkey and joe dunham were frustrated when you burn a body you take a lot of evidence with it and also when you burn the home there you take a lot of evidence there it was a challenge we had a big challenge ahead of us because we had no suspects in this brutal murder at the crime lab forensic scientists continued their investigation nick stalkey studied the victim's blood spattered cabinet soot marks and spatter indicated that one of the drawers was partially open at the time of the murder the chest of drawers provided nick stalkey with important information the individual is beaten in just in front of this chester drawers and then the drawers were repositioned and then the fire started it told us then that not only did the individuals beat the victim but they also then ransacked that house after he was down and bleeding and then started the fire and left investigators now believe the perpetrator set the fire with the intent to cover up an even greater crime [Music] at the wisconsin state crime lab forensic scientist ken olson tested debris from the burned house [Music] he believed a flammable liquid was used to start the blaze it's very difficult to just take materials that are present to start a fire but with an ignitable liquid you can accelerate that fire and get it going faster liquid accelerants leave traces behind that slowly evaporate the debris collected was placed inside a can along with a carbon strip carbon absorbs any traces of the accelerant left behind the can is sealed and then heated to 100 degrees fahrenheit i then take that paint can with the charcoal strip inside place it into the oven after heating for 16 hours the carbon strip is then put into a gas chromatograph that analyzes the chemical components of the accelerant i take that vial and put it on the instrument and it's automated it injects the solvent into the instrument and i'm looking for any known accelerants that are there every chemical has a unique molecular fingerprint the chromatograph reveals that molecular structure i examined the residues that i recovered and found the residues of gasoline in three of the samples that were collected from the scene investigators turned to the community and they set up a crime solvers tip line [Music] the leads began to pour in one of the callers claimed a man named todd carpenter knew something about the murder detectives brought carpenter in for questioning he began to spell out his involvement telling investigators he was contacted by two men he was approached by nathan lindell and josh lindell and that he was a driver and they were just going there for a burglary according to carpenter the lindell brothers heard a rumor that donald harmacek kept lots of cash in his house and they wanted it the brothers offered carpenter money to drive the getaway car carpenter told the detectives he stayed with the car while nathaniel and josh lindell committed the burglary he waited outside while josh and nathan lindell went inside the residence looking for money and rummaging around the basement went upstairs looking for money and at that time they were they they stumbled across donald trump afterwards the brothers instructed him to drive to the top of grand dad bluff a secluded spot overlooking the city of lacrosse there they built a fire and burned the clothes they had been wearing including their shoes carpenter was surprised when nathaniel told him the man inside the house was quote toast by now [Music] the brothers paid carpenter his money in total they had stolen 300 from harmacek carpenter said he got nervous when he heard about the murder on the news the next day detectives ran the lindell brothers names through the computer josh lindell's record was clean but nathaniel had a rap sheet riddled with prior arrests including burglary [Music] investigators began to believe carpenter but they had no concrete evidence to back up his story [Music] in the hopes of getting some detectives convinced him to wear a wire [Music] maybe they could catch nathaniel incriminating himself [Music] carpenter went to see nathanael [Music] he told him the police were asking a lot of calm questions come in quick he said he was scared he didn't know what to do or say no no no it's just been coming by my work asked me all kinds of questions you know about who i was with and who i am nathaniel played it cool he indicated knowledge of the crime but said nothing that could actually incriminate himself he was telling him to stay cool and just you know don't tell them anything and and that those sobs you know they ain't gonna get nothing out of me they were convinced nathaniel lindell was the mastermind but the wired conversation was no proof since carpenter couldn't help them anymore detectives hoped josh lindell could he did agree to speak with us that surprised me his initial statement to us he took the blame detectives finally got the break they needed but the extreme violence of the crime and their strongest piece of evidence the shoe prince pointed to two killers detectives knew they needed more if they were to catch them both lacrosse wisconsin detectives were deep in the middle of the arson murder investigation of 64 year old donald harmacek the footprints found in the snow led investigators to two suspects the lindell brothers detectives joe dunham and brad berkey had placed josh lindell in custody [Music] although he claimed he acted alone the detectives knew differently detective brad berkey hoped josh would give up his brother i believed that he was involved but i never expected him in the interview to tell us that he was the one that did this i fully expected him to tell us that his brother was more involved than he was and that surprised me he was remorseful that he did this felt bad about it and he was trying to make some amends by telling us what he did although josh was taking the blame in order to prove their case detectives needed him to reveal his brother's involvement josh appeared nervous he said he had never been in trouble with the law and after hours of questioning josh lindell finally admitted the whole story he said he and nathaniel broke in through the basement window stepping on each other's footprints to obscure their tracks and to throw off police [Music] he said his brother nathan also repeatedly struck the victim in the head with a hammer and left him for dead then they set the house on fire to cover up their crime josh's story matched todd carpenter's he said they drove up to the bluff so he and his brother could burn their clothes and destroy evidence murder was never part of the plan although by the time they left the plan had fallen apart [Music] after josh's confession investigators had what they needed to bring in nathaniel for breaking and entering arson and the murder of donald harmasen [Music] they arrested him at the apartment he shared with his roommates in the squad car after he searches yet we get down to the police station then we'll [Music] detectives also came armed with a search warrant they questioned nathaniel's roommate and searched for evidence even though josh said they burned the shoes they wore investigators collected another pair at his apartment at the state crime lab the shoes confiscated from nathaniel were determined to be air walks the same style and tread design of the shoe print cast although not an exact match the wear pattern was uniquely similar to those worn at the crime scene despite the evidence against him and the fact that both todd carpenter and his own brother josh incriminated him nathaniel lindell refused to talk he would not speak to us that's his right of course but nathan is a cold-hearted would would do anything [Music] based on the evidence police determined that nathaniel and josh lindell broke into donald harmosic's home intending to burglarize it josh was surprised to find the homeowner asleep on the sofa armasic began to stir josh panic nathaniel then struck him with the hammer he'd used to break the basement window beating him unconscious [Music] on their way out the brothers took the money from the victim's wallet they set the house on fire to cover up the murder they then carefully stepped in each other's footprints hoping to fool the authorities it didn't turn out that way i believe josh was definitely part of the crime but he was not the leader of the group it was nathan lindell his older brother that was the leader on february 3rd 1998 nathaniel lindell was convicted of first-degree murder burglary and arson he was sentenced to life in prison he will be eligible for parole in 50 years his brother josh lindell was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life he will be eligible for parole in 25 years in exchange for his testimony todd carpenter was not charged lacrosse homicide detectives narrowed in on one piece of forensic evidence yielding two suspects who used arson to hide their crime in florida authorities faced an ever-widening challenge as a string of similar fires became more than a coincidence [Music] in the early morning of august 7 1993 in spring hill florida the hernando county fire department responded to a burning residence [Music] firefighters raced to the home of 80-year-old becky saunders [Music] when they arrived the flames had already ravaged a large portion of the house the extreme heat was overwhelming and the entrances were blocked [Music] but the firefighters did all they could to rescue the elderly resident and salvage her home it took hours but the firefighters finally got the fire under control forensic specialist gary kimball investigated due to the extensive nature of the fire we ran into some problems we were unable to examine a lot of things that we would like to have examined because they just weren't there anymore the heat was so intense any potential evidence was destroyed investigators were unable to identify an immediate cause firefighters could not save becky saunders an elderly widow who lived alone she died at the scene police interviewed becky saunders neighbor he told investigators she didn't smoke but she often fell asleep with the tv and lights on [Music] he mentioned a possible electrical problem the house had been struck by lightning a month or two earlier perhaps it had caused some damage that led to the fire [Music] all the neighbors knew becky and were eager to talk about her they said she was in good health and quite independent fire investigators asked if anyone saw anything unusual no one did the hernando county sheriff's arson unit led by detective mike owens searched for answers when they could not determine the fire's immediate cause they needed to consider another possibility arson arson investigation is not an exact science it's a big puzzle you try to take char remains and then put them back together we take everything in the room out and try to reproduce the locations of the furniture everything and anything that was in there and try and see where you're having low burns high burns to see what area the fire actually traveled the debris collected from the house was sent to the lab for analysis [Music] arson expert carl chasteen looked for pore patterns or the residue of a flammable chemical an accelerant that would indicate arson what we're trying to determine is has there been something added to this fire scene that would cause it to burn faster and hotter than it would if it were an accidental fire that's what we're looking for we're looking to see if there's been an accelerant added to the fire the photographs revealed a progression of the fire which started in the bedroom investigators still needed to find out the cause of the fire but with so much of the evidence destroyed they knew it would not be easy in a crime laboratory we have to be objective it's not our job to convict somebody or exonerate anyone it's our job to test the evidence to tell the truth in this case we looked at it we looked at it as closely as we could and we still could not determine that there was any ignitable liquid in the samples [Music] at the medical examiner's office the victim's remains were autopsied though her blood showed elevated levels of carbon monoxide indicating that she had inhaled smoke dr valerie rao wasn't confident that it was enough to suffocate her the poor condition of her remains made further analysis impossible because the investigation really did not lead anywhere it was decided by the medical examiner to call it undetermined without any evidence to indicate otherwise becky saunders death remained a mystery investigators were left with unanswered questions [Music] the firefighters in hernando county would soon find themselves battling another blaze but maybe this could provide some answers [Music] an elderly spring hill florida resident becky saunders died trapped inside her burning house investigators were unable to determine the actual cause of the fire i ask you what is your emergency ten days later the hernando county dispatcher received a call another house was on fire and an elderly couple was trapped inside firefighters entered the smoke-filled house and saw a woman collapsed on the floor [Music] they carefully carried her to safety [Music] [Music] a man was trapped unconscious in the back of the house the victims mr and mrs ted burton were an elderly couple in poor health they were rushed to the hospital forensic supervisor russ knodel investigated someone had broken into the home had beaten the elderly lady her husband in the bedroom heard the commotion came out he was beaten and then they attempted to set a drape on fire and left investigators noticed a bystander engrossed by the rescue because entry was forced and the victims were beaten detectives questioned everyone in the area including the bystander his name was brian searsley he said he lived in the neighborhood and that he'd seen nothing suspicious he agreed to let investigators swab his hands or the tell-tale signs of an accelerant he also allowed them to take an article of clothing for further testing [Music] the fire had gone out only moments after it had started the arson dog was sent in and investigators collected debris to test for accelerants if an accelerant was used detectives believed it might point them in the direction of a suspect there was some alcohol poured in a dish with a candle the candle was lit and then put underneath the drapes and the drapes caught on fire the rest of the house remained undamaged [Music] it was searched thoroughly looking for anything out of the ordinary in the bathroom investigators noticed a cabinet door open not sure what it could mean the cabinet was dusted for prints at the state arson lab brian searsley's clothes as well as the swabs and samples from the burton house were analyzed traces of gasoline were found on his clothes but there was no evidence of gasoline at the crime scene he was eliminated as a suspect police studied crime scene photographs hoping to spot something they'd missed mrs burton suffered from alzheimer's and mr burton had lapsed into a coma so the couple was unable to aid investigators they found no evidence that the similarities between the burton fire and the saunders fire was anything more than coincidence now we know it wasn't a robbery because as we were going through the home we opened up the drawer in the bedroom and that's a picture of the drawer opened up in the bedroom and if you'll notice you can start to see a wallet a man's wallet when we picked up the wallet and opened it up it had a lot of cash in it so we know it wasn't a robber with no known motive and no possible suspects the evidence baffled investigators later that day another fire was reported in a neighboring town [Music] singapore radio you have fire on the scene now we've received a call that there was a fire up in uh brook bridge again the fire was hot and it had burnt severely to where everything in the bedroom had dropped onto the ground we processed that scene looking for anything we could find like the first victim seventy-year-old monique jenkins had been found burned beyond recognition on her bed and like the last fire a bathroom cabinet stood open once again most of the evidence was destroyed but investigators collected what they could from the smoldering debris the body was burned beyond recognition [Music] at autopsy the medical examiner was unable to find the cause of death the examiners did find the victim's hands were bound with duct tape rendering her helpless examiners found no fingerprints on the tape again there was no clear motive for the crime the detectives approach us and they're looking for anything they can find that will forensically link something or someone to these cases they're wanting to know if we got fingerprints they're wanting to know if we got any trace evidence if we found any accelerants or anything that they can put their hands on to help them in the direction they're going in this case and at this particular time we were not able to come up with anything very frustrating for the whole team hey folks we're here today to review the facts that we've come up with detectives compared evidence gathered at the three fires hoping to come up with something that would tie them together we had a great amount of intense heat inside this master bedroom appears to be some type of a home invasion at this point the intensity of the blaze indicated an accelerant was used to cover up another crime once we examine the remains we clearly showed that she was having duct tape with her hands clearly duct tape behind her back so that's really the first indication that we're dealing with something other than accidental fires this was the crucial piece of evidence that began to link the arsons because now we know we had a problem we felt now we have somebody going around breaking in homes and burning these elderly women up police followed through on several leads none paid off [Music] worried a man checked on his neighbor rita talbot after he hadn't seen her for a few days her front porch was littered with unread newspapers [Music] she didn't answer the door with the key she had given him the neighbor entered the house hello hello [Music] he found her in the bedroom dead once again police were called they were all too familiar with this neighborhood [Music] in fact rita talbot lived on the same block as becky saunders the first fire victim scott hey russ looks like another one um i haven't been in the scene yet but we have uh doing some processing out on the side of the house got an open window looks like it would be our point of entry and uh but this crime scene was different the house did not catch fire detective mike owens noticed the stains around the bed what we've got is it looks like a pore pattern spot looks like we've got some alcohol bottles up there on the bed and what they may have done or might have been done here is alcohol poured in the carpet and not enough with this carb to substantiate a burn but it melted all the carpet down look at this pattern how about the bed did the bed get anything looking at the bed if you look over here the crime scene technicians dusted for fingerprints this time they found one the print was lifted and sent to the lab for analysis they collected samples of the carpet hoping the fibers would yield clues cigarette butts and some empty alcohol bottles were recovered after weeks of frustration this tragic crime scene produced several key clues now detectives hoped the forensic evidence would bring them closer to capturing the killer for almost two months detectives had been tracking a killer who was wreaking havoc on a peaceful florida neighborhood at the most recent crime scene police found several clues including a fingerprint they hoped would lead them to a suspect detective scott bierweiler believed the recovery of this evidence was crucial the past houses of the victims of the deceased had been burned a lot of the evidence had been destroyed we were not real successful in obtaining evidence so we were all encouraged going into this house knowing that it was most likely going to be tied with the other victims same suspect in this and if we're going to obtain any type of evidence our best shot was to get it out of this particular house fingerprints were also lifted from a vehicle parked in the latest victims garage at autopsy it was revealed there were marks left by the duct tape used to tie her hands behind her back she had been strangled all but two of her ribs were broken and her neck was snapped they also determined she was sexually assaulted inside her throat the medical examiner found a single hair as detectives gathered their evidence news of the murders spread detective tom holly received an anonymous tip i was finishing up my paperwork i was working late last night and i got this anonymous phone call from a female who tried to disguise her voice and kind of like whispered but she she said she knew who the the killer was from spring hill and she gave me the name of edwin caprat so we should have some good quality prints to compare with those of that what was his name pratt you said crap it's going to hang on forensics at this point forensic specialist gary kimball compared the prints recovered at the crime scene with those on file detectives learned caprat had a long history of arrests well um he does have a criminal history he's a convicted felon out of hillsborough county and 91 we have a homicide willful kill first degree robbery and forgery from tampa pd they also learned caprat performed odd jobs for several of the victims [Music] one detective remembered interviewing him at the first crime scene kimball believed he was on to something [Music] forensic supervisor russ knodel examined the findings looking for certain characteristics such as identical loops and patterns they were eager to share the news jerry campbell just made two of your latest cases but since caprat was a local handyman and worked for several of the victims his prince could be easily explained for two weeks the pratt was placed under 24-hour surveillance their goal was to collect more physical evidence after he left a local bar detectives took one of kaprat's cigarette butts hoping to match his dna to the saliva on the cigarettes recovered at the crime scene and to the hair found lodged in the victim's throat [Music] the dna matched it was the connection they needed detectives obtained an arrest warrant and went to the suspect's most recent residence michael capratt was placed under arrest for the most recent arson murder of rita talbot [Music] in a room lined with photos of the crime scenes and the many files police had collected detectives questioned caprat prior to even interviewing we knew that he was our guy so we we pushed forward with it and detective douglas myself kind of took on the the good guy bad guy detective at first he denied everything but when confronted with the evidence he confessed once we started our interview he basically we couldn't shut him up basically he just talked on and on and on and on during the three-hour interview he confessed to murders of three women as well as the four arsons caprat was charged with three counts of murder two counts of attempted murder and three counts of rape the forensics evidence clinches the case for us but there's nothing like a confession according to his confession michael caprat chose elderly victims because he believed they were vulnerable he broke into their homes and crept into their rooms he would restrain his victims with duct tape then proceed to rape and beat them he poured rubbing alcohol that he took from their own bathrooms spilling it on and around their beds he then lit a match for his crimes michael caprat was sentenced to death on april 19 1995 he was killed by another death row inmate fire can be used as a powerful weapon killers who choose it know little is left in its wake though some hope it will successfully hide their crimes many perpetrators discover forensic evidence and survive long after the fire is out and their trial by fire leads directly to justice