[music playing]
NARRATOR: When Scott Dunn arrived at his friends party,
he brought along a new acquaintance.
Someone his friends had never met before.
Scott was a ladies man.
And while it wasn't unusual for him to be seeing
a number of women at the same time, his date on this night
raised more than a few eyebrows. -How're you doing?
-Cool, man. What's happening?
SCOTT: Hey everybody.
-Whoah-ho-ho. -This is my lady friend Shaina.
-Pretty cute, man.
NARRATOR: Sometime during the party, Scott became ill.
So sick, he was unable to drive home.
A few days later we, Scott Dunn disappeared
and was never seen again.
[music playing]
24 year old Scott Dunn was a fun loving young man
who enjoyed life to the fullest.
Scott lived in Lubbock, Texas, settling there
after serving in the US military.
He worked for MGM Electronics, in a job he loved, installing
customs sound systems in automobiles.
The last time friends saw Scott was on May 13, 1991,
at a party after work.
Scott was a prankster, and decided
to add a little excitement to the festivities.
[music playing]
His date that night wasn't a she at all.
She was really a he.
A transvestite.
Before the night was through, Scott's friends
eventually found out and weren't amused.
Later, while still at the party, Scott became ill.
He was so sick, he couldn't drive home,
and stayed overnight on the sofa.
The next day, his live-in girlfriend, Leisha Hamilton
drove over to pick him up. -He looked like crap.
He couldn't hardly walk-- um I mean,
you could tell he been in bed all day.
He wasn't showered.
He wasn't clean.
Clothes on all awkwardly.
Couldn't get dressed by himself.
NARRATOR: After spending another full day in bed,
Scott told Leshia he finally felt
well enough to return to work.
-I woke up that morning.
He was in bed with me by then.
I asked him how he felt.
I asked him, did he need a ride to work
because he didn't have his cars there.
He said, no, his friend was coming for him.
And just asked me to get him a glass of water
and some sinus medicine. Which I did.
Brought it to him and then I left.
When I came home, he was gone.
NARRATOR: When Scott's friend stopped by the apartment
to pick him up, there was no answer.
-No one there would answer, so-- um, just never heard from him.
NARRATOR: Two days later, Leshia called Scott's father
in Pennsylvania to see if he had heard from Scott.
-And it's a young woman's voice, and-- uh, she goes into,
I don't know if I'm talking to-- who I'm talking to-- but I
assume you're Scott's father because I found the telephone
number on the telephone bill.
And I said, well that's right, I'm am Scott's father.
But who are you?
She said, well I've been living with Scott
for a couple of months now, and for some time--
we've been together for some time.
And I said, well I don't know-- really know who you are.
NARRATOR: Jim Dunn filed a missing person's report
with the Lubbock Police Department.
-What was he wearing last when you saw him?
NARRATOR: Police wondered whether Scott Dunn's
personal life held some clues to his disappearance.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: When Scott Dunn disappeared from Lubbock, Texas
without a trace his friends told police,
this was out the character.
-The way Scott was-- he would've-- he would've called
at least and said, hey guys, you know.
Look, I'm out here in Mexico. Hanging out.
Partying. You know, something.
NARRATOR: Scott's live-in girlfriend, Leisha Hamilton,
told police that when she returned from work,
Scott was gone.
She also said that a large piece of carpet
was missing from under the sofa.
When police searched the bedroom,
they discovered that another piece of carpet in the bedroom
had also been removed, and replaced with the carpet
from under the sofa.
Along the edge was some rust colored stains
-The stain along the edge of that patch
in the original carpet was very evident to anybody that
has been doing this for any length of time.
It was blood. [music playing]
When the carpet patch was lifted,
police noticed it was held together with duct tape.
On the underpadding was another large stain,
which also appeared to be blood.
In one spot, it had soaked through a hole in the padding
to the cement floor underneath.
And it looked as if someone had washed
blood from the baseboard.
To find out, investigators used a chemical called luminol,
which can detect areas where blood has been
cleaned up with water and detergents.
The luminol revealed a scene of horrific violence.
-You can actually see the pattern.
You can see where blood had been.
And my initial reaction was that something
had occurred in that apartment.
-It was stark.
Somebody had very obviously tried to clean the whole thing
up, and had done a fairly good job of it.
-I just knew that he was dead.
Felt very confidently that he was-- was dead.
That was probably the longest day of my life.
And it was most devastating thing
that had ever happened to me.
NARRATOR: But who would want to kill Scott Dunn?
And why?
Dunn had a previous arrest and conviction for possession
of cocaine, but the theory that this was somehow drug-related
was inconsistent with the crime scene.
-If it was a drug hit, they probably
would have left the person there.
Wanting everybody in the world to see, so
that-- uh, nobody else would cross them.
And this-- this crime scene was covered up.
And the only reason it was covered up
was because it was trying to be hidden.
NARRATOR: Police also discovered Scott
Dunn was leading a secret life.
While living with Leisha Hamilton,
he continued to date numerous other women.
-He was wild.
He played the field.
He had-- um, in my opinion, he had
a-- a history of using women.
Um, for his own purposes.
In fact, he was engaged to be married to a young lady
in the Metroplex, while he was living with Leisha Hamilton.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: Leisha Hamilton learned
about Scott's engagement just one month earlier.
-Who's calling?
His fiancee?
Yeah, I'll be sure to tell him you called.
-And I think at the point where that telephone call came
is where Leisha realized she had been had by Scott.
And-- uh, Leisha, herself was a user,
and when it became apparent to her that she,
in this situation was not the user,
but was in fact the 'usee,' she became enraged.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: But was that sufficient motive
for Leisha Hamilton to murder Scott Dunn?
And if so, where was the body?
[music playing]
NARRATOR: Leisha Hamilton continued
to call Jim Dunn from Texas, keeping him informed
of the investigation into Scott's disappearance.
But she asked for something in return.
She wanted Scott's yellow sports car.
Jim Dunn taped those telephone conversations.
JIM DUNN (ON PHONE): You just seem to want the car,
and I have promised you the car when this is all over.
But you don't seem to want to wait.
LEISHA HAMILTON (ON PHONE): Actually, I don't.
I don't-- I don't need it.
It is a want right now, okay?
The only thing I want is this car.
That's the only thing I have wanted from the start.
That's the only thing I want now.
NARRATOR: A background check by Lubbock Police
revealed that Leisha Hamilton had
a past arrest in New Mexico for embezzlement.
But if Leisha was involved in Scott's disappearance,
why had she helped police by pointing out
the missing carpet in their apartment?
Leisha told Scott's father that she thought a man named
Tim Smith had something to do with Scott's disappearance.
-Tim Smith was a guy that lived in the apartment near Leisha.
He had been brought up in a very strict, very religious,
environment.
My theory was that this was the first real contact
he'd ever had with a worldly woman.
And that he became enamored with her.
And the way she made him feel.
And just fell-- fell head over heels in love with her.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: Police discovered that Smith did not show up for work
on the day Scott Dunn disappeared.
[knocking]
-Tim Smith?
-Uh-huh.
-Lubbock Police Department.
NARRATOR: When police visited Tim Smith's apartment
to ask a few questions, they noticed he was packing to move.
-We're investigating the disappearance of Scott Dunn.
-Uhh.
Whatever I can do to help.
- Mind if we take a look around?
-Sure, go ahead.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: When they walked back into the living room,
they noticed that something that had been
sitting on the bookshelf disappeared.
-Where's the roll of tape? -What tape?
-The duct tape.
It was there, on the shelf.
-I don't know what you're talking about.
NARRATOR: But behind some books on another shelf,
police found what they were looking for.
The duct tape that was on the shelf
just a few minutes earlier.
[music playing]
-That was a stroke of luck, but it's
also good investigative work.
I mean, how many times would you walk into a place
where guys are moving and see a roll of duct tape
and think nothing of it?
NARRATOR: The duct tape was sent to the forensic laboratory
for analysis.
The tape in Smith's apartment looked very similar to the tape
on the carpet patch in Dunn's apartment.
The samples were analyzed using infra spectrophotometry,
where infrared light is passed through the duct tape.
-And the detector will determine how much wavelength of light
is being absorbed at different wavelengths.
NARRATOR: The results are then printed out in a chart.
-In the case of Roger Scott Dunn, the duct tape,
we separated out into it's components.
The fibers that run along in the duct tape, the backing
of the duct tape, and the adhesive of the duct tape.
As you can see, the infrared spectrum,
from the roll of duct tape found that the suspect's house,
and the duct tape found at the scene
are consistent in the fiber component, the backing
component, and the adhesive component.
NARRATOR: And the role of tape held even more clues.
On the side of the roll were green nylon fibers
trilobal, or triangular in shape.
They were the same size and shape,
and made of the same polymers, and dyed the same color
as the carpet in Scott Dunn's bedroom.
-I feel confident that the fibers on the side
of the duct tape came from the apartment.
And that the duct tape underneath the carpet
came from the roll of duct tape.
NARRATOR: But without a body, authorities
were hesitant to conclude homicide.
-A lot of it had to do with the body.
Um, we had no body.
And, uh-- the District Attorney's office at that time
was very apprehensive to try to take something to trial, where
you had no-- no, uh-- corpus delicti, as what they say.
NARRATOR: A full year passed.
And Jim Dunn decided to take matters into his own hands.
He heard about a group of international forensic experts,
who meet several times a year in Philadelphia
to study unsolved murders.
The group of 82 members is called the VIDOCQ society,
named after Eugene Francois Vidocq, an 18th century
French detective, considered to be
the father of modern criminal investigation.
One of the co-founders of the VIDOCQ society, Richard Walter,
agreed to listen to Mr. Dunn's story.
after about an hour and a half of me presenting, showing
pictures and listening to some tape recordings and things
I had, he looked me straight in the eye and said,
uh-- Jim, aren't you tired of being the grieving father?
-And he looked at me and he said,
I thought I was supposed to be.
And I said no, you are supposed to be goddamn mad.
Let's go after that bitch.
NARRATOR: Richard Walter was convinced that Leisha Hamilton
held the key to Scott Dunn's disappearance.
Walter sent the crime scene photos to Dr. Richard Shepherd,
a forensic pathologist at Scotland Yard in London.
After reviewing the information, Dr. Shepherd
concluded that Scott Dunn had been
murdered in the corner of his bedroom.
The result of multiple blunt trauma injuries.
But at the time, under Texas law, without a body,
there was no homicide.
Armed with Dr. Shepherd's forensic analysis,
Richard Walker pleaded the case to the District Attorney,
arguing that they had a body part.
-He said, what part of the body is that?
I said, blood is a connective tissue.
He said-- he looked-- he gave me a long look
and he said, all right, you got a murder.
NARRATOR: Prosecutors brought in their own blood spatter expert,
Tom Bevel to confirm the findings of Dr. Shepherd.
According to Bevel, the blood spatter pattern on the walls
indicated three distinct lines of cast-off blood
from a weapon.
-For example, if we had three cast-off stains that were going
in three directions, that would be,
uh-- consistent with three blows.
Plus the one to create the blood in the first place.
So in this case, we would say there
was a minimum or four blows that was delivered.
NARRATOR: To find out how much blood Scott Dunn lost
during the assault, Bevel conducted
a blood saturation test.
By pouring human blood onto a test piece of carpet,
Bevel created the same size stain found in the bedroom.
In this case, 266 square inches.
It took just under two units of blood to create the stain,
and soak through to the padding underneath.
-If you take that into consideration with all
the other physical evidence there, such as the blood
clean up, cutting out of carpet, the blood spatter,
the cast-off, this to the wall and also to the ceiling.
Uh, along with that blood volume,
uh, it certainly is a high suspicion
that uh, somebody in fact is dead.
NARRATOR: Authorities were now convinced that Scott Dunn
had been murdered in his bedroom.
Lubbock police suspected that both Leisha Hamilton and Tim
Smith were somehow involved in Scott Dunn's murder.
But they had no evidence linking Leisha to the crime,
and the only link to Smith was the duct tape.
Until Richard Walter discovered something
that was previously overlooked.
Walter learned that several strands of unidentified hair
had been found on the duct tape in Scott Dunn's bedroom.
He suggested the hair be sent for forensic analysis.
At the FBI lab in Washington DC, the hair from the duct tape
underneath the carpet was compared to hair samples
from Leisha Hamilton and Tim Smith.
-No Scott Dunn hairs were found on that tape,
but both the hairs of Leisha Hamilton and Tim Smith
were found on that duct tape holding it in.
Which means that when that duct tape was put down
and that patch put in place, they were there.
NARRATOR: Five and a half years after Scott Dunn's
disappearance, Leisha Hamilton and Tim Smith well
arrested and charged with murder.
Prosecutors believe that Leisha's motive was revenge.
That she was angry when she learned
that Scott was engaged to another woman.
-She's as hard as rocks.
Bright.
Aggressive.
Uh, worked smart.
Um, but has this insatiable appetite for power,
control, crushing people.
She dismisses you.
You don't dismiss her.
-Leisha Hamilton was the absolute instigator, ringleader
and she was the Wicked Witch of the West, who contrived,
developed, led and covered up this whole thing.
NARRATOR: Prosecutors believed that Scott Dunn was murdered
in the early morning hours of May 16, 1991.
He was asleep in the bedroom.
And struck at least four times with blunt object.
About two units Scott's blood was lost in the attack.
[music playing]
As Scott's body was removed from the apartment,
his blood was transferred onto the bedroom doorknob.
The location of the body is still unknown.
[music playing]
The cover-up failed because the water and detergents could not
remove the hemoglobin components of the blood, which later
fluoresced when sprayed with the chemical luminol.
A piece of carpet from under the sofa in the living room
was used to patch the blood stained carpet in the bedroom.
The duct tape used to patch the carpet
together contained strands of hair consistent with hair
samples from both Leisha Hamilton and Tim Smith.
And the side of the duct tape picked up
some stray carpet fibers.
The roll was later found in Tim Smith's apartment.
Leisha Hamilton and Tim Smith were tried separately,
and both were convicted of murder.
Leisha Hamilton was sentenced to 20 years.
Tim Smith received a 10 year probation.
-The jury, I think, believed that perhaps he
had a great deal to do with disposing of the body.
But they didn't believe he was actually
there when the murder took place.
And I think for that reason they recommended the judge impose
probation instead of sentencing him
to a term in the penitentiary, which would be carried out.
NARRATOR: Although the body of Scott Dunn
has never been found, a headstone waits.
And a father still mourns.
-I'm just hopeful that at some point, uh, somebody will talk,
and that we can recover his remains,
and still he can have a decent burial and a, a decent, uh,
ceremony that we could put him to rest.
And I'd feel totally absolved at that point
that I've done everything that I could do.
If I could ever reach that point.
I haven't quite reach that yet and, uh, I still--
crosses my mind what else I can do, but at this point
I'm going to let it go, and hope that somebody who--
the good Lord or somebody, will give us some direction.
And I'll know what that actually means in my life at some point.