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this program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America.
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Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. Northwest of Toronto sits the rural town of Caledon, Ontario, a quiet patch of countryside where the locals are full of warm hospitality and have few reasons to be suspicious of anyone. On the morning of May 6, 1970, 32 year old Doreen Morby is busy with household chores when a stranger knocks on her door. Seven hours later, Doreen Morby is found lying on her back in a pool of blood, the victim of sexual assault and three gunshots to the head. The crime is a rare occurrence in this quiet community, but it won't be the last. Two weeks later, eight year old Dale Ferguson is home from school sick. His mother Helen stays home to care for him.
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E
The doorbell rang and my mother poked her head in the door and there was a man with her. She said that he had a sick boy in the car and she was going to give him directions to the hospital.
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B
Helen Ferguson leaves with the stranger and walks into the main house.
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E
All of a sudden there was three loud bangs. And I thought to myself, well, they're letting off fireworks. And then this guy charged past the door and he pulled the curtains off the window and rubbed the doorknob and ran out of the house.
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Dale calls down the hallway for his mother, but there's no answer.
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E
So I got out of bed and looked down the hall and she was laying on her back and it looked like tar. I thought that man tarred my mummy to the ground. And then I went over there and realized that she was. Well, there was something wrong with her because you could just look in her eyes.
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B
Just like Doreen Morby, Helen Ferguson has been sexually assaulted and shot to death in her own home. Ontario Provincial Police are alerted.
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F
A murder was an uncommon thing in that particular municipalities, and especially two of them which were so similar.
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Detective Don McNeil works in tandem with Caledon police to draw more parallels between the Morby and Ferguson murders.
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F
Both women were nurses, both women were married to school teachers. There was sort of common denominators there that they thought, you know, is this Ontario's first serial killer?
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B
Ballistics experts confirm investigators suspicions the bullets that killed both victims came from the barrel of a single gun. Finn Nielsen works for the center of Forensic Sciences.
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G
We examined them microscopically and were able to tell them that, yes, these are.22 caliber rimfire projectiles. And they were fired from a firearm. Rifled, six grooves, right hand twist.
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B
Semen samples collected at each crime scene revealed the killer's blood type. But in the days before DNA, little else can be gleaned from this genetic material. Investigators then turn to Dale Ferguson for a physical description of the subject.
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E
Well, they give you a big binder, pages with noses and eyes and ears. So they say, well, flip through here and find a nose that looks most like this guy's nose. And they say the eyes, the ears, and then the hair and shape of the face and all that.
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The police artist crafts a charcoal impression of the man who killed Dale's mother. The sketch generates hundreds of leads from local farming communities. Detectives ID dozens of suspects and screen them for blood type against the unknown sample.
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F
If we found out a subject, you know, was off work or was available at the time of the homicides, and we had him give us a sputum sample which was spitting on a Kleenex, letting it air dry and then having it sent down to the center for Forensic Science and tested.
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Don Hillock is one of dozens of officers looking for suspects.
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E
We had all kinds of people come back, blood group A. Then you have to go back and re interview them and get their alibis. And it was, oh frustrating. Totally frustrating.
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B
One by one, suspects are tested and eliminated and the case goes cold. But the fear it inspired lingers.
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F
People were getting very alarmed. People were locking their doors where at one time in a rural area you didn't lock your door sort of thing.
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E
We'd go try and interview neighbors and they would talk to us outside of a second story window like they wouldn't talk to anybody. The fear was just unreal.
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25 years pass and the mystery of the double homicide deepens until one day when a basement wall gets torn down, revealing a clue that would bring the case back to life.
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You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. They make it super simple. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with coverage options tailored to your choices. Plus you'll see which discounts you may qualify for, like the online quote discount or savings for paying in full. In fact, 99% of Progressive Auto customers earn at least one discount. See if you could save when you switch to Progressive. You can. You'll feel good about making a savvy choice. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little extra cashback. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $946 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary. Back to school season always sneaks upon me the same way. I'm standing in the store reading labels I don't have time to decode, trying to figure out lunchbox snacks, and mentally juggling way too many little decisions at once. With with all of the shopping that goes into Back to School, I'm always happy to have one less thing to think about. That's where Thrive Market has been such a relief. I've been ordering things like Chomps, Simple Mills and Olipop and it takes a lot of the guesswork out of snack time and weeknight planning. Instead of making another Target run, I can just restock what I know my family will actually eat. My kids are picky, so I really appreciate that. Thrive has pre vetted options and kid approved brands that make lunchboxes easier and for all of that, membership is just $5 a month with member pricing, weekly sales, free gifts and free delivery on qualifying orders. It cuts down on errands in a
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season that already feels full and all
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It's June 1995 in Sault Ste. Marie, a remote rural town in northern Ontario, a community that rarely sees crime outside of the occasional bar fight or domestic dispute. But in the summer of 1995, Sault Ste. Marie Detective Sergeant Mike Davy is grappling with a robbery spree.
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H
It began in June of 1995 with a robbery in a private residence. Shortly after that there was a robbery that we became aware of at a boutique. Then there was a robbery at a fur and jewelry store that took place beside the courthouse here in Sault Ste.
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Marie, the stick ups capture the attention of Ontario Provincial Police Detective Ed Pelleron, who sees an even larger pattern emerging.
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H
A series of armed robberies had occurred in northern Ontario. Three had occurred in the city of Sault Ste. Marie and one in Sudbury, Ontario. And the last robbery occurred in our jurisdiction in a small village called Iron Bridge.
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B
Five robberies in all, sharing an identical movie. Detectives from three agencies joined forces to check local pawn shops looking for stolen goods.
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H
I got a call the following day from one of our detectives in Sudbury and that an individual a week prior did attend this particular pawn shop and pawned off a ring that was similar in description to a ring that was taken from the robbery in Sault Ste.
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D
Marie.
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According to the records of a pawn shop in Sudbury, Ontario, the man who pawned the ring presented a valid driver's license under the name Ronald Glenn West. When Pellerun runs a background check on west, he discovers a disgraced Toronto police officer. Retired from the Force in 1972, Ron west has a long string of arrests for theft, battery and drug possession.
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H
And we did surveillance on the house. There's two vehicles in a driveway that match the description of the vehicle that left the armed robbery in Iron Bridge.
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Detectives obtain a search warrant for West's home. Inside it, they find a stash of stolen jewels.
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H
We found jewelry that had come from Valentino Furs, the fur jewelry store that had been robbed, as well as jewelry that had come from the boutique.
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B
Ronald Glenn west is arrested, convicted on five counts of armed robbery and sentenced to 10 years in Kingston Penitentiary. As his life unravels, so too do the secrets of his past. Shortly after his armed robbery conviction, Ron West's home is sold and the new owners begin renovations. As they dig into the old walls, the construction crew unwittingly digs up a clue to a cold case of murder.
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H
And while they're renovating the basement, the owner had pulled back some ceiling boards and an envelope was concealed behind these boards. Inside the Envelope contained these two firearm permits with Ron West's name on it from 1969 and 1970.
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B
Aware of Ron West's criminal history, the new homeowners passed the permit along to Ed Pellerin, who was left scratching his head at the curious artifact. That is, until he happens to share it with a colleague named Don McNeil. The same Don McNeil who worked the original Morbi Ferguson murder investigation in 1970. In the fine print of Ron West's old gun permit, Detective McNeil sees a connection to the 27 year old cold case.
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F
It was for a nine shot.22 caliber pistol. The weapon believed to be used in the 1970 murders was believed to be a nine shot.22 caliber pistol.
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Despite a career spanning three decades and thousands of criminal investigations, Don McNeil has never forgotten the details of the Morby and Ferguson murders. Now the veteran detective has a hunch about Ronald Glenn West. A hunch that strengthens as he digs deeper into West's past.
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F
Where he was born and brought up was in the area of Helen Ferguson. And I noticed too that in those days on the police department, even on the opp, when you went on your holidays, your annual leave, you had to leave word at your detachment where you were going to be and how you could be contacted. And I noticed that he vacationed in the area of Doreen Marby.
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B
McNeil can put a weapon identical to the one that killed Helen Ferguson and Doreen Morby into ron West's hands. McNeil can also place west in the area where both Morby and Ferguson were killed. As for the psychology of the crime, Ron west is also a perfect fit.
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F
He was a police officer and both victims were nurses. I believe even today that nurses and policemen get along like a horse and carriage. And I thought, well, maybe this guy used his badge to get in the house.
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B
McNeil's theory is not without its skeptics, however, especially among the ranks of younger detectives.
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F
Some people thought that gray haired guy's going a little sentinel sort of thing, you know, like this is kind of reaching out. Just so happened that I guess that since I was still on the job and I knew something about the case itself, that it was fortunate it was me that was reading the file and kind of put it together and I said, well, listen, why not take a run at it? What have we got to lose sort of thing, eh?
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The first step is to find the weapon itself.
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H
With the information that was on the firearms permit, we had contacted our Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit and asked for their assistance in tracing the serial number of the gun and the permit number.
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B
Detectives track the gun to its current owner, a gun collector in Toronto. The weapon is secured and shipped to a forensic lab in Toronto where it will be placed under a microscope. Finn Nielsen is a 30 year veteran at the center of Forensic sciences. Back in 1970, it was Nielsen who first examined the bullets that killed Doreen Morby and Helen Ferguson.
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G
They were not in very good condition for identification purposes. The ones into the head were really basically useless because they were badly broken up. The ones that have been removed from the bodies were a little bit better.
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Nielsen test fires West's old.22. When put under the microscope, each of the test fires reveals a pattern of striation made as the bullet passed through the barrel of the weapon. The pattern is unique to West's gun. If it is the murder weapon, the same pattern should be found on the bullets pulled from the victims. But because the bullets are fragmented, any meaningful comparison is difficult.
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G
There were a couple of very gross lines on the exhibit. Projectiles, projectiles from the dead people, which were repeated on the revolver. But that was all. There wasn't any really, really fine striae, which you also like to have in order to make what you believe, in your opinion is A positive match. My gut feeling I was that they probably had the right revolver, but I would never say so in court.
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B
Disappointed by the ballistics dead end, cold case detectives turn to semen collected at each of the crime scenes. DNA testing has established that the two samples share the same genetic signature. Now, cold case detectives need to determine if that signature belongs to Ron West. To do that, however, they need to get a DNA sample from, from their suspect. In 1995, Ron west was serving time in the Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario as he awaited trial on five charges of jewel theft. West wrote letters, including one to his wife in Toronto.
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F
She didn't want to have anything to do with him, especially after the embarrassment of him being arrested for the armed robberies and the home invasions.
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H
He had sent her a letter and, and she kept it for a while and then she called us and advised us that she had the letter. She was throwing it out and wanted to know if we were interested in it.
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B
Cold case detectives took possession of the letter, read it and then added it to a police file. In 1998, Ed Pellerin pulls out the letter and wonders if it might not be the key to solving his case.
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H
I'd sent it to, to the Centre of Forensic Science in Toronto and requested an examination of the stamp to see if there was any DNA present and if a profile could be obtained.
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B
Pamela Newell is a DNA specialist at the center of Forensic Sciences. In September of 1998, she receives Ron West's letter and begins to work. She is hoping to extract DNA material from human cells trapped in the glue when west licked the envelope and stamp. Her efforts yield only a partial DNA profile, which is then compared against the killer's genetic signature.
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I
The person who had licked the postage stamp may well have been the person who raped both of these women. The frequency of occurrence might have been perhaps one in a thousand for this combined profile, which would mean that if you had 10,000 men in any one area, that any 10 of them could have contributed this particular sample.
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B
One in a thousand. Not good enough to link Ron west to the double homicide, but more than enough to secure a warrant from a judge.
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F
After we got the results of the DNA from the stamp, that gave us grounds, sufficient grounds to obtain a judicial warrant and to obtain blood.
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B
On March 26, 1999, Ron west submits to a court order and rolls up his sleeve. This time, DNA testing will leave no doubt a likelihood of Ronald Glenn West's innocence is reduced to a mathematical impossibility.
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I
The numbers for one of the deceased women were in excess of 1 in 6 billion the population of the world. So that's very, very conclusive.
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B
31 years after the fact, Ron west pleads guilty to two counts of murder. West's gun permit found hidden inside a wall, proves to be the killer's downfall. For Don McNeil, the case is a fitting capstone to a career in law enforcement that spanned 37 years.
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F
I don't know how to put it. I think there's no doubt that I probably had a couple of smashes of scotch that night sort of thing, but it was great satisfaction to see after so long a period of time that there was going to be closure.
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E
I never dreamt that there'd ever be an arrest. I didn't even really think about it anymore.
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B
Dale Ferguson was 8 years old and homesick from school when his mother was raped and shot to death during just a few feet from Dale's bedroom. He has lived his life with only her memory.
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E
All those other years when it was kind of a factor in our lives, it was always just, you know, I had my mother stolen from me. Then when I went back and I thought about, well, this guy held a gun to my mother's head, made her have sex with him and then killed her. What was that like for her? Which, yeah, I never thought about that for 30 years.
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C
Years.
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Following West's conviction, friends and families of the victims must cope with the past once again and hope for a brighter future.
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A
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B
in San Jose, California on December 22, 1975, police respond to reports of a dead man lying in an alley behind a local tavern called the Derby. San Jose police investigator Aubrey Parrott responds to the call.
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D
He was lying on the sidewalk. He was face Up. We checked over the body looking for anything odd and unusual. He had some scratches and some scrapes on the face and the nose area.
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B
The cause of death is not immediately apparent, but the man's wallet is missing and the scene suggests a strong arm robbery.
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D
He was fully dressed. One pocket had been turned inside out. And we did find some car keys underneath the body that went to a car, apparently his, that was parked across the street.
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B
The victim is identified as 46 year old Amado Hermosilio. Santa Clara County Coroner Richard Mason determines the cause of death.
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H
We use an all encompassing term, craniocerebral injuries, which implies that there's a skull fracture as well as brain injury, actual contusion or bruising of the brain.
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B
The victim's skull is broken in several places and bruised. One of these injuries provides detectives with their first investigative lead.
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H
Below the hairline, in the midline of the forehead was an abrasion that resembled letters in script. And I thought, well, perhaps they had come from a signet ring and someone had forcibly struck this man in the forehead.
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B
On the night he was killed, Hermosilio had been drinking inside the Derby bar that opened at 6:00am Detectives focus on the Derby's regulars, checking their stories and looking for signet rings. According to locals, Hermosilio was drunk inside the Derby at a little after 1am the bartender refused to serve him and escorted him to the door.
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D
The story seemed to all jive together and the body was just out there where they indicated apparently that they had escorted him to. And so we sort of were left with surmising that what occurred afterwards, nobody saw.
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B
Police conclude that Hermosilio was accosted outside the Derby, robbed of his cash in the alley and then beaten to death. But Hermosilio's family doesn't believe it. Lydia Shirez is Amato's daughter.
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I
The police officers didn't know what really had happened. They couldn't figure out because a lot of the patrons in the bar would not cooperate with the police.
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B
The Hermosilios hire a private investigator named Tom Davis, hoping he can get a handle on what went on inside the Derby.
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D
I didn't feel that it was a robbery and I wasn't working on the theory of trying to show that it was a robbery. I was working on a theory that it. That I wanted to show that this actual involvement in the death of Mr. Hermosilio began in the bar.
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B
Sitting on a Derby bar stool, Davis begins to gain information that supports his suspicions.
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D
The bar patrons at that time within two weeks of this homicide were saying that there was an altercation between the bartender and Mr. Hermosilio.
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B
Davis confronts the bartender, Jack Burns, who gives a series of denials.
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D
My feeling after talking with Mr. Burns was he was not being completely honest with us. And whether or not he stepped outside with the victim was uncertain. But at least I was sure that there was something physical that occurred within the bar between he and the victim, Mr. Hermosilio.
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B
With no other leads to follow, Davis reluctantly drops the investigation and the case goes cold. The Hermosilio family buries Amato and wonders if someday they might find out who pulled put him in an early grave.
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I
My mother was the one that really. She was really emotionally traumatized. She would just always constantly be reminded of what happened to him. She never got out of her system.
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B
27 years later, Lisa Shirez grew up in the shadow of a family secret that was only spoken about in whispers. Something about her grandfather, a motto, being murdered.
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I
My grandma was a real quiet person about any tragedy that had happened like that. So we didn't ask. There's just too much respect we had for her.
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B
Then in the spring of 1996, Shirez sees an article in the local newspaper. The San Jose Police Department has launched a cold case investigative unit.
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I
And they had a list in the Mercury News, and It was about 10 names long, and it's unsolved murder. So I looked at it and I said, well, how come they don't have my grandpa's case?
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B
Lisa Shirez reaches out to the San Jose cold case unit. Rookie detective Will Manion takes the call.
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C
We told her, hey, this is 27 years old. We may never find. But we did guarantee her that we wouldn't. It wouldn't be for lack of effort.
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B
Digging into the old Hermicilio file, Mannion takes a note of the unusual abrasion on the victim's forehead. Then he flips through the crime scene photos, including a photo of a beer sign hanging on a wall just inside the Derby bar's front door.
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C
I guess after a while, I kind of was infatuated with it. I went and made Xerox copies on my own and had them blown up. And so I could look at these two areas that look somewhat similar. People would walk by and they'd go, what are you doing?
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B
One day, Manion realizes what he's been looking at, but not seeing. The raised pattern along the bottom of the Derby beer sign appears to be an exact match to the abrasion found on Hermosilio's forehead.
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C
I remember when I saw where the impression I found the impression, like the hair on my neck went up and I thought, I go, this is it.
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D
Now we could tell that it was some sort of a fight that occurred inside the bar, and we could refocus our energy with the people inside the bar at the time.
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B
Enrique Garcia works the case with Mannion. Reports in the old police file point the pair toward Derby bartender Jack Burns, noting him as a rough individual and the man most likely to be rough with Amato Hermosilio.
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C
Jack Burns had a history in which we were able to establish that he was somewhat rough with the customers. And he didn't have a bouncer, so he had to take care of this place by himself. And I think sometimes when you have, you know, a bartender that's somewhat forceful, I think you let him out head first.
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B
Police resurrect the Derby's old customer list and begin to ask questions. None of the Derby's patrons, however, are willing to point a finger at Burns until one man gives cold case detectives the impression that he knows more than he's letting on.
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C
And we explained to him, look, you're not in any trouble at this point. You're a witness and kind of laid the guilt on him, which you know, rightfully so, because the way he was acting, it was apparent that he knew more than he did.
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B
Despite their suspicions, cold case detectives cannot hold the witness. 48 hours later, however, the man's conscience has gotten the best of him. As cold case detectives record, a witness to homicide unloads a 27 year old secret.
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C
You called the other day and you
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D
had some additional things you remembered, right? I woke up in the middle of
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A
the night with this.
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C
The last thing we left him with was, hey, you're gonna remember this, and you're gonna wake up in the middle of the night and you're not in any trouble. Cause it's 27 years and you're gonna remember it, okay? We wanted to give him an out.
- [32:26]
B
The witness tells cold case detectives he walked into the Derby bar a little before one. Amato Hermosilio and Jack Burns were squared off just inside the front door. The witness asked Jack if he needed any help. I asked him something about, you know, do you need any help? And he said no. According to the witness, he held open the door expecting Jack Burns to throw Hermosilio outside. And that's when things took a turn.
- [32:55]
D
And this guy took a kick at
- [32:56]
B
him, you know, kicked at his crotch.
- [32:59]
D
And Jack grabbed his foot like this and went and Twisted it, and the
- [33:05]
B
guy turned over and went down on his head.
- [33:08]
D
And Jack said, oh, Christ, you know,
- [33:12]
F
I really didn't want to do that.
- [33:14]
B
According to the witness, he and Burns then carried an unconscious Hermicilio out to the alley, where he died from his injuries. Cold case detectives believe they have enough evidence to charge Jack Burns with a charge of manslaughter at a minimum. When they tried to locate him, however, investigators discover Burns has passed away, dying from a massive heart attack in 2001.
- [33:39]
D
We definitely would have loved the opportunity to have interviewed Mr. Jack Burns. We don't think that he planned it. I think it was one of the things where it happened. But, you know, you ultimately have to take responsibility for your actions. And that's one of the. One of the things that hopefully we would have wanted to hear from Mr. Jack Burns.
- [33:59]
B
Thanks to a Miller Light beer sign and the mark it left on Hermosilio's skull, Santa Clara County's district attorney officially deems the case closed. After 27 years of questions, the Hermosilio family finally has some answers.
- [34:15]
I
You know, it's just too bad my mom wasn't around to see it. She always said that the bartender had something to do with it, because my mom was a good judge of character. I don't know what it was about her, but she was always right. She was always right.
- [34:36]
E
Hello, and welcome to Pluto Foe. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto tv, where all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long. Catch.
- [34:47]
H
Anchorman.
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E
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C
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E
The Matrix Trilogy. Welcome to the real world.
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H
Mean Girls.
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B
Shut up.
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F
I'm the king of the world.
- [34:57]
E
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A
That is so fast.
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E
On Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay Never
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J
Discover.
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B
Top rated stays.
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J
Loved by guests. Rated highest by real guests through authentic reviews. VRBO Book.
- [35:17]
A
A vacation rental loved by guests.
- [35:21]
J
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