The Flaming Gorge / Caught in the Mail

Summary

Cold Case Files: "The Flaming Gorge – Caught in the Mail" (June 9, 2026)

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode of Cold Case Files, narrated by Marisa Pinson, explores two complex cases: the suspicious deaths of Leanna and Eric Duke at Wyoming's Flaming Gorge in 1996, and the 1982 murder of Christine Sumstead in Seattle. Both cases highlight the relentless perseverance of investigators and the power of evolving forensic techniques—particularly DNA—to unearth the truth from decades-old mysteries. The episode focuses on how dogged detective work, unlikely informers, and the ingenuity of a "mail sting" finally brought justice to victims whose cases were nearly lost to time.

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Case One: The Flaming Gorge—Duke Family Tragedy and Revelations

The Incident: Flaming Gorge Cliff Fall (Starts 01:34)

• Setting: August 10, 1996, Lost Dog Trail near Green River, Wyoming.
• Main Parties: Bob Duke (husband and father), Leanna Duke (wife), Eric Duke (five-year-old son), responding firefighters and law enforcement.
• Incident: Bob Duke calls authorities, claiming his wife and son have fallen off a cliff during a family picnic. Both are found dead below.

Key quote:

"We went about 30, 40 yards north, walked down the hill to the victims. It wasn't real easy... But it wasn't that difficult. We've dealt with worse."
— Firefighter Doug Stewart (03:37)

First Impressions & Suspicion (04:27–06:17)

• Rescuers find Bob's account odd; the area wasn't perilously difficult, and his demeanor seems detached, not shocked.
• Suspicious behavior: Duke is calm, lacks emotion, and his description of events doesn't add up.
• Firefighters and police informally document their doubts, but with no clear evidence, the deaths are ruled accidental, and Duke collects a $60,000 life insurance payout.

Key quote:

"Every one of us thought: How could this happen to two of them?"
— Firefighter/Investigator (06:00)

The Twist: Murder-for-Hire Plot Surfaces (06:54–08:52)

• Two and a half years later: Bob Duke contacts Roger Brauberger, a longtime friend, asking him to kill Duke's parents for $20,000—revealing he'd asked him previously to kill his wife and son.
• Brauberger, disturbed and overwhelmed by guilt, goes to police after confiding in his father:

Key quote (on Bob's prior request to murder his wife and son):

"He says, 'I'll give you 20 grand. I'll leave a .22 behind the shed... Shoot my wife and kid in the head and chest...'"
— Roger Brauberger (07:31)

Law Enforcement Sting: Operation Against Duke (09:00–12:32)

• Police arrange monitored calls between Brauberger and Duke, capturing explicit details of Duke’s murder plan for his parents.
• The FBI launches a background investigation, learning Duke's insurance payout is depleted, suggesting a financial motive.

Key quote:

"The telephone conversation... Bob Duke went into great detail in the plan of how his parents should be killed."
— FBI Special Agent Todd Scott (11:45)

• On January 8, 1999, Duke is arrested for conspiracy to commit murder and later receives a ten-year federal sentence.
• The prior deaths of Leanna and Eric Duke now appear to be murders, not accidents.

The Cold Case Reopened: Building a Murder Case (17:37–22:30)

• Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant and others reopen the Duke family case in 2000.
• Key evidence: Leanna Duke's autopsy photo suggests a potential ligature mark—possible strangulation. The pair's bodies are exhumed in 2000, but decomposition yields no new forensic evidence.
• Reenactments at the cliff cannot definitively differentiate between an accidental fall, slip, or push.

Trial and Verdict (23:06–24:28)

• The case proceeds to trial in August 2002, anchored by Brauberger's testimony about Duke’s earlier murder-for-hire proposals and the cliff's dangerous geography.
• The jury visits the scene; eight days later, Bob Duke is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Memorable moment:

"Any reasonable person who goes out there and looks at this crime scene is going to know that Leanna Duke, on her worst day, would not have allowed her son to get close enough to that edge to fall off accidentally. And that's the case right there."
— Patrol Commander Tim Merchant (23:06)

Resolution and Reflection

• Brauberger, wracked with guilt for his initial silence, is thanked by Leanna Duke's family after the verdict.

Key quote:

"It was tough to hear thank you from her parents."
— Roger Brauberger (24:24)

• Investigators note the case was won through common sense and persistence, not hard forensic evidence.

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Case Two: Caught in the Mail—The Sumstead Murder

The 1982 Crime: Seattle Teenager Killed (25:02–28:21)

• Victim: Christina Sumstead, 13, found strangled in a cardboard box, evidence of sexual assault.
• Initial investigation flounders; only a weak link to John Athen, a 14-year-old family friend, is noted.

Key quote:

“He had been seen pushing a cart around the neighborhood, a hand truck with a large box on it.”
— Sergeant Joe Sanford (27:22)

The Case Goes Cold—Then Revives with DNA (28:21–30:57)

• In 2002, cold case detectives prioritize unsolved cases involving female victims for DNA re-analysis. A usable male DNA profile is extracted, but no immediate match is found.
• Re-interviewing witnesses, the name John Athen emerges again; suspicion mounts.

Key quote:

"Everybody knows that John Athen did it. And it seemed that everybody knew it but us."
— Detective Dick Gagnon (30:00)

The Mail Sting (34:48–37:39)

• Budget constraints prevent a DNA collection trip to NJ, where Athen now lives. Detective Linda Diaz devises a fake class-action legal notice, which Athen returns—a licked envelope now carries his DNA.
• DNA from the envelope matches semen evidence from the 1982 crime scene.

Key quote:

"Every single part of the profile was matching... That's a match."
— Forensic Scientist Beverly Hemmick (37:15, 37:39)

Arrest and Legal Battle (38:01–41:18)

• Athen is lured into conversation, denies ever touching Christine, then invokes his right to an attorney.
• Defense attorneys attempt to suppress the DNA as evidence, claiming police acted as attorneys. Judge rules in favor of prosecution.

Key quote:

"When he voluntarily licked that envelope, he sealed his fate."
— Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant (40:56)

Verdict and Aftermath (41:13–41:59)

• Athen is convicted of second-degree murder, sentenced to 10–20 years. Christine's family feels the result is insufficient but acknowledges accountability.

Key quote:

"With a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck... there's probably other Christine Sumpsteads here in this vault whose cases have to be looked at, too."
— Detective Dick Gagnon (41:59)

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Notable Quotes and Moments with Timestamps

• Firefighter Doug Stewart on the scene:
  "It wasn't real easy... But it wasn't that difficult. We've dealt with worse." (03:37)
• Roger Brauberger describes Bob Duke’s character:
  "I told him, you need to do yourself a favor and get a divorce... You can't just go around killing people." (07:31)
• Patrol Commander Merchant on the crime scene:
  "One person falls off the cliff, but not two." (13:36)
• Detective Linda Diaz’s creative ruse:
  "I put weeks of thought into it... I figured a law firm, if they were doing mass mailings, would send that out so that all he had to do was lick the envelope and mail it back." (35:22)
• Beverly Hemmick on DNA science:
  "The estimated probability of selecting another unrelated individual... was 1 in 59,000,000,000,000. That's a match." (37:39)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:34] Warning and introduction to the Duke family tragedy
• [02:20–04:27] Discovery and first responders' reaction
• [04:45–06:43] Initial suspicions and the ruling of accidental death
• [06:54–09:00] Bob Duke’s murder-for-hire revelation
• [09:00–13:07] Police sting, Duke’s arrest, and sentencing
• [17:37–23:28] Case reopened, exhumation, trial, and verdict
• [25:02–28:21] Sumstead murder case, initial investigation
• [28:58–32:04] DNA evidence and cold case unit’s approach
• [34:48–37:39] The successful "mail sting"
• [38:01–41:18] Arrest, legal fight, trial, and conviction

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Episode Tone and Style

Consistent with Cold Case Files tradition: somber, procedural, and compassionate toward victims, emphasizing detailed narration, first-person accounts, and methodical investigative strategy. Investigators speak with understated resolve; witnesses express candid guilt and relief.

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Conclusion

The Flaming Gorge – Caught in the Mail demonstrates the critical role of determination, creative thinking, and forensic science in solving America’s longest-running cold cases. It honors both the heartbreak of the families and the gritty resolve of investigators, bringing closure after decades of uncertainty.

Transcript

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[Firefighter Doug Stewart]

law

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[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

This episode contains stories involving violence against children. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. Seven miles outside the town of Green River, Wyoming, the Lost Dog Trail heads south into a canyon called the Flaming Gorge. Sergeant Kevin Alvesteffer patrols this wilderness for Sweetwater County. On August 10, 1996, at a little after 3pm he gets a call.

[Bob Duke]

A man had called in on a cell phone stating that his wife and child had fallen off of a cliff. He went on to say that he didn't know if they were dead or not, but he could hear them gurgling.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The man on the phone identifies himself as Bob Duke, but is unsure of his exact location. Forty minutes later, Alva Steffer finds Duke at the top of a cliff in a heap on the rocks below lie Duke's wife, Leanna, and his five year old son, Eric. Duke tells police the young family had chosen the cliff for their afternoon picnic.

[Bob Duke]

His wife and child were out on the point. His child was chasing lizards. He had went back to his vehicle to get something to drink when he heard his wife yell his name. He went out onto the point and found them missing. He looked over the edge and saw the bodies.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The top of the cliff is flat and littered with broken rock. At the edge is a drop of more than 100ft. Duke tells Alva Stuffer he tried but was unable to get down the cliff to check on his family. The Green river fire department, including Lt. Doug Stewart, is called to the scene. Unlike Bob Duke, they find the slopes surrounding this particular cliff to be less than treacherous.

[Firefighter Doug Stewart]

We went about 30, 40 yards north, walked down the hill to the victims. It wasn't real easy. Pretty steep terrain, very rocky, a lot of loose rock. But it wasn't that difficult. We've dealt with worse.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Within a few minutes, the team has reached the victims who are already dead. Doug Stewart calls up for what the fire department calls a Stokes basket, used in this case to transport two corpses, a mother and child, out of the Flaming Gorge.

[Firefighter Doug Stewart]

I recall when we placed them in the Stokes, we put the mother in first, then we put the baby in, and we took mama's arm and put it over the baby. Somebody patted the little fellow on the head and said, sorry, little buddy. It's not right.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

In the wilderness outside Green river, police and firefighters make a living rescuing people who have wandered too close to nature's edge. All of the rescue personnel, however, have an uneasy feeling about the deaths of Leanna and Eric Duke. None of them are convinced it was an accident.

[Bob Duke]

I didn't know what to believe at that point. You try to give the person a benefit of doubt. I mean, it's a horrendous thing to have happen.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

It just didn't seem right.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

The whole. The whole deal, the whole situation was not right in my mind.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Several things bothered the crew. First, contrary to what Bob Duke claims, the cliff itself is not hard to negotiate. It only takes rescue workers a few minutes to walk to the bodies. Second is Duke's attitude at the scene. It's not what authorities would expect from a man who has just seen his entire family killed at an afternoon picnic.

[Firefighter Doug Stewart]

He seemed very nonchalant at the time. To begin with, I was attributing it towards shock, but the more conversation that I listened to him have with other people, it didn't sit right with me.

[Bob Duke]

Seemed rather calm, just very quiet. Didn't really say anything. If you asked him a question, he would Answer the question, but really wouldn't

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

elaborate on anything beyond Duke himself is the cliff and its obvious dangers. Common sense tells the workers a mother would never take her child anywhere close to its edge.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

We all, I'm sure, thought the same thing. How could this happen to two of them?

[Firefighter Doug Stewart]

That seemed to be the general consensus. It was a shock to all, and nobody could actually believe that it did happen as an accident just didn't seem possible.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Concern over the deaths is so widespread, each of the firefighters writes down his thoughts concerning the case, providing a record in the event charges should ever be filed. With no hard evidence of foul play, however, the deaths are ruled to be accidental. Bob Duke collects $60,000 in life insurance and the case is closed before it ever gets a chance to go cold.

[Bob Duke]

Just the lack of evidence. There was, as far as I could tell, no physical evidence at the scene. There wasn't anything that you could actually stick out and use as evidence as a smoking gun.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The case stays closed for two and a half years until Bob makes a call to an old friend. Bob, it seems, has a favor to ask.

[Roger Brauberger]

He says, well, I want you to do something for me. Like, what are you talking about? He said, well, I want you to kill my parents. And he offered me 20 grand. He goes, I know you need the money. I'm giving you the first offer, the first shot at this.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Incredibly, Roger isn't surprised at Bob's offer. According to Browberger, Bob asked him to kill his wife and son two and a half years earlier, in 1996, shortly before they fell to their deaths from the cliff in Wyoming.

[Roger Brauberger]

He said, okay, how much is it going to cost? He goes, I'll give you 20 grand. He goes, I'll leave a.22 out behind the shed. We'll be barbecuing Thursday. Shoot me in the arm, try and miss the bone. Shoot my wife and kid in the head and chest and take out as many neighbor kids as you need to to make it not look so isolated. And I told him, this is out of line. It's crazy. And then on the third, third and final time, he offered me money to kill his wife and kid. I told him, you need to do yourself a favor and get a divorce, you know, cause this is just acceptable. Is can't just go around killing people.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

When Browberger had first learned about the deaths of Leanna and Eric, he immediately suspected it wasn't an accident. He didn't, however, approach police or confront his friend.

[Roger Brauberger]

If I went to the police, I would have been my word against his, and I would have been attacking, you know, someone verbally attacking someone who just went through a personal tragedy. And he would have known that I suspected that he was. That he was behind it.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Now, two and a half years later, Bob Duke is back and wants his parents dead. This time, Brauberger decides he needs to talk to someone.

[Roger Brauberger]

I went to my father first because I couldn't believe it was happening again. I told my dad, this is the way it was with the wife and kid, and this is what happened. And now he's coming to me about the parents. I don't want to see anybody else killed. And he told me to go to the police. He didn't believe me, but he told me to go to the police.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Roger Brauberger calls Mont Mecham, father of an old schoolmate and a lieutenant with the Green River Police Department.

[Lieutenant Mont Mecham]

He called me at the house, really didn't want to talk over the phone. Said he said he needed some help. He was in big trouble. And I tried to get. I said, roger, what's going on here?

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Browberger tells Mecham about Bob's plans for his parents and what Brauburger suspects about Duke's dead wife and child.

[Lieutenant Mont Mecham]

The thing that probably convinced me the most was his stage of panic. I mean, this was somebody that was in need of some help. We walked him through the story for probably two hours, and anytime someone makes that type of an allegation, your next step is to get proof somehow.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Mecham sets up a phone sting and asks Brauberger to push for specifics on how Duke wants his parents killed. But by the time they get Duke on the phone, his plans have changed. Now he asks Browberger only to act as a lookout while Duke himself shoots his parents in their home.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

What was the plan then as far as, like, signal? Like a.

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

That's just. That's something. I don't know. It's going to depend, you know, I mean, it might be something like, you know, if the port's falling is off, turn it on.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

Okay.

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

I mean, something simple like that. It ain't gonna be, like, loud.

[Roger Brauberger]

It's gonna wake the neighbors or nothing, is it?

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

No.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Okay, cool. The recording puts some substance behind Browberger's story. Mecham puts in a call to the FBI, and they agree to get involved in the case. Todd Scott is a special agent with the Bureau.

[FBI Special Agent Todd Scott]

The FBI took this very seriously, and we immediately began a background investigation on Bob Duke, very rapidly trying to find out who this gentleman was, what his past was, where he was living.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Scott doesn't have to dig very far to find a motive for murder. Since 1996, Bob Duke has lived off the insurance money from his wife and son's death. Now that money is gone. If his parents were dead, Bob Duke would stand to receive another infusion of insurance cash.

[FBI Special Agent Todd Scott]

Bob Duke had been struggling financially for quite some time. Credit card bills, rent, things were adding up, and he was in some financial. Having some financial problems.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Scott and Mecham agree the best way to build their case is with more specific admissions from Bob himself. They set up a second phone sting with Roger Browburger, now posing as an eager trigger man.

[Roger Brauberger]

Remember when we talked before about the 20,000 for killing your parents?

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

Yeah.

[Roger Brauberger]

Hey, I'm thinking I might want that.

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

Do it.

[FBI Special Agent Todd Scott]

The telephone conversation that occurred on January 7, 1999, Bob Duke went into great detail in the plans of how he was gonna. How his parents should be killed.

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

22 is quiet enough.

[Roger Brauberger]

Right.

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

I think it's anything more than a door slamming.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Okay.

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

And everybody's closed up this time of year. Nobody has open windows or anything like.

[Roger Brauberger]

Right.

[FBI Special Agent Todd Scott]

It just seemed very cold. And the tenor of the conversation on January 7 was one that was very cold and calculated.

[Roger Brauberger]

Just wait till they walk in and then catch them off guard.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Yep.

[Roger Brauberger]

Okay.

[Bob Duke (phone conversation)]

Gotta be together because my dad does have a gun in the house.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

Right.

[FBI Special Agent Todd Scott]

The management and the FBI and the police department, we felt that we couldn't let this go on any longer.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

On January 8, 1999, FBI agents burst into a home in Houston, Texas, and arrest Bob Duke for conspiring to kill his parents.

[FBI Special Agent Todd Scott]

Bob Duke told the FBI agents in Houston at the time of his arrest that, yes, he had talked to Roger Brauberger about killing his parents, but that he believed that it was all a joke and he wasn't serious about it.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Federal authorities, however, take the matter very seriously. Four months later, Duke pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and is sentenced to 10 years in a federal penitentiary. Two potential murders had been prevented, but that still leaves Bob Duke's wife and son. Their deaths, which had been considered accidents, now appear to be nothing short of murder. The question for cold case investigators in Wyoming is how do they prove it?

[Lieutenant Mont Mecham]

They had ruled it an accident. In my opinion, way too early. One person falls off the cliff, but not two.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

Not two.

[Lieutenant Mont Mecham]

Something's wrong. Something's desperately wrong.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

I've seen my share of homicides in 18 and a half years in this department. This is the most gruesome, heinous case that I have ever been involved with. And I wasn't about to give up never crossed my mind.

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[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

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[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

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[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

In April of 2000, Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant decides to open an investigation into the accidental deaths of Duke's wife and son nearly three years earlier. They allegedly fell to their deaths off a cliff just outside Green River, Wyoming, with Bob Duke as the only witness.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

Well, I actually didn't think I could make a case, but considering the fact that Mr. Duke was probably lying about what happened at the scene. Then we had a homicide and I just, I just wanted to get involved in it.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Central to Merchants investigation is Duke's childhood friend Roger Brauberger, who claims Bob Duke tried to hire him for the job just weeks before the fall. Brauburger's story is a good beginning. Now Merchant needs to develop evidence tying Duke to the fall at the cliffs.

[Forensic Pathologist / Investigator]

Eric's birthday was actually August 8th, two days before this happened.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Merchant enlists the aid of Harold Moneyhun, the local prosecuting attorney, who wonders aloud why Merchant is so convinced this is murder. Merchant responds by driving Money Hun out to the cliffs of the Flaming Gorge

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

and I took him to the crime scene. I think that drove it home. He took one look at that crime scene, said this was no accident.

[Forensic Pathologist / Investigator]

Seeing that area in person, there was almost a visceral feeling that no parent is going to allow a child to play there.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Merchant and Money Hun return to paperwork generated on the accidents, looking for the slightest hint of a homicide. Their effort seems pointless until Money Hun picks up a photo of Bob Duke's wife. It was A close up of her neck as she lay on the coroner's table.

[Forensic Pathologist / Investigator]

There was one particular photograph of Leanna where there appeared to be a linear bruise across her neck.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

When I first saw that photograph, it looked like she had been strangled, possibly strangled. Ligature marks.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Cold case investigators send the picture to a forensic pathologist and ask if the bruise could be evidence of a rope wrapped around Leanna Duke's neck.

[Forensic Pathologist / Investigator]

And within a day or so, he emailed me back a response that it indeed did look to him that it could be a ligature mark and that he advised that we exhume the bodies. And that really got the investigation going.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

On July 7, 2000, the bodies of Leanna Duke and her son Eric are exhumed from their graves four years after they were laid to rest. For Tim Merchant, the process is difficult but necessary.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

What bothered me is I had to go to Leanna Duke's parents and tell them that I was going to dig their daughter and their grandson up and take them to Cheyenne for an autopsy. Now, that was tough for me, and there were a lot of tears on their part, and they were very upset, and they weren't happy to see this thing getting drug open again, but they were very supportive.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The remains of Leanna and Eric are transported to the state crime lab, where three forensic pathologists look for any indication of murder. Decomposition, however, has destroyed any soft tissue evidence of strangulation. Four days later, the pathologists returned their report.

[Forensic Pathologist / Investigator]

When we got their report, there was nothing from the pathology that would indicate or help us determine whether this was an accidental fall or a homicide.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The decision to exhume has gained the investigation nothing. On November 10, 2001, Harold Moneyhun and Tim Merchant returned to the Flaming Gorge reservoir with a fresh approach to their case. With the help of an expert on falls, they will reconstruct the deaths, hoping it might establish whether Leanna and Eric fell or were pushed.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

These two pegs show where the bodies came to rest. The little boy was here. Eric and his mother was right down there. They hit approximately 30 yards up that slope and came down this rock slide, came to rest right there.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Dummies identical in weight, height and overall shape to the victims are first dropped off the cliff and then thrown from the cliff. The landings are measured and charted.

[Forensic Pathologist / Investigator]

So what we were able to find out is that it didn't really matter where you go off or whether you were pushed or whether you slipped. You're going to end up in the same spot.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Like the exhumation, the reenactments gained cold case investigators Nothing in terms of usable evidence. After 16 months of legwork, their case against Bob Duke still lacks any hard forensic information.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

It was difficult. You'd always like to have some absolutely indisputable forensic evidence in any court case, and we had almost none.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The case against Bob Duke isn't perfect, but it's the best investigators can do. And in their eyes, it is well beyond any reasonable doubt. With indictments for murder in hand, the state prepares to try Duke for killing his wife and son. On August 12, 2002, Bob Duke's murder trial begins. The prosecution relies heavily on its star witness, Roger Browburger, who recounts Duke's request that Browburger kill his wife and son. The second major element in the State's case is the cliff in the Flaming Gorge.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

Any reasonable person who goes out there and looks at this crime scene is going to know that Leanna Duke, on her worst day, would not have allowed her son to get close enough to the edge of this cliff to fall off accidentally. And that's the case right there. This is unbelievable as an accident which made him a liar, which caused this to be a homicide.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

On August 15, the jury gets into a bus and drives to the Flaming Gorge. One by one, they peer over the cliffs down into the field of rocks where Leanna and Eric lay. Eight days later, they agree with Harold Money Hun and return a verdict of murder in the first degree. Bob Duke is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and son and the attempt to murder his parents. Roger Brauberger is in the court that day. For two and a half years, he kept silent about Bob Duke. Now he seeks out Leanna Duke's father and receives a measure of forgiveness.

[Roger Brauberger]

I told her father I was sorry.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

And he thanked.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

He thanked me for coming forward.

[Roger Brauberger]

I feel responsible for the murder because

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

I hadn't said anything. And he thanked. He thanked me.

[Roger Brauberger]

It was tough to hear thank you from her parents.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

For investigators, the case against Duke was difficult. With no physical evidence of and no eyewitness, the team relied ultimately on common sense and Duke's hubris.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

I think he's probably the only person on earth that believes that this would pass as an accident. Everyone that has seen that crime scene and everyone who ever will will come away in absolute disbelief. And that's what got James Robert Duke.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

In the early afternoon of November 12, 1982, in Seattle, Washington, an employee for a local TV repair service walks outside to dump some trash.

[Sergeant Joe Sanford]

He said that he noticed in the trash box that he'd seen a foot. And I Think as I remember, he thought it was a doll for a minute until he did a double take and said, no, that's a, that's a real, real person there. Of course, he immediately called the police.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Sergeant Joe Sanford and Dan Engel head over to the alley behind Magnolia TV and find a cardboard box with the body of a teenage girl.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

She was in the large box and then there were other boxes, smaller boxes placed on top as if to cover the body.

[Sergeant Joe Sanford]

Well, I seen a little girl appeared to be in full rigor, which kind of tells you that she was killed somewhere else and brought there.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Forensics remove the body from the garbage. Knotted tightly around the girl's neck is a brown plaid bathrobe tie. On one of her legs is evidence of a possible rape.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

There appeared to be semen on the inside of one of her upper legs. So there was certainly sexual activity and in all likelihood it was in fact a sexual assault.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Semen samples are collected and tagged as evidence. An ID is found inside a white plastic bag next to the box. The victim's name is Christine Sumstead. She is 13 years old and lived a few blocks away.

[Sergeant Joe Sanford]

I won't say she's a runaway. She just didn't stay at home every night. She had been a reported runaway several times, but I think so many times that the family quit reporting her as a runaway.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The last time Christine's family remembers seeing her is two days earlier on her way to school. Detectives begin picking their way through Christine's friends looking for a young man who might also be a killer.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

I always felt that it was more than likely somebody that she knew and in fact ran with. We had polygraphs set up on a number of occasions for several of her friends. They all passed their polygraph.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Detectives can place no one with Christine on the night she was killed. The only person seen in the area is a 14 year old boy and family friend of the Sumsteads named John Affin.

[Sergeant Joe Sanford]

He had been seen pushing a cart around the neighborhood, a hand truck with a large box on it. And I sent a detective out to talk to him.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

He's interviewed. He said yes, in fact he was there, that he was. He had gone out and stolen some firewood and he was wheeling it to his house.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Athens story sounds odd to police when they follow up with his family. However, the story checks out.

[Firefighter / Investigator]

They did in fact have a wood burning freestanding fireplace and they did use that. In fact, other people told us that they had stolen firewood in the past. So it became a perfectly logical explanation.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Athens presence in the case is typed up and filed away, along with dozens of other potential leads, all of which go nowhere.

[Sergeant Joe Sanford]

It was real frustrating. Yeah, real frustrating. And the longer the case went, the more frustrating it got.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Six months go by, and then a year, the Sumstead case sits on Sergeant Sanford's desk. Christine is not forgotten, but her murder is still not solved. Solved. Eventually, In January of 1991, Joe Sanford retires, and the Sumstead case falls into the cold files. Eleven years later, in 2002, the Seattle Police department dusts off some of its oldest homicide files. Veteran detectives Dick Gagnon and Greg Meiksell work full time on more than 300 unsolved murders. Their top priority is female victims.

[Detective Mike Sell]

Female victims of homicide are oftentimes sexually assaulted. That is more likely to yield DNA evidence. And with DNA technology advancing rapidly, we felt that would be a good place to start.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Gagnon and Mike Sell select 65 cases. Among them is Christine Sumstead's murder. Detective Mike Sell pulls evidence on the case and sends a semen sample to the Seattle crime lab, where Beverly Hemmick, a forensic scientist and DNA specialist, uses str DNA typing to extract a complete genetic profile.

[Forensic Scientist Beverly Hemmick]

I got a great profile on this case. I had a single unknown male individual. And at that point, we really had no one to compare this profile to.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The profile is entered into state and national DNA databases with no luck. Detective Mike sellingagnan return to the case file and start at the beginning re interviewing each person listed in the reports.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

And so by talking to people, the name John Athens kept coming up. And John had been looked at by detectives earlier in investigation. And we talk to someone else, and he'd say, well, yeah, everybody knows that John Athens did it. And it seemed that everybody knew it

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

but us cold case detectives begin to take apart John Athens statements from 1982. They don't find the smoking gun they are looking for, but what they do find is a lot of small clues that add up to a strong suspicion of murder.

[Detective Mike Sell]

He had been seen in the block where her body was found the night she was last seen, undoubtedly the night she was murdered. And he was pushing a cart or a wheelbarrow with a box. That, to me was quite significant that he was at the scene of where her body was found with a conveyance that could have transported a body.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

He told the detective at a time that he was getting firewood. And if you look at the area, it's quite a distance from his home. And it was a uphill climb to go on back home. And John was not any type of an adonis. He was a little short, fat kid. I can't see John pushing a cart full of firewood up that hill.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

But detectives can imagine John pushing that cart down a hill with Christine Sumstead's body inside. The problem is, how do they prove it? In 1982, Athen was 14 years old. In 2002, he is 34 and lives 2,800 miles away in New Jersey. For Seattle detectives, that presents a problem.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

He's in Jersey, we're in Seattle. There's no way we're going to be able to go down there and try to get some surreptitious DNA sample from him, you know, because the department's not going to pay a couple of grand to have us go down there. I mean, on tv, they spend money like it's, like it's, you know, water around here. You better have some reason to go over there. Better come back with something.

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[Detective Mike Sell]

That was the challenge we had here was how do we obtain a DNA sample from John Athen?

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

One option is to fly across the country, shadow Athen, and obtain a discarded sample of his DNA. A plan that is too expensive for Seattle's cold case unit. Mikesell and Gagnon share their frustration with fellow detective Linda Diaz.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

She says, well, what if we send him a letter? Linda I said I'd love to send him a letter, but what do I send him a letter saying, I'm a Seattle police detective. I want your samples. Lick this and send it back to me. She said, well, let me work on that. Let me get back to you.

[Detective Linda Diaz]

I put weeks of thought into it, thinking, what would entice someone to send me a letter back? And then I thought, well, he had traffic tickets and I came up with the class action lawsuit idea.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The lawsuit idea is simple. A letter from a fictitious law firm offering refunds for people who may have overpaid the city of Seattle for traffic violations. If Athen responds to the offer, he will have to moisten the return envelope before posting it, perhaps leaving his DNA in saliva on the envelope.

[Detective Linda Diaz]

Seal and I had a self addressed return envelope and I went and had those run through the bulk rate stamp machine because I figured a law firm, if they were doing mass mailings, would send that out so that all he had to do was lick the envelope and mail it back.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

I'm reading this thing. At first I thought it was real. Then I realized it's her letter. I says, this is great. She says, you think it'll work? I said, listen, we sent it to them, we're out 74 cents, two stamps, you know.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

They mail the letter to John Athen in New Jersey, and a few weeks later, Dick Gagnon gets the call.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

Phone rings, it's Linda. Dick, don't let her say, I mean she sound like she just won the lottery.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Back in the Washington state crime lab, Beverly Hemmick begins by cutting away a small portion of the sealed flap.

[Forensic Scientist Beverly Hemmick]

The actual two sealed pieces are teased apart after they've been cut up into several pieces. And really all the cells that are deposited by the saliva just trickle down in the solution. And from that point on, you can extract the DNA right out of each cell.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Himmock develops a complete male DNA profile from the envelope seal. Her next step is compare that to the unidentified profile from the Sumstead murder.

[Forensic Scientist Beverly Hemmick]

Every single part of the profile was matching. And so I knew that I had the person who donated that semen was the same person who licked that envelope.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Beverly Hemmick picks up the phone and delivers the news.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

She says, dick, I got news for you. I can't tell you who licked the envelope, but I can tell you one thing. Whoever licked the envelope was also the donor of that semen.

[Forensic Scientist Beverly Hemmick]

22 years ago, the estimated probability of selecting another unrelated individual in the US population was 1 in 59,000,000,000,000. That's a match.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

So at that point, we knew we had our guy, we had the right guy. And at that point, that's when we went to the brass and ask for money to go back and continue the investigation.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

Three weeks later, Seattle detectives fly to the east coast to confront John Athen at his job site. He is working a backhoe on a construction project in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Investigators approach Athen cautiously.

[Detective Mike Sell]

The worst approach is to immediately confront a suspect, to challenge him, to a accuse him.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

You have to be cautious because if you get too aggressive, too confrontational, the magic words, I want an attorney, and the party's over. And our reason for being there is to get a statement from him, any kind of statement. Lock him into something.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The detectives introduce themselves and ask athen to join them in the car. Once inside, the questioning begins. DNA has already established that Athen had sex with Christine Sumstead. The question is if he will admit it.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

I said, who was having sex with her back then? What do you mean? I says she was sexually active. Who's having sex with her?

[Sergeant Joe Sanford]

I don't know.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

Come on, John, you know who was. I mean, up in Magnolia, everybody knew. Everybody. The older guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, okay, how about you? Me? Did you ever have sex with Kristen? Aw, man. He says, I never. You know, I never even kissed her.

[Detective Mike Sell]

Now, there could have been an explanation, but he did not offer one. He told us he had never had sex with Kristen.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

Having sex with someone is making you a murderer. But in this case, by denying all these things, it shows that there's a prima facie case that he was there and there's something he's hiding.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

John Athen asks for an attorney, but it's too late. He has already made a first and perhaps fatal misstep. Cold case detectives charge Athen with the murder of Christine Sumstead and return him to Washington to await trial. In the months preceding the murder trial in fall of 2003, a legal battle begins over the ruse used to obtain a sample of John Athens DNA. Defense attorneys urged the judge to suppress the evidence or dismiss the case because police obtained Athens private property by posing as lawyers. A Washington state law bars non lawyers from acting as attorneys. Steve Fogg answers for the prosecution.

[Detective Mike Sell]

They didn't act as an attorney. They sent him a letter inviting his participation in a class action, but they didn't file a class action. They didn't represent him in court. Cops frequently will, you know, sell, you know, dope to somebody on the street and then immediately arrest that person and recover the dope. Those cases don't get dismissed and they shouldn't be dismissed. And we felt like the same logic

[Lieutenant Mont Mecham]

obtain in this case.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

The judge listens to arguments and rules in favor of the prosecution refusing to suppress the evidence and upholding the police mail sting. Tim Bradshaw is the senior prosecuting attorney for King County. We know what has been argued by

[FBI Special Agent Todd Scott]

a zealous counsel on his behalf.

[Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant]

But in the end, we know that when he voluntarily licked that envelope, he sealed his fate.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

In January of 2004, Athens case finally appears before a jury. Twelve days later, the jury delivers its verdict.

[Forensic Scientist Beverly Hemmick]

We the jury find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder in a second degree.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

John Athen is sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. For Christine's family, it seems hardly enough.

[Lieutenant Mont Mecham]

It really ruined a lot of people's lives.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

We're tired of being scared.

[Lieutenant Mont Mecham]

And what he did was great, just unspeakable. He's ruined my whole family.

[Detective Mike Sell]

He's been held accountable. I would like to see him admit responsibility, take responsibility. I'd like the family to know that he takes responsibility. I don't know that we'll ever hear that from John Athen.

[Narrator / Cold Case Files Host]

For Cold Case Detectives, the verdict goes up as a win on a scoreboard which hangs in their office.

[Detective Dick Gagnon]

The chart we're the most impressed with is a little chart we made for the DNA cases. And that is not our badge yet. It's for the state crime lab. We've sent 42 cases. State crime lab, they've returned 35 cases to us. Of those 35, they have profiles of an offender. And 25 out of 35, that's a 72% batting average. We did our job, and with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. And like I say, but there's probably other Christian Sumpstads here in this vault whose cases have to be looked at, too.

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