DNA SPEAKS: Killed For The Cash

Summary

Cold Case Files: DNA SPEAKS – Killed For The Cash

Hosted by Paula Barros

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Introduction

"DNA SPEAKS: Killed For The Cash" is a gripping episode of Cold Case Files, where host Paula Barros delves into the harrowing unsolved murder of Subir Chatterjee, a beloved gas station owner in Oak Ridge North Texas. Released on December 3, 2024, this episode meticulously unpacks the investigation that transformed from a perplexing cold case into a rare triumph of forensic science.

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The Crime Scene

On February 15, 2002, Subir Chatterjee, aged 58, was brutally murdered at his gas station in Oak Ridge North Texas. The midday sun cast a deceptive calm over the Houston suburb until a customer discovered Subir's lifeless body.

Sunil Chatterjee (Victim's Nephew) [00:33]: "My uncle was a kind person and a trusting person. His wife called me and said that he has been murdered."

Detective Kent Hubbard, leading the investigation, described the scene:

Kent Hubbard [02:12]: "I saw the body laying there. His head was turned to the side. He was face up, laying on his back."

The victim was found with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, lying in a pool of blood. Notably, Subir's glasses were shattered, and blood was splattered around, indicating a violent struggle.

Charlie Nation (Detective) [02:42]: "He had been shot in the head and also in the neck and it bled everywhere. It was a quite bloody scene."

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Initial Investigation and Leads

Subir, known for his generosity, also ran a check-cashing business at his gas station, attracting a clientele with questionable backgrounds.

Sunil Chatterjee [04:12]: "Shubir would let us get whatever we wanted. He was a very generous person, not just with me, but with everyone."

Detectives quickly identified possible motives related to Subir's check-cashing operations. A significant cash flow, sometimes exceeding $100,000, made his business a potential target for criminal activities.

Kent Hubbard [08:25]: "The morning of his homicide, he had a cash delivery of, I think it was $198,000 from an armored car. So that's certainly enough money to pique someone's curiosity."

A key witness described seeing a man fitting Subir's briefcase holder leaving the scene in a white Oldsmobile Alero, sparking the initial suspect hunt.

Charlie Nation [09:05]: "A six-foot-tall, olive-skinned man in a leather jacket and a newsboy hat with a red birthmark, carrying the briefcase under his arm."

Detectives focused on these descriptions but faced a significant hurdle: the suspect's license plate had been removed, complicating identification efforts.

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DNA Evidence and Initial Dead Ends

In the early 2000s, DNA testing was emerging but hampered by technological limitations and significant backlogs.

Kent Hubbard [11:25]: "DNA was more or less in its infancy. We knew people that could be identified with greater certainty through DNA than fingerprints."

Blood found at the scene contained DNA from both Subir and an unidentified male. Despite persistent efforts, the DNA did not match any profiles in the existing databases.

Charlie Nation [13:11]: "They didn't get any hits because it was felt that this killer, who was so brazen, had likely done something before."

The investigation initially focused on Terry Edwards, a regular customer whose fraudulent activities and proximity to Subir's business made him a prime suspect. However, after DNA tests excluded him, detectives hit a "brick wall," stalling progress for nearly a decade.

Kent Hubbard [19:38]: "Terry went to state prison. We flew up there, we had a bail bond, but he volunteered to give us DNA. It was not a match. Boom. Hit the brick wall and have to start from scratch all over again."

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Cold Case and Renewed Efforts

For years, the case remained unresolved, with Detective Hubbard vowing not to retire until justice was served.

Kent Hubbard [21:54]: "I was really the one that continued to pursue it. I wanted to see justice."

The case remained stagnant until advancements in DNA technology in 2018 provided a new avenue for investigation. Detective Hubbard leveraged innovative forensic techniques pioneered by Parabon Nanolabs to revisit Subir's case.

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Breakthrough with Forensic Genealogy

In April 2018, 16 years after the murder, Parabon Nanolabs introduced familial DNA testing, a groundbreaking method that examines DNA to identify potential relatives of the suspect.

Kent Hubbard [23:18]: "We had believed that the person was Middle Eastern. But they discovered that this DNA was Hispanic and the person was from the Nuevo Leon area of Mexico, which borders Texas."

This revelation redirected the investigation towards the Nuevo Leon region, significantly narrowing down the suspect pool.

Parabon's genealogists constructed a detailed family tree, ultimately identifying three brothers as potential suspects. Further scrutiny revealed Martin Telles as the most viable suspect, given his proximity to Oak Ridge North and his unblemished criminal record, which initially excluded him from DNA databases.

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Arrest and Confession

Obtaining a DNA sample from Martin Telles proved challenging. Through persistent surveillance and collaboration with the FBI, law enforcement managed to collect DNA from a partially eaten piece of toast Martin had discarded.

Kent Hubbard [26:49]: "I collected the items that Martin had placed in his mouth. A coffee cup, a spot, a fork, and of all things, a partially eaten piece of toast."

The DNA match was unequivocal, leading to Martin's arrest on December 4, 2019.

Kent Hubbard [30:41]: "Not only do you have a match, you have an exact match. Their odds were 10 to the 27th."

During the interrogation, Martin confessed to the robbery that went tragically wrong.

Kent Hubbard [34:16]: "Martin told me he didn't intend on killing him. He produced a gun and said, 'I want all the money.' Sabir hit him over the head with a telephone. We were wrestling. It just wasn't intended. My son shot him in the neck and in the head."

The confession brought closure to Detective Hubbard and the Chatterjee family, though not without lingering emotional scars.

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Aftermath and Reflections

Martin Telles was charged with capital murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison after a brief escape attempt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kent Hubbard [40:12]: "That was the basis of the arrest warrant for Martin. Yeah, it was crucial."

Sunil Chatterjee, the victim's nephew, expressed profound relief upon Martin's conviction but struggled with the emotional toll of confronting his uncle's murderer.

Sunil Chatterjee [42:03]: "My family is at peace today because... keeping my home secure is one of the best things I can do to protect them."

Detective Hubbard, fulfilling his promise to the family, finally felt a sense of accomplishment as he prepared for retirement.

Kent Hubbard [37:44]: "I had done my job. When you spend, I guess, your whole life working, you know, it's natural, I think, to look forward to retirement."

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Conclusion

"Killed For The Cash" exemplifies the relentless pursuit of justice driven by advancements in forensic science and unwavering dedication. This episode underscores the profound impact of technology in solving cold cases and delivering closure to families long yearning for answers.

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Notable Quotes

• Sunil Chatterjee [00:33]: "My uncle was a kind person and a trusting person. His wife called me and said that he has been murdered."

• Kent Hubbard [02:12]: "I saw the body laying there. His head was turned to the side. He was face up, laying on his back."

• Charlie Nation [09:05]: "A six-foot-tall, olive-skinned man in a leather jacket and a newsboy hat with a red birthmark, carrying the briefcase under his arm."

• Kent Hubbard [11:25]: "DNA was more or less in its infancy. We knew people that could be identified with greater certainty through DNA than fingerprints."

• Charlie Nation [13:11]: "They didn't get any hits because it was felt that this killer, who was so brazen, had likely done something before."

• Kent Hubbard [19:38]: "Terry went to state prison. We flew up there, we had a bail bond, but he volunteered to give us DNA. It was not a match. Boom. Hit the brick wall and have to start from scratch all over again."

• Kent Hubbard [23:18]: "We had believed that the person was Middle Eastern. But they discovered that this DNA was Hispanic and the person was from the Nuevo Leon area of Mexico, which borders Texas."

• Kent Hubbard [34:16]: "Martin told me he didn't intend on killing him. He produced a gun and said, 'I want all the money.'"

• Kent Hubbard [37:44]: "I had done my job. When you spend, I guess, your whole life working, you know, it's natural, I think, to look forward to retirement."

• Sunil Chatterjee [42:03]: "My family is at peace today because... keeping my home secure is one of the best things I can do to protect them."

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Final Thoughts

This episode not only narrates a tale of crime and investigation but also highlights the resilience and emotional journeys of those involved. Through perseverance and technological breakthroughs, "DNA SPEAKS: Killed For The Cash" embodies the essence of Cold Case Files—shedding light on the darkest corners to bring justice and peace to those left in the shadows.

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Produced by Jeff Deray and distributed by PodcastOne.

Transcript

[Marissa Pinson]

Hi, Cold case listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson, and if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files, as well as the A and E classic podcast, I Survived American justice and City Confidential, are all available ad free on the new A and E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now onto the show. The following episode contains intensely disturbing accounts of violence. Listener discretion is advised.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

My uncle was a kind person and a trusting person. His wife called me and said that he has been murdered.

[Kent Hubbard]

He was face up, shot in the.

[Charlie Nation]

Neck, lying in a pool of blood. His glasses were broken and blood spattered.

[Kent Hubbard]

I knew it was my job to catch whoever did it.

[Tom Libby]

Somebody desperate enough to do a crime in the middle of the day like that, where they would take over $100,000 and end up killing the man for.

[Charlie Nation]

It was the killer. Somebody that he knew.

[Tom Libby]

Because we had the DNA, we were really persistent.

[Kent Hubbard]

I was thinking that he's going to get away.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

I thought maybe he would never be caught.

[Marissa Pinson]

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's February 15, 2002, in Oak Ridge, North Texas. The midday sun shines high above the Houston suburb of Oak Ridge north when a customer at a local gas station stumbles on a crime scene. Jessica Betancourt is the producer and host of the DNA ID podcast.

[Charlie Nation]

He had driven up to the gas station and gone inside to presumably make a purchase and saw a guy in the booth, not visible except for his feet, which were lying on the ground. And he realized immediately that there was a distress situation. So he went outside and called the police.

[Kent Hubbard]

When I arrived and walked inside, everything appeared in order. But when I walked around to the booth, there were signs of a struggle. In the picture you can also see a chair turned over. It brings back some of the same feelings I had that day, even though it was 18 years ago. More now. I saw the body laying there. His head was turned to the side. He was face up, laying on his back.

[Charlie Nation]

He had been shot in the head and also in the neck and it bled everywhere. It was a quite bloody scene.

[Kent Hubbard]

Looking at the. At the gunshot wound, there was a tremendous amount of stippling and gunshot residue. The gun was almost against his neck. There hadn't been a homicide in Oak Ridge north in, gosh, maybe 20 years. I was nervous because it was my first homicide and I was the lead detective. So I knew it was my job to catch whoever did it.

[Marissa Pinson]

The victim is the owner of the gas station, 58 year old Subir Chatterjee. Sunil Chatterjee is Subir's brother and Neel Chatterjee is Subir's nephew.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

Me and Shubir was very close. Shubir is my brother and I was about two years older than him. Everybody in my household loved him. My son Neil was very close to him. My uncle Shabir, when he first came to the US from India, he was my only relative outside of my parents in the us he actually lived with my family in our home. And so the first few years of my life, he was a constant presence.

[Marissa Pinson]

After moving to the US with the help of Neil's father, Soubir opened a gas station in the Houston suburbs.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

When I was a kid, we would go and visit. We didn't have a lot of money. We didn't get a lot of gifts at Christmas. So my uncle would take us to his store and just basically let us get whatever we wanted. Sodas or gum or little toys. He was a very generous person, not just with me, but with everyone.

[Marissa Pinson]

Soubir quickly discovers a profitable sideline.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

The area around Houston where the gas station was at the time was really being built up. So you had a lot of laborers and folks who maybe didn't have access to traditional bank accounts. And my uncle discovered this opportunity to make money cashing checks. Sometimes, you know, when we are visiting him, you know, many times he go to the bank and get the money. So it close to 200,000 he was doing that. He said that, well, it is a very good day for me and all that. It was lots of money, you know.

[Marissa Pinson]

Soubir runs his check cashing business from a specially made booth inside the gas station. Charlie Nation is a detective with the Oak Ridge North Police department.

[Tom Libby]

It was bullet resistant glass. He was thinking of trying to deter robberies himself by making a booth like that inside his store. Mr. Chatterjee was very paranoid about people. As I recall as a patrol officer, I remember taking a call there on a fraudulent call there and I had to conduct my investigation through a slot in the window. He wouldn't open the door for me. But we discovered as we were doing our investigation, Mr. Chatterjee would allow frequent customers into his booth.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

I told Subir's concern about his safety. We said this is risky business. We always hear people getting robbed. He said, well, I'm safe in the booth. Don't worry, I'll be safe.

[Marissa Pinson]

Now the family's worst fears have Come true.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

Shobhi's wife called me and she has been murdered. You know, shot dead. And that's all I remember after that. I knew I just. My telephone fell from my hand and I was on the floor. So my wife took the phone and tried to get the details and what happened. I always try to forget the day, but it is impossible. It's not possible to forget. I kind of blacked out in that moment. My wife now tells me that I threw the phone across the room, didn't even hang up, and I just couldn't process it.

[Marissa Pinson]

Tom Libby is the chief of the Oak Ridge north police department.

[Kent Hubbard]

I would say the first thing that the detectives did was try to find.

[Marissa Pinson]

If there was any video in the store.

[Charlie Nation]

Surveillance cameras were installed and visible at the gas station. However, they had never been hooked up.

[Kent Hubbard]

I believe because some of the people that he would do business with did not want their pictures taken.

[Tom Libby]

Their main business was cashing checks. Then he had a lot of shady people coming and going out of that place.

[Marissa Pinson]

Detectives searched for evidence in the booth where Subeer was killed.

[Kent Hubbard]

We didn't want to move the body and disturb the crime scene at that point. Soubir had the phone receiver in his hand. There was a spent shell casing on the floor. It was easy to see that it was a.32 caliber. The door jamb had been broken off. Somebody had to kick the door in to get to Sabir.

[Marissa Pinson]

When he interviews eyewitnesses, Hubbard quickly discovers that it wasn't the killer who forced his way into the booth.

[Charlie Nation]

It turned out that one of the people who found Subir kicked down the door. So that led them to the thought of how the killer got access to the booth. Soubir would not just let anybody in the booth. So was the killer somebody that Suebir knew?

[Kent Hubbard]

People who would frequent the store and were allowed into the booth would see that he generally placed the money in his briefcase with the top up, so it was clearly visible in the security booth. The main thing that was missing was Sabir's briefcase. We went through his business records. The morning of his homicide, he had a cash delivery of, I think it was $198,000 from a armored car. So that's certainly enough money to pique someone's curiosity.

[Charlie Nation]

And it turned out that a witness was on the scene that day, and he sees a white Oldsmobile Alero sitting outside the gas station with a fairly skinny white guy in the driver's seat. And coming out of the gas station, the witness saw the six foot tall, olive skin man in a leather jacket and a sort of newsboy or cabby hat with a red birthmark, carrying the briefcase under his arm. And the witness sees this man get into the alero and it speeds off.

[Kent Hubbard]

We theorized that was beer's missing briefcase and a large, large amount of cash.

[Charlie Nation]

Police, of course, their ears perked right up and they thought, this is our suspect.

[Marissa Pinson]

Kent Hubbard is a retired detective from the oak Ridge north police department.

[Tom Libby]

I was very confident it was our guy. We were looking for somebody desperate enough to do a crime in the middle of the day like that, where they would take over $100,000 and end up killing the man for it.

[Kent Hubbard]

Witnesses described a white oldsmobile alero. It had a paper plate driving away from the store at a high rate of speed. We theorized somebody had taken the license plate off so that we couldn't identify the. So we pursued this. The department of motor vehicle provided us a list of about, I think it was close to 400 cars, but we were never able to identify the exact car.

[Marissa Pinson]

Detectives hire an artist to create composite sketches of the two men described by witnesses.

[Kent Hubbard]

Those were the people we concentrated on. This older male with the briefcase, the one that he had an olive skin complexion. The witnesses said he's not hispanic, but he does have an olive skin complexion. So that sort of led us to believe at that point that this guy was middle eastern.

[Marissa Pinson]

Next, Hubbard looks into using a promising new field of forensic science to identify the perpetrator.

[Kent Hubbard]

DNA was more or less in its infancy. We knew people that could be identified with greater certainty through DNA than fingerprints. But in 2002, DNA was becoming real popular with law enforcement to identify people. There was just a tremendous backlog to finally get your DNA analyzed, even on a homicide.

[Marissa Pinson]

Police want to test the blood left at the crime scene because they suspect that some of it came from the killer as well as the victim.

[Kent Hubbard]

The odd thing about it was Samir wore glasses. And there was also a 90 degree blood drop on the lens of his glasses that were totally inconsistent with blood spatter from the gunshot. It's like blood just falls down, hits the floor and spreads out. So that was unusual. It looked as though somebody had stood over him, I guess, to make sure that he was indeed dead. So we collected the 90 degree blood drops. We had a fairly large quantity. It took a while, as I recall, for dps for the crime lab to actually confirm that there were at least two sets of DNA in the crime scene. There was severe. And there was also DNA from an unidentified male.

[Tom Libby]

And we put that DNA into codis, hopefully to get a hit. We were looking for a criminal that's been in the system. We were thinking we would get a hit right off the bat.

[Charlie Nation]

But surprisingly, they didn't get any hits because it was felt that this killer, who was so brazen, had likely done something before. But that was not the case, at least not to the level that he was entered into the federal criminal DNA database. So from there on out, there was not much they could do with the DNA. They had the guy's DNA, but that doesn't lead to a name.

[Marissa Pinson]

Investigators shift focus to Subir's check cashing business.

[Charlie Nation]

Detective Hubbard figured out that this check cashing business was operating in a larger scale than he anticipated.

[Tom Libby]

Their main business wasn't pumping gas. It wasn't selling snacks. As a matter of fact, I remember in that store a lot of this stuff was expired.

[Kent Hubbard]

From time to time, Sabir would cash checks in excess of $100,000.

[Tom Libby]

I mean, I had no clue of that. I figured it was just your common day worker cashing to a $300 check.

[Kent Hubbard]

So there was a lot of cash flowing through the gas station.

[Charlie Nation]

Soubir had a logbook in the office, and he would take photocopies of their driver's license. So many driver's license copies were found in his files. Quite a few people were sort of engaged in nefarious activity, stuff that's under the table. Subir's business was sort of no questions asked. It wasn't his job to question the source of the checks that he was taking in.

[Marissa Pinson]

One man named Terry Edwards immediately jumps out.

[Charlie Nation]

Terry was a regular check cashing customer of Soubir's, and Terry somewhat resembled the guy in the sketch with the cap in the Alero.

[Kent Hubbard]

I got a call from an investigator with a Harris County. They were working a case on Terry. Terry had been defrauding the company that he worked for. It was a furniture store, and Sabir was going to be their star witness. Sabir gets killed about, I think, two weeks or so before the trial starts. We really were interested in that after Subir's death.

[Charlie Nation]

Terry's sort of bragging that he was not going to jail. He had the charges beat. Now, the only way to make sure that that would happen is to remove any witnesses who could testify against you. So this became, all of a sudden, a very, very good lead.

[Kent Hubbard]

Terry certainly had motive to kill Sabir.

[Tom Libby]

He was our number one suspect.

[Kent Hubbard]

So I was like, this is it. This is the guy.

[Marissa Pinson]

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[Charlie Nation]

The prime suspect was this guy Terry who was a regular check cashing customer of Subir's. But it turned out that the checks were fraudulent. So police talked to Terry. In an interview he denied having anything to do with Soubir's murder. He said he had gone to lunch with a co worker between 12 and 1 the time of murder. But there was no record at the restaurant they said they ate at of that lunch. So that made Terry even more interesting to investigators.

[Marissa Pinson]

There's nowhere near enough evidence to charge Edwards with murder, but he is convicted of the fraud charges, giving detectives an opportunity to collect his DNA and compare it to the DNA found at the crime scene.

[Kent Hubbard]

Terry went to state prison. We flew up there, we had a born but he volunteered to give us DNA. It was not a match. Boom. Hit the the brick wall and have to start from scratch all over again.

[Marissa Pinson]

Investigators go back to Subir's logs and look for more customers with questionable backgrounds. Donna Hansen is the felony division chief for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

[Charlie Nation]

Detective Hubbard told me that they encountered criminals at every corner in this investigation. They were literally coming out of the woodwork because if you think about the people who would frequent this type of check cashing business, you do have people who are anxious to immediately get hold of their ill gotten gains over the years.

[Tom Libby]

We were locating people and interviewing them, asking for DNA. I wish I could tell you how many people but it was just, it was just non stop.

[Kent Hubbard]

It seemed like I got to the point where I would not let myself get hopeful because it hurts so much to hit the brick wall and it got to be devastating. The Oak Ridge North Police Department was not going to give up.

[Marissa Pinson]

We would not have given up on.

[Charlie Nation]

The family under my watch or the next chief's watch.

[Tom Libby]

We would not have given up on that homicide.

[Charlie Nation]

But they tried everything that the science would give us at that point in time.

[Kent Hubbard]

We were never able to identify the few people that everybody described and that we thought at that time were involved in the homicide. We spent years of the investigation trying to find these two gentlemen and we were never able to do that.

[Tom Libby]

We followed every lead available. But as time went on, you know, it Turned into a cold case with no new leads.

[Marissa Pinson]

The case of the murdered gas station owner goes cold until 2011, nine years after Subir is murdered.

[Kent Hubbard]

Neil would call me once a year, Generally on the date of Subir's murder.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

I was really the one that continued to pursue it. I wanted to see justice. My family lost their faith in the system. I thought maybe it will never be solved. Just praying that it gets solved. But thought that maybe I have to go to my grave not knowing who killed him. My family did not believe that a collection of white police officers in rural Texas would care about the murder of an Indian grocer and they would just bury the case. And they couldn't have been more wrong.

[Kent Hubbard]

I wanted to retire, but I had promised Neil that I would not retire until we identified this person and arrested him.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now April 1, 2018, 16 years after Su B is murdered, and DNA technology is starting to catch up.

[Kent Hubbard]

It took 16 years for the DNA technology to catch up.

[Charlie Nation]

And that's when detective Hubbard had an aha moment.

[Marissa Pinson]

The veteran investigator hears about new DNA testing techniques pioneered by a company called Parabon Nanolabs.

[Kent Hubbard]

So I sent them a sample of the blood drop from the crime scene.

[Charlie Nation]

Ereban did an updated phenotype where they tried to interpret what this person might actually look like. Hubbard believed that the person was of Middle eastern descent.

[Kent Hubbard]

But they discovered that this DNA was Hispanic and the person was from the Nuevo Leon area of Mexico, which borders Texas. We had believed that it was Middle Eastern the whole time. For the first 16 years, we chased these ghosts down all sorts of rabbit holes.

[Tom Libby]

It really threw us off because we had the DNA. We were really persistent. I knew we were going to eventually find them. It was just a matter of time.

[Marissa Pinson]

Next, the experts at Parabon turned to a technique called familial DNA testing, which uses the DNA found in the blood at the crime scene to try to find close relatives of the perpetrator.

[Charlie Nation]

It seemed like some sort of magic hocus pocus that you put a bunch of genetic code into a database and the genealogist can figure out who that person is based on connectivity with their relatives. Forensic genealogy was just hitting everyone's radar in sort of the crime fighting world because it was a new tool that promised the possibility of putting a name to unknown DNA profiles. In order to compare different genetic profiles, what's called a SNP profile is prepared.

[Marissa Pinson]

Parabon's forensic genealogist loads the SNP profile from the blood into a genealogical database and builds a complex family tree with the Results.

[Kent Hubbard]

Parabon went back to the mid to late 1800s to develop a family tree on the 90 degree blood drop to try and identify other family members. A month later, Parabon comes back and says, okay. Our suspect was one of three brothers. I knew then that we could indeed solve this case.

[Charlie Nation]

It felt like we were getting answers. It felt like for the first time we were on the right track.

[Kent Hubbard]

The youngest brother was too young at the time of the homicide to really be involved. One brother had moved to Washington state. The only brother left lived only about 30 minutes from the gas station.

[Marissa Pinson]

His name is Martin Telles. Detectives need a DNA sample from Telles to be certain they finally have their elusive suspect.

[Tom Libby]

He lived and was born in Texas, but still he had family ties in Mexico. And we were thinking if he'd found out that we were, we were on to him, that he would probably flee to Mexico.

[Kent Hubbard]

We set about trying to covertly get DNA from him. So we set up surveillance at his house. We were waiting for Martin Talez to discard cigarette, gum, anything.

[Tom Libby]

And that never really panned out. But the FBI offered to assist us and they got lucky and followed he and his wife to a restaurant. And once they cleared out, they secured the table and Lieutenant Hubbard raced over there.

[Kent Hubbard]

I collected the items that Martin had placed in his mouth. A coffee cup, a spot, a fork, and of all things, a partially eaten piece of toast. I found out from the crime lab that bread was an excellent source of DNA because of its porous nature. There's a lot of DNA that's in your saliva that sticks with the toast. Everything in this case is compared to the partially eaten piece of toast, of all things.

[Marissa Pinson]

Scientists extract Martin Telles DNA from the bread and test it to see if it matches the 90 degree blood drops found at the murder scene.

[Kent Hubbard]

I wore out the knees on a couple pair of blue jeans praying for 18 years. But when God answers prayer, he does it spectacularly.

[Marissa Pinson]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Hey, Cold Case Files listeners. Whether you love true crime or comedies, celebrity interviews, news, or even motivational speakers, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, Right? And guess what? Now you can call the shots on your auto insurance too. Enter the Name youe Price Tool from Progressive. The name your Price Tool puts you in charge of your auto insurance by working just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance. Then they'll show you a variety of coverages that fit within your budget, giving you options. Now that's something you'll want to press play on? It's easy to start a quote and you'll be able to choose the best option for you fast. It's just one of the many ways you can save with Progressive Insurance quote [e-mail] to try the name your price tool for yourself and join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law Sometimes it feels like staying in shape is an impossible task and it's hard to know exactly what I should be doing and where to start. Weight loss solutions are not one size fits all. Everyone deserves to have a weight loss plan that is tailored to their specific needs. So if you're struggling with losing weight and need some extra help, it's time you check out hers. HERS is transforming women's healthcare by providing access to affordable doctor developed weight loss treatments. Their holistic program includes options like GLP1 weekly injections, the same active ingredients as Ozempic and Wegovy, and oral medication kits. HERS connects you with a medical provider who creates a personalized treatment plan tailored to your specific needs. If prescribed, you'll receive the medication as part of a comprehensive weight loss program complete with ongoing care and online support at no extra cost. Even better, weight loss plans through hers are affordable with compounded GLP1 injection starting at just $199 a with a 12 month subscription paid upfront, no hidden fees and no membership costs and your personalized treatment ships for free straight to your door. So if you've been struggling on your weight loss journey, now is the time to take control, feel confident, get healthy and find the best plan for you with hers. Start your free online visit today at fourhers.comccf that's F O R H E R S.comccf for your personalized weight loss treatment options. Forhers.comccf hers weight loss is not available everywhere. Compounded products are not FDA approved or verified for safety, effectiveness or quality. Prescription required restrictions apply. Wegovy and Ozempic are not compounded it's now December 4, 2019, 17 years after Suebir is murdered.

[Kent Hubbard]

I got a call one day from the crime lab in Houston. The head of the DNA analysis told me, Kent, not only do you have a match, you have an exact match. They give a percentage likelihood of another unrelated person having the exact DNA that Martin had and their odds were 10 to the 27th.

[Charlie Nation]

Power can't call. He's out of breath. He's so excited. I mean, he's been a police officer forever, right? And Just seeing how excited he was about the possibility of solving this case that has haunted him for most of his career. It was really, really special. And so I said, well, get up here. Let's write this warrant. I'm ready.

[Kent Hubbard]

The match of the DNA, it was everything. It was everything. That was the basis of the arrest warrant for Martin. Yeah, it was crucial.

[Tom Libby]

Martin Tellis has never been in any trouble with law enforcement. I think within the 18 years, he was stopped for a traffic citation and was given a verbal warning, not even a written citation.

[Marissa Pinson]

Telles clean record explains why his name didn't show up in the CODIS searches.

[Charlie Nation]

It was somebody who was a first offender, so he wasn't ever going to pop up as a suspect on this case.

[Marissa Pinson]

In the years since the murder, Telles has been living a quiet life with his wife and kids in a suburb close to Sabir's gas station.

[Kent Hubbard]

Martin had just gotten a job and was happy, and he posted it on LinkedIn. And from that, then we knew where he worked. So we went there. And as it turned out, he was the only one in the office. As soon as I opened the door, I recognized him as Martin Talez. I walked in, I introduced myself and told him I had a warrant for his arrest.

[Tom Libby]

Do you have anything on you?

[Marissa Pinson]

No, sir.

[Tom Libby]

Nothing whatsoever. And you ever been arrested?

[Marissa Pinson]

No, sir.

[Tom Libby]

You had an id?

[Marissa Pinson]

Yes, sir.

[Tom Libby]

Where's it at? You mind if I didn't?

[Kent Hubbard]

No, stay right there. May I ask, what is it?

[Tom Libby]

Lieutenant hovers.

[Kent Hubbard]

Sure. It's for the murder of severe chatter. His eyes went wide, and then he dropped his head to his chest. You have the right to remain silent and not make any statement. It was the highlight of my career to put my handcuffs on him. I have goosebumps right now.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

I'll never forget the day Hubbard called me to tell me he had made the arrest. And he literally cried. It's one of the most powerful moments of my life. I was just overcome with just complicated emotions, but mostly, you know, joy and relief.

[Marissa Pinson]

Martin Telles is brought to the Oak Ridge Police Department for an interview. Prosecutor Donna Hanson joins Detective Kent Hubbard for questioning.

[Charlie Nation]

So as we walked into the room to try to take a statement from Martin Tolez, what one of our goals was to see would he admit to what he had done.

[Kent Hubbard]

I told Martin, look, what I'm gonna ask you about is something that you've lived with for the past 18 years, and I'm sure you'd like to get that off your chest. This is your first arrest. I would think you would remember that like it was yesterday. I won't lie to you. I'll do my best with recollecting.

[Marissa Pinson]

Tellez admits to going to the gas station that day back in 2002 to commit a robbery.

[Kent Hubbard]

Martin told me he didn't intend on killing him. He produced a gun and said, I want all the money. Sabir hit him over the head with a telephone. And that's where the blood came from. We were wrestling. It's just wasn't intended. My son shot him in the neck and in the head that you shot him in car.

[Charlie Nation]

It was watching. A man who's kept a secret for 20 years, just kind of unburdening himself in that moment. His children were going to find out. His wife was going to find out that he wasn't the guy that she thought he was.

[Kent Hubbard]

Nobody was supposed to get hurt. I was at friends and I felt.

[Tom Libby]

I felt horrible forever.

[Kent Hubbard]

I'm sorry to use that word, but I felt horrible for a very long time. It was finally over for him. Did you ever think you were going to get caught for this? Deep down inside, I did.

[Marissa Pinson]

How do you think that was going to happen?

[Kent Hubbard]

Through the DNA. I always knew it was going to come to get me. Because of the blood, because of the DNA testing.

[Tom Libby]

Who had thought the guy would just confess?

[Kent Hubbard]

After he confessed, he asked to call his wife. Hello?

[Marissa Pinson]

Mean.

[Kent Hubbard]

I have been arrested. I did something bad a long time ago. 2002. It's caught up to me.

[Marissa Pinson]

I thought.

[Kent Hubbard]

I didn't lie to the police. I wasn't alive. But I just. I decided there was time to.

[Charlie Nation]

I'm sorry.

[Kent Hubbard]

I ruined his family and mine. He finally told his wife what he'd done for the first time after almost 18 years of marriage. And I could hear her screaming through the phone.

[Charlie Nation]

Martin was charged with capital murder for killing Sabir Chatterjee in the course of a robbery.

[Marissa Pinson]

Finally, Detective Hubbard can set a date for his long awaited retirement.

[Kent Hubbard]

I had done my job. When you spend, I guess, your whole life working, you know, it's natural, I think, to look forward to retirement.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now April 9, 2021, 19 years after Subir Chatterjee is murdered.

[Charlie Nation]

As he awaited trial, Covid hit. Covid was going to run rampant through the jails and prisons and anybody who didn't have to be there, they didn't want to be there. So they reduced Tellez's bond to $500,000 and he bonded out.

[Kent Hubbard]

I was at a golf outing with friends and I got a call from Charlie Nation and Charlie said that Martin had escaped. He cut his ankle monitor off, he.

[Tom Libby]

Just decided to cross the border into Mexico.

[Kent Hubbard]

I was anxious and nervous and thinking that he's going to get away.

[Tom Libby]

I was pretty irritated. I was irritated that we had, you know, that they even allowed him to have bond. And now Martin Tellez was in Mexico.

[Marissa Pinson]

The Texas Rangers are charged with bringing Tellez back to face justice, and they called Kent Hubbard out of retirement to help.

[Kent Hubbard]

I knew more about Martin than anyone else in law enforcement, so they were calling me quite often to pick my brain about family members and places in Mexico.

[Charlie Nation]

The Texas Rangers decide to talk to his wife. They were at her home, and they happened to get lucky in that the phone rang and it was him calling her.

[Tom Libby]

Martin Tellis at the time wanted to see his family one more time.

[Kent Hubbard]

Hey, Martin, it's Derek with the Texas Rangers. Hey, you all right, buddy?

[Marissa Pinson]

I've been better, yeah.

[Tom Libby]

The ranger conveyed to him over the phone he couldn't do that if he was in Mexico.

[Charlie Nation]

Tellez started talking about if he never came home and would the ranger make sure that his body got back to his family. So now it started to seem like he was maybe going to harm himself. Suicide was not absolutely out of the question. The ranger says, you need to come turn yourself in or you'll forfeit the $500,000 bond. Your wife is going to have to work for the rest of her life. So it seems that Martin Tellez finally decided that the jig was up.

[Kent Hubbard]

I will cooperate. Ok. I'll be at the border crossing. A week after he had escaped, he finally walked back across the Gateway Bridge in Brownsville and was arrested by the Rangers. Martin went into court and accepted the plea of guilty in a prison term of 60 years.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

Seeing Martin Talez in person for the first time, it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. You know, for 20 years, I've dreamt about the moment I would get to confront my uncle's murderer. And to actually have that opportunity in my victim's impact statement was just overwhelming emotionally. As I look at the defendant and his young family, who had nothing to do with this, my instinct is to want to forgive him, but I cannot. Because when he murdered my uncle, he hurt not just me and my family, he hurt the entire community. After my reading of the victim's advocate statement, I walked over to his wife and parents, and I just let them know I feel sad for them. His father said to me, I'm so sorry for everything your family has suffered through.

[Kent Hubbard]

Hey, Neil. How are you? I'm doing very well. How are you? On this anniversary day of Sabir Chatterjee's death, every year I'm thinking about Neil and the Chatterjee family and the loss they suffered. I know this is a hard day. You know, I'm thinking about you and your family on this day every year. Well, I appreciate it.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

My family is at peace today because.

[Kent Hubbard]

You never gave up. And I love you for it. We met through this tragedy, but we've become good friends.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

I just love. I love Hubbard so much. He was so committed and so dedicated and he wanted to provide justice to my family to. Well, he told me that the murderer has been arrested. And I thought my prayer has been answered. Great relief.

[Kent Hubbard]

Finally catching the bad guys. There's no better feeling. But if it hadn't been for Sabir, we wouldn't be here today. He was brave enough to fight with a gun in his face. Having seen it all the way through to the bitter end, I am satisfied. One of the best times of my life. I'm still enjoying it. I'll put it that way.

[Marissa Pinson]

Cold Case Files is hosted by Marissa Pinson, produced by Jeff deray and distributed by Podcast one. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold case [e-mail] did.

[Charlie Nation]

You know you can watch all your.

[Marissa Pinson]

Favorite crime shows for free on Pluto tv?

[Sunil Chatterjee]

Totally free.

[Marissa Pinson]

Totally free. They've got CSI New York, ncis, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods, Tracker, FBI, swat. All for free.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

There's something suspicious going on here.

[Charlie Nation]

Nothing suspicious, just hundreds of free crime.

[Marissa Pinson]

Shows on Pluto tv.

[Charlie Nation]

Crime never pays.

[Marissa Pinson]

And neither do I. Pluto TV Stream now pay never. For years, Tim Ballard has been championed as a modern day superhero.

[Charlie Nation]

The first time I saw one of.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

The kids from the video and it, like, changed my life.

[Marissa Pinson]

He was the face of Operation Underground Railroad, a movement that inspired hope around the world by rescuing children from human traffickers. However, Ballard's crusade to save innocent lives has always hidden a darker secret.

[Kent Hubbard]

Oh, I think he's a pathological liar.

[Marissa Pinson]

Beneath the accolades and the applause, a dark storm has been brewing.

[Sunil Chatterjee]

I mean, I can't find a time that he's told the truth about anything.

[Marissa Pinson]

Shocking allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced, casting a shadow over his once unquestioned reputation. I am Host Sarah James McLaughlin and in this new season of the Opportunist, we explore the rise and the fall of Tim Ballard. Join us this October for Tim Ballard unmasking a hero. Subscribe to a new season of the Opportunists now. Wherever you get your podcasts.