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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
one easy to use app.
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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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Narrator / Cold Case Files Host
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Narrator / Cold Case Files Host
Finding the one can feel impossible. And in today's world, it's even harder. False profiles, inaccurate pictures, incompatibilities, Ghosting on dates.
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Narrator / Cold Case Files Host
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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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Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant
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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.
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)
Key quote:
"Every one of us thought: How could this happen to two of them?"
— Firefighter/Investigator (06:00)
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)
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)
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)
Key quote:
"It was tough to hear thank you from her parents."
— Roger Brauberger (24:24)
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)
Key quote:
"Everybody knows that John Athen did it. And it seemed that everybody knew it but us."
— Detective Dick Gagnon (30:00)
Key quote:
"Every single part of the profile was matching... That's a match."
— Forensic Scientist Beverly Hemmick (37:15, 37:39)
Key quote:
"When he voluntarily licked that envelope, he sealed his fate."
— Sweetwater County Patrol Commander Tim Merchant (40:56)
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)
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.
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.