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Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network, including the Murder in My Family, Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Zodiac Speaking Beyond Bizarre True Crime, Campus Killings, Below the Surface, and Killer Communications. All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now. Wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. Sam. It was 1994. On Thursday, May 12, Dawn Mann got home from work at 5:12pm she opened the front door of her home and walked into a murder scene. Her beloved husband, Bert Allen Mann, who went by Allen, was dead on the floor between the small kitchen and foyer. Blood was everywhere. The couple's basset hound, Wally, was cowering in the bedroom. The cat was nowhere to be seen. Dawn called the Austin, Texas Police Department. Officer J. Brushrow and Cadet William thrasher responded to 2510 Stargrass Circle and found the front door standing open. They announced their presence and immediately saw dawn standing over a man's body on the foyer floor holding the dog on the leash. She was crying, seemed on the verge of hysteria and yelled, my husband's dead. What am I going to do? The man on the floor was clearly deceased. His bottom half lay in the foyer, top half in the kitchen. His arms were bent so his hands were curled close to him. He was surrounded by a pool of blood that had puddled into the kitchen. His head was all bloody and bore signs of bludgeoning. A large butcher style knife was buried in his upper back up to the hilt. His right foot was shot, but his black dress shoe was off. His Left foot. A pair of eyeglasses lay on the floor. There were spatters of blood on the walls surrounding the body and holes in the Sheetrock wall next to the body. Scattered mail lay on the foyer floor. The officers checked the house to make sure no one else was in it. This was when they noticed the back glass sliding door standing open. After they cleared the home, they shut the dog in a back bedroom which did not appear to be part of the crime scene. Dawn wanted to go into the backyard to look for her cat, but Cadet Thrasher, knowing the backyard had not been secured, did it. No cat. The cat was eventually located already in the bedroom where he was then locked in with the basset hound. They had to keep the animals from tracking through the blood and otherwise muddying the crime scene. Arriving firefighter medics were allowed entry and advised that the victim, Alan Mann, was cold to the touch and had been deceased for at least an hour. He lay face down still in his work clothes, including a blood soaked button down shirt and tie, and was surrounded by a large pool of blood. The firefighters started to cover Allen's body with a sheet, but Officer Steve Dominguez asked them to refrain from altering anything and to exit the scene. After the medical personnel viewed the victim and declared him deceased, the crime scene was sealed. Officer Bushrow had patrol officers man the front door and rear door and Cadet Thrasher ushered Dawn outside. He calmed her down and stayed with her, not permitting her to speak to anyone else until victim services personnel arrived to support her. Officer Brescheu called in the Homicide Sergeant William Beechenor and Sergeants Thompson and Gilchrist. Officer Tracy Frisinger surrounded the house with crime scene tape and closed off the street. This was when she noticed the rear sliding glass door standing open and primarks near the latch and the chain link fence gate leading to the wooded area behind the house had blood smeared on the latch. So who was our victim? Bert Allen Mann Jr. Was born on January 19, 1948 to father Burt Allen Mann Sr. And mother Virginia. He had a sister named Kathy, married to a man named Gary. Allen grew up in Graham, Texas. As an adult, he was a sturdy man standing at 6 foot 1 and 195 pounds with brown hair and a mustache. Allen had served in the U.S. navy as a corpsman from February 1968 to December 1971, including serving in Vietnam, and he received an honorable discharge. Alan and Don had been married for more than 20 years. They married in 1971. Alan had gotten his degree from the University of Texas and then they moved back to Graham, where they were from. He went into the insurance industry and did well. But then things took a turn. They moved back to Austin because Alan had a dream of getting his master's in teaching at ut. But he failed to be admitted to the graduate school. So he had gone into retail instead. Alan had been a very big part of a business named Adams and Little, a men's clothing store located in the 28 Door shopping center. But that business started to falter and Allen became depressed. According to his friends, about six months before his death, his business partner called his friend Harold S. And asked Harold to talk to Allen because Alan was very down. Alan was still hung up on wanting a teaching career. His alternate business was failing and he was despondent. The business went under in July of 1993 when Alan died. He was working days at the Oxford Shop Limited on B. Caves Road, a men's clothier. Alan and Don enjoyed going to the opera and classical music concerts together. Alan was a Civil War buff, and he and Don often visited historic battlefields and went to reenactments. They also loved to cook gourmet meals together. Alan played golf once a week and liked to read. But all was not rosy within the marriage. Dawn told detectives that Allen had had an affair with a topless dancer named Miriam for six months in 1991. She discovered it and the affair ended after Allan helped Miriam move to Colorado. He had tried to see Miriam once after that, and when dawn got angry, he ended it. Dawn said other than that, she and Allen had a good relationship, were sociable and friendly with the neighbors, had no enemies, and had no outstanding debts. She had no idea who would want to kill her husband. Allen's body was transported to Brackenridge hospital and pronounced DOA by Dr. Crocker. The autopsy was performed by medical examiner Dr. Suzanne Dana and observed by by several Austin Police Department investigators. Dr. Dana removed the knife from Allen's back and hair on the knife blade was collected and retained. A loose hair was also recovered from Allen's back and another hair from his left wrist. Officer G. Harbison collected Allen's shirt, pants and belt, necktie, socks and underwear, his Rolex watch, the sheet used to transport his body, and the blue body bag. Allen had been struck on the head and face with a hard object. A summary of the autopsy report by Sergeant Thompson says, quote, the autopsy revealed the victim had been assaulted with an object that has a round or oval face approximately one inch across and a sharp cutting edge that runs across the face of the object. It would be Something similar in size and shape to the face of a hammer with a sharp edge running across the face of the hammer. The sharp edge appears to run the entire width of the face of the instrument. End quote. Detectives believe the tool used on the sliding door was a very large screwdriver or small pry bar. It was unclear whether this same object was what was used to bludgeon Allen. The autopsy summary continued. After being struck with the object numerous times about the head and face, the victim was stabbed in the chest, in the neck, in the back and had his throat cut. There appears to be an attempt to have excessive overkill, as if the assault became a rage. This may be attributed to the fact that the victim appears to have fought the suspect. This is based on defensive wounds about the hands and arms. These wounds consist of cuts primarily located about the hands and to linear bruising about the hands and forearms. End quote. Despite the cut throat, that was not what killed Allen, nor were the blows to the head. He had been stabbed a total of 13 times which had punctured his lungs as well. But it was a stab wound directly to the heart that killed him. It went through his body and almost pinned him to the floor. A head hair standard was collected from Allen, as well as his left and right fingernail clippings and a fiber recovered from the fourth fingernail. Homicide Sergeant William Beechinor and Sergeants Thompson and Gilchrist ran the scene assisted by Detective Carl Zimmerman, who responded to the modest brown home on Stargrass Circle after being paged. It was not these guys first rodeo and they did not enter the home until Allen had been removed and the csis had documented the scene. They did observe the scene with the body in place through the open front door. Finally, at 8:53pm, Detective Zimmerman, Sergeant Elsa Gilchrist and Sergeant Thompson entered the residence. Detective Zimmerman's report says, quote, we all took great care to avoid stepping in any blood on the floor. There was quite a lot of blood in the entry foyer and the kitchen area. The entry foyer and kitchen had a tile or linoleum floor. You could see a few faint blood stained footprints on the floor of the kitchen. Sergeant Gilchrist noted faint bloody footprints in the kitchen, some larger leading to a Henckels knife block on the kitchen counter and some smaller leading toward the kitchen phone. Observing the patterns, she wrote in her report, quote, the suspect must have had to step over the body to get to the knife since there were some other footprints leading towards that area. It was evident that a struggle between the victim and the suspect had ensued in the hallway. Detective Zimmerman wrote, there was blood on the walls in the entry foyer. Most of the blood spatter on the walls was at waist level or below, indicating Allen had likely been on the floor when many of the stab wounds were inflicted, end quote. But blood wasn't all they noticed on the walls. There were some dents in the Sheetrock that appeared new as they had blood on them. Detective Zimmerman wrote in his report. Quote, There were several indentations in the Sheetrock. Some of these indentations were indicative of possibly being caused by a person's body part, elbow, foot, et cetera. There were also circular indentations on the south side wall of the entryway. It was unsure what caused these indentations. It appeared to be caused by some unknown object that was probably used to bludgeon the victim. Some of the blows had missed entirely or partially and struck the south Sheetrock wall. I used a pocket knife to cut out several of the indentations. It was noted in the evidence list that two of these circular Sheetrock samples, wholly removed by the detective, had black metallic marks on them. Standing in the foyer, the investigators observed five drops of blood leading from Allen's body to the kitchen and four more in the kitchen, approaching the knife block on the kitchen counter. The bloody footprints also led to this block. The butcher knife sticking out of Allen's back was consistent with the Henckels knives in the block in the kitchen, from which one large knife was missing. The suspect had either cut himself or sustained a blow, and blood was freely dripping, leaving circular drops of himself on the floor. Sgt. Grillchrist noted that the home was neat and orderly, had not been ransacked, and nothing was out of place, as though someone had been preparing to steal it. But a chair at the entrance to the living room appeared to have been moved and had two drops of blood on it. A woman's purse lay on that chair. Detective Zimmerman also observed that the house didn't appear to have been ransacked, as police typically saw in a residential burglary. It was clean and orderly. Sheets were draped over the living room couch and loveseat, and there was an ottoman turned upside down and sitting in a recliner in the living room. But all of this was intended to keep the dog off the furniture and had nothing to do with the crime. Guys, I'm so excited to receive my most recent Thrive Market order. This week. My husband and I are trying to increase our protein intake, but we also want to eat health consciously and limit our intake of artificial ingredients and food additives. 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When he was lifted and turned over, a wedding ring was on the floor under his body. Detective Zimmerman wrote in his report, quote, ID tech Jennifer Smith applied amino black to the tile kitchen floor. This caused numerous footprints to become visible. Amino black reacts to blood and will show blood even if it isn't visible to the naked eye. This allows one to see the route one walks if the bottom of the person's shoes become wet with blood. Most of the bloody footprints were of a very large shoe print. This shoe print had a horizontal bar design with circles inside the bars. I have a size 11.5 shoe and the footprint was much bigger than mine. There was also a much smaller shoe print visible. There was also a third shoe print that had a herringbone design to it. As we later found out, the smaller footprint belonged to the victim's wife and the herringbone design belonged to a fireman. All that from Detective Zimmerman? All the shoes of the persons who were inside the Mann house that day, firemen, police, Don man and so on, were photographed so the bloody footprints could be properly cataloged. It was concluded that the quite large shoe prints belonged to the killer and they were made by some kind of work boot. Again from Detective Zimmerman's report, quote, the amino black on the kitchen floor showed that the suspect had walked from the body of the victim to the southwest corner of the kitchen. This was where there was a kitchen knife block set from the southwest corner of the kitchen. The suspect then walked back to the victim. End quote. More large bloody footprints led from the foyer into the living room and more would soon be discovered and would reveal a lot about the suspect's movements. Detective Zimmerman's report says, quote, Tony Arnold then began to luminal the crime scene. We luminoled the kitchen floor as well as the carpet throughout the house. We also used luminal on the kitchen countertop next to the knife block on the kitchen countertop and the front of the cabinet directly below it. There was a reaction. This leads me to believe that the suspect was bloody or maybe bleeding or both when he went to get the butcher knife. As we processed the Carpet with Luminol. We followed his footprints along the north side of the living room. The footprints turned left in the hallway that led to the bedrooms and hall bathroom. The footprints went to each doorway of the house and paused in each doorway. The footprints did not enter the bedroom. Each bedroom door handle was also processed with luminol. The luminol reacted with all three door handles of the bedroom, but not to the bathroom. All three bedrooms were not entered any further than the immediate doorway area. End quote. They tracked the suspect's movements, the luminal illuminating faint footprints as he walked back toward a desk in the den area abutting the foyer. Then they walked out the sliding glass door that he had apparently pried open as a means of entry. Back to Zimmerman's report. Quote the suspect appeared to drag his right foot, possibly his heel, as he walked out of the sliding glass door. We measured one stride from heel to heel. It measured 2ft 9 inches. Along this route there were some small dots of illumination. This indicated to me the suspect was dripping blood. This was either his blood or some of the victim's blood dripping off of him. End quote. The luminol tracked the suspect out the rear slider, across the concrete patio and east across the grass directly to and out of the chain link fence gate. He left a dried blood smear on the gate latch leading to a wooded area with a well worn path. The backyard of the house was adjacent to this wooded area which contained an electric supply tower easement. Quote from the report the footprints followed the dirt trail that led away from the gate. We were able to follow the footprints on this dirt trail. There were still additional blood droplets along this trail. The suspect was still dropping blood. This led me to believe that the suspect was injured and bleeding. I didn't think that the suspect would still be dripping the victim's blood off his body. The footprints led to a trash heap. The suspect stopped here, paused and turned around. The footprints then indicated that the suspect continued to follow the dirt trail. A few yards later, near a clump of cactus, we could no longer track the footprints with luminol. End quote. They lost the trail at that point. So Sergeants Thompson and Gilchrist requested a K9 team to attempt a track. The dog followed the scent through the wooded area to the intersection of Sweet Clover and Alabama, directly north of the victim's house. This told the detectives that the suspect possibly had left a vehicle at the dead end of Sweet Clover. Detective Zimmerman noted that the suspect would have had to go over a barbed wire fence behind 2503 Sweet Clover. A stack of bricks next to the fence made it possible to easily step over the fence onto the bricks. Zimmerman noted a wooden fence post that was immediately to the left of the brick pile. He observed a red stain right on the top of the fence post, right where it was logical for someone to grasp as they used the post for balance as they scaled the fence by climbing the bricks. Quote, we thought this might be the suspect's blood. We borrowed a saw from the resident at 2503 Sweet Clover, Ms. Theresa Cole. Sergeant Gilchrist cut off this portion of the fence post and took control of it, end quote. I mean, these guys were thorough. However, it was noted that the blood pattern on the fence post was a very fine grid, indicating to the detectives that the suspect who had touched it and left blood behind was wearing gloves. Sergeant Gilchrist noted that as they were trying to backtrack through the wooded area back to the man house. Quote, we got confused as to where we needed to go to get back to our original destination, which leads me to believe that whoever used this point of escape must have been familiar with where he was going. End quote. Luminol sprayed around the house yielded positive reactions from surfaces other than just the floor. Blood was detected on several walls, the pantry door and on several pieces of cutlery in the knife block located on the kitchen counter. Before the luminol was used, the CSIS had dusted the place with black powder to detect fingerprints. Latent fingerprints were collected from the pantry door and frame, the door to the garage, the door frame outside the second bedroom and the outside sliding glass door. Latent prints were also lifted from a magazine on the foyer floor and from a cup found on the path of egress through the woods. The prints on the garage door and the door to the second bedroom came back to dawn. The rest were entered into APHIS with no hits. The investigators were not sure what kind of tool had been used to pry open the sliding glass door in the rear of the house. Detective Paul Johnson supervised the processing of the tool marks. The marks were photographed and casted to retain the tool mark impressions. And then they collected the entire back door. The crime scene was measured, diagrammed and photographed. The CSIS and and detectives wrapped up processing the house around 3am and secured the home, planning to return the next morning to finish their analyses and evidence collection. After all was said and done, a lot of items were collected into evidence. The knife block and knives and multiple swabs of blood from the knife handles. Swabs of blood from the kitchen, shoe prints, blood from the kitchen floor. Papers on the kitchen table with blood on them. Allen's right shoe. Allen's clothing from his autopsy. Allen's shirt cutting with the shoe tread pattern. A button on the foyer floor that matched A button found to be missing from Allen's dress shirt. A towel from the wicker basket near the back door of the residence. The gold ring from underneath Allen's body. The magazine from the foyer floor. Allen's eyeglasses and left shoe from the foyer floor. Several bloody strands of hair collected from the bottom baseboard on the left side of the wall behind the front door near the doorstopper. Swabs of blood from the kitchen cabinet drawer. The hair is recovered from Alan's back pants and left wrist at autopsy. The plastic cup from the trail behind the fence in the backyard. Swab of blood from the rear gate. Allen's fingernails from the left and right hands. Allen's known head hair standards. A fiber from Allen's fingernail. A hair from the knife. Allen's Rolex watch, damaged and bloodstained. The pieces of Sheetrock. The knife that had stabbed Allen to death and the fiber from the knife. While all this was going on, Dawn Mann was taken to the station by a family crisis counselor. She was interviewed by Sergeant Richard Colbert on Thursday afternoon. She had finished her shift as a nurse at South Austin Medical center at 4:57pm and driven the 15 minutes home. When she got there, Allen's car was in its usual spot. She couldn't recall whether the front door was locked, but as soon as she opened it, she saw all the blood and the knife in Allen's back. She thought to herself that it looked like one of the knives from the kitchen block. The blood on the floor was congealing and Allen was cold, so she knew he was dead. She stepped over his body to get to the phone and called 911 and then called her friend Jamie D. The nurses at the hospital had set up a dinner club whereby one person would make dinner and the other nurses would go over there and eat and visit. The night that Allen was killed was supposed to be the first one, and Jamie was supposed to go with Dawn. She told Jamie and her husband that Allen was dead and they said they'd be right over. Dawn got the dog onto the leash and just then the cops arrived. She told them that when she got home the rear sliding glass door was open and the latch was bent. She confirmed that the holes and marks on the sheetrock in the foyer were not there before. Detectives wanted to nail down a time frame for Allen's murder. Dawn said Allen typically worked 10am to 3:30pm at the Oxford shop and it took him about 20 minutes to get home that day. However, he had gotten off work at 3, so he should have arrived home right around 3:20 or so. But they could be more specific than that. Allen was still wearing his expensive Rolex watch when his body was found. Sergeant Thompson wrote in his report. The watch was broken and the time was fixed at 3:27pm the date indicated the 12th. It is believed this time is the time of the assault. The victim is known to have left his job at approximately 3pm the driving time would coincide with his arriving at his residence at 3:25-3:30. 3 3:30pm Sergeant Hunt spoke with Allen's boss, Jerry, who said Allen was very precise about time and if his watch said 3:27, it was 3:27. Okay, back to Dawn's narrative about her husband's daily habits. She said when he got home, he would come in the front door and walk to the desk on the west wall of the den abutting the foyer. He always put his keys, wallet, money clip and any loose change on the desk. Then he would set his satchel on a small chess table situated between the desk and and the doorway to the kitchen. The satchel was khaki colored canvas with brown leather trim purchased from Banana Republic. The satchel was found right there where Alan almost certainly set it down upon entering the house. It contained his checkbook, blue daily planner and a book Allen was reading at the time. After emptying his pockets and putting down his satchel, Allan would typically then separate the mail if he brought it in with him, he would place his mail on the desk and Don's mail on the kitchen table. While he was doing all this, the dog would normally bring a toy or ball to Allen, who would then spend some time playing with Clarence. Dawn pointed out the mail on the foyer floor and said she thought Allen had parked his car, gotten the mail, come into the house, put down his satchel and the other stuff, and then dropped the mail when he was attacked and trying to flee his assailant. Dawn's theory was that Allen surprised a burglar in the house. When asked, she said if he were confronted by a burglar, he would not retreat but would face the man. She told the investigators that there had been a rash of burglaries on their streets, so many that a Neighborhood Watch organizational meeting was held at the home of a deputy who lived nearby named Tim Gage. And dawn said Allen did not have Enemies. He liked to cook, read, go to the opera and hang out with his buddies at the Yellow Rose. The shoes dawn was wearing were collected as blood was observed on the soles. Then she was taken home by a family friend, Stephen Lynch. She requested to be allowed to go inside the home to collect some personal items and the pets, and was warned that she might not want to revisit the scene. Poor Dawn's sister had just died in January. The loss of her husband in such an abrupt and violent manner must have been very traumatic for her. As for whether anything was missing, Allen's satchel was right where Don said he typically left it, on the little chess table in the den. His keys, money clip and wallet were missing, but the keys and money clip were found in his pants pocket at his autopsy, indicating that he had not had time to put them down as he normally did when arriving home. And don't found the wallet in the satchel he had left on the small table in the den. So a burglary was looking less likely since nothing appeared to have been taken. But then Don called the detectives unit on the 14th, reporting that a.380 Browning automatic handgun that the man's kept in the headboard of the master bedroom bed was missing. It was kept wrapped randomly in a pair of yellow men's underwear. The serial number was entered into NCIC as a stolen firearm and it was not located. This was an interesting turn of events. The luminal bloody shoe print tracks of the suspect had not gone into the bedroom. Yet the gun was missing. Dawn was sure it had been there before and it is believed the suspect stole it. That doesn't really all add up. Nonetheless, a theory of the case started to emerge. Despite the gun being the only thing missing from the home, the investigators embraced Dawn's theory that Allen had come home and interrupted a burglar. They concluded eventually. Quote evidence at the scene suggested the suspect forced entry into the home through a rear sliding glass door and was discovered by Mann when he returned home from work. All the blood in the foyer pointed to the initial attack occurring right there in the front foyer. Just inside the front door, Allen was attacked and dropped the mail. The item he was bludgeoned with may have been whatever the suspect used to pry open the rear sliding door. During the frenzied struggle between the two men, elbows, knees, feet and possibly other body parts came in contact with the drywall, leaving the indentations. The police noted Allen was 6 foot 1 and 200 pounds, and the suspect had to dash to the kitchen to get a knife to finish him off. As he stabbed Allen, blood sprayed around the foyer and the suspect cut himself, leaving the blood trail that was later found by the investigators. The shoe prints believed to belong to the suspect, based on the bloody shoe prints throughout the house and out the back door, indicated that he was also a large man. Perhaps that's why he was not intimidated by Allen's stature and did not back down when Allen came home unexpectedly and instead engaged in a physical confrontation. Still, that was not typical of residential burglars who usually went to great lengths to avoid such interactions. Let's talk about the neighborhood Canvas for context. The man's home was in a fairly newly developed neighborhood with a lot of houses packed into many small streets forming the development. The houses were so close together that neighbors should definitely have seen something since the crime was committed in broad daylight. Things were complicated by the fact that several houses were under construction or renovation and there were workers and strange vehicles all over the neighborhood. Officer Tracy Frisinger knocked onto some doors on Sweet Clover where the suspect was suspected to have parked to see if anyone had seen anything. She found one man who lived on Sweet Clover who had seen something. Adam B of number 2 Sweet Clover saw a dark brown Ford F150 pickup with a toolbox in the bed and tinted windows make a Utah at the dead end of sweet clover between 3 and 4pm the driver was a white male with medium length hair, a mustache and sunglasses. Officer Thrasher started knocking on the man's neighbors doors. Even though many had been home that afternoon, most had seen and heard Nothing. But at 2506 Stargrass Circle tween Joshua T. Was home all day except from 3:45 until 5 as he and his mom were leaving. At 3:45, Joshua saw four to five young male teens standing by the driveway of the man home. One had a Chicago Bulls baseball cap and one had an Orlando Magic baseball cap. Joshua did not know their ages. Detectives later learned that these were just neighborhood kids. No one else saw anything, but at least two of the neighbors reported quite a few hang up phone calls that very date. It was thought that this could have been a burglar checking to see whether anyone was home. A Mrs. Cindy S. Of 2512 Stargrass Circle pointed out a spot in her backyard which had been trampled down which hadn't been there before. The fence in that area had also been pushed down. Both of these things had been observed directly next to an adjacent underground cable warning sign. Police weren't sure whether this was caused by an unauthorized person in her yard or the workers who maintained the electric tower. One of the houses on the block was vacant and for sale. A Realtor reported seeing a white male transient she had glimpsed darting out of the empty house. A Joe V at 2533 Stargrass had also caught a glimpse of a man at the vacant house. There were also some construction workers working on the block building A deck, but they were on a break at the time the murder was believed to have occurred, so they saw nothing. Police followed up on a lot of reports of cars cruising around the neighborhood. A Bill L. Had seen a blue Datsun drive through two days earlier, driven by a Hispanic male in his 20s or 30s with a home repair sign painted on the side. A Mrs. Lori M. Said that on the Sunday before the murder she saw an older Ford being driven slowly through the neighborhood by a white male with long stringy hair. These cars of course, could not be identified, but the reality was there were a lot of development residents who were home during the day, a lot of people working in the area and kids. This was a brazen daytime crime. Kvue Cruz spoke to Allen's neighbors shortly after the murder happened. Quote, it was the time of day when children could have been coming home from school, definitely people coming home from work. There was just a lot of risk with being in a house at that time. Neighbor Kathy Torrey said, it does make it scary. A lot of work went into investigating a beige El Camino that had been reported in the area. Officer Steve Dominguez's report noted that a nearby home on Seminary Ridge owned by a Peter C. Had been burgled the day before on May 11. The front door was kicked in sometime between 8:30am and 3:30pm and a VCR, TV and jewelry were all stolen. Two construction workers at the house next door saw the suspects parked on the street in the area of the burgled home at 11:30 in the morning. They were two white hippie type males driving a beige El Camino with a camper. Officer Dominguez contacted the two construction workers who had seen the El Camino and the men in it. Luis Perez of La Remodeling said both men had long hair and were about five' nine or five' ten, but that was all the information he could provide. The hunt was on for the El Camino APD Sergeant Hunt checked the computer for El Camino pickup trucks with campers registered in the area and tracked down the owners. Several were located, but nothing led anywhere. Finding great candidates to hire can be like, well, trying to find A needle in a haystack. Sure, you can post your job to some job board, but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along. Which is why you should try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com Zip ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. Its powerful technology identifies people with the right experience and actively invites them to apply to your job. You get qualified candidates fast. So while other companies might deliver a lot of hay, ZipRecruiter finds you what you're looking for. The needle in the Haystack. See why 4 out of 5 employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. ZipRecruiter the smartest way to hire. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free. That's right. Free at ZipRecruiter.com Zip that's ZipRecruiter.com Zip ZipRecruiter.com Zip the Austin Police Department held a press conference on May 13th to update the public about the Allen Mann murder and request help in identifying any suspicious persons or vehicles they might have seen in the area. On May 12, Lt. David Parkinson, supervisor of the APD Homicide Unit, said, quote, this is an unusual crime. We are very concerned that we catch this person as soon as possible. Apparently, the victim came home to the residence and surprised a suspect or suspects in the commission of a burglary. End quote. Lieutenant Parkinson revealed that police were seeking a large man with big feet. He said, quote, it would have been obvious to most people that this would be a large person. He may be injured or may have evidence of a recent fight. End quote. Detective Paul Johnson followed up with the owners of the men's clothing shop where Alan worked. Their names were Jerry M. And Kim B. Kim was not at the store regularly, so Jerry and Alan basically ran the store. Jerry said Alan was an excellent employee who came highly recommended. He raved about how Alan was one of the most straightforward, honest, and dependable persons he had ever known. He also always dressed in a very dapper fashion. There was no drama in Alan's life that either Jerry or Kim was aware of, but there was some drama. Alan's favorite hangout was a strip club called the Yellow Rose. He met his friends there for drinks once or twice a week. They supposedly always sat at the bar and didn't pay much attention to the dancers. But as we heard, Allen had had an extended affair with an exotic dancer in 1991. The affair with Miriam had ended after dawn found out about it and their marriage seemed to have survived. Detective Paul Johnson did a fair amount of digging into dawn and the state of her and Alan's marriage, especially after it was learned that Allen had a $150,000 life insurance policy, of which dawn was the beneficiary. Detective Johnson interviewed several of Dawn's co workers and close friends. Everyone said she and Allen seemed happy now that the affair was behind them. I'm going to get much more into the Yellow rose and the affair with the dancer. Later in the episode, Detective Richard Colbert began to try to identify the large shoes that had left footprints in blood throughout the house. He checked a whole slew of shoe stores throughout South Austin and finally at the Walmart located a brand of shoes that had a matching sole pattern. The brand was Brahma B R A H M A. They were a rugged leather boot, size 12 or 13. The manufacturer in Bogota, Columbia, confirmed that this sole pattern came on only three models of shoes that they sold exclusively at Walmart. The boots were sold for $36 and were unfortunately a very popular model. Tracing sales would be impossible. Sergeant John Hunt went to local hardware stores armed with photos to try to identify the type of tools that could have made the tool marks on the rear door and the indentations on the foyer wall. That was a bust. The tool has never been identified. The Austin investigators were eager to gather more useful information about their perpetrator. They knew he had engaged in a scuffle with Allen and had likely sustained some kind of injury. They consulted Sheriff Richards of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office, who had experience in profiling murder suspects. He offered his opinion that Allen's murder was likely not premeditated, and the indicator of that was the offender using a weapon of opportunity. Then the offender lost control and stabbed Allen 16 times. In a case of overkill, the confidence displayed by the offender to take on as large a man as Allen would probably indicate the offender was at least in his late teens or early twenties. Disorganization of the murder and overkill indicated a lack of experience in killing. Although he might be known by friends to be violent, he may have had his judgment impaired by alcohol or drugs. He probably did not know the victim well because he clearly did not know his working habits and comings and goings. He was probably Caucasian, based on the racial makeup of the neighborhood and the area. He probably had a history of law enforcement contacts and no steady job and a history of theft. Let's talk about the rash of daytime Burglaries plaguing the neighborhood there had been three residential burglaries in the neighborhood in the past six weeks and 22 reported burglaries in the first four months of 1994 in the larger surrounding residential areas. Many of these burglaries took place in daytime like the one reported by Mrs. Carol N. Of 2537 Stargrass Circle. Her home had been hit several weeks earlier when someone broke in through the front door sometime between 3 and 5pm in broad daylight. The other burglaries were Feb. 20 on Gettysburg through an unlocked door. March 14 on Westgate removed screen on open window. March 18 in Ridge forced rear window. April 7 Canis Cove door kicked in May 10 Seminary Ridge kicked front door in May 24, Norfolk removed sliding glass door but no similar primarks. In the Canis Cove burglary, which was very close to Allen and Dawn's house, only guns and jewelry were taken. The problem was that no one had been arrested for these burglaries and no latent prints collected from any of the burglaries matched those found in Allen's case. The Austin PD also noted a report about a break in being worked by the Travis County Sheriff's Office. The unknown subject had broken into a residence at 2713 Cheney Cove. Entry was made by kicking in the front door. The footprint on the door was very large, but no other details were available. I'll say straight up front here that in this case there was a dearth of prime suspects. A few people were looked at initially but fizzled out as real suspects. For example, on May 16th a Sean S. Was brought into the APD station by Sergeant Beechanor. The sergeant had spotted Shawn waiting at a bus stop in the neighborhood where the murder happened. Shawn was a muscular 6 foot tall white male with straggly blondish hair. They knew that Officer Dominguez had interviewed some witnesses who saw two hippie looking white males who had possibly committed a nearby burglary. Sergeant Beechinor stopped to talk to Shawn at the bus stop and saw a cut on his left index finger and scrapes on his arms and legs. Sean agreed to talk to the investigators but said he'd hurt himself on his construction job and was able to provide an alibi that he was at work on the day of the murder, which was confirmed he was allowed to leave Francisco L came to the APD investigators attention on the day of the murder because he had taken himself to the hospital with a laceration to his body that he said was caused by a chainsaw he was using to trim some trees at his home. However, the doctor thought this supposed chainsaw cut was quite clean and not consistent with the chainsaw blade. Further, Francisco had no signs of sawdust or tree debris anywhere on his person. Detective Kenneth Roberts noted Francisco was very cooperative but felt that this was suspicious. But Detective Paul Johnson talked to another doctor who had actually treated Francisco who said he felt that the wounds were consistent with a chainsaw kickback and it would have been very difficult to make that kind of cut with a knife during any kind of scuffle. Francisco was ruled out as a suspect. Michael A. Was a local juvenile hoodlum whose name came to the attention of the Austin PD Immediately after the merger. Sergeant Thompson and Detective Sergeant Zimmerman were already aware of him, and Detective Zimmerman had contacted him. While investigating, they learned that Michael was not at Crockett High School at all, where he was supposed to be. On either the 12th or 13th of May, Detective Shauna Jacobson asked the school's on staff Police Officer David Kohler, to check Michael for any injuries. Discreetly, Michael admitted to being in the woods behind the man home. But that was two years earlier. They really had nothing on him and he was crossed off the list. Finally, a kid at Bailey Middle School said his friend Corey knew something about the murder. Sergeant Thompson tracked Corey down at home. He had dropped out of Bowie High School and was presently doing absolutely nothing. The detective's notes say he was living with his mom and had not found a job. Corey told them he didn't do it, but his buddy Josh H. Might have. The investigators found Josh in the Travis County Jail and interviewed him. It was immediately clear that he had nothing to do with the murder. And he had no shoes like those that made the footprints. As I said, a really underwhelming assortment of persons of interest. Detective Johnson attempted to identify a surveying crew who had been working in the wooded area behind the man home. He contacted the property owner and was able to get a list of of the surveying crew members. They were all accounted for. During the time of the murder, Detective Johnson did a lot of work talking to people in the area to see if anyone had heard or seen anything at all. But no one saw anything concrete. It was a real mystery. The investigators continued to work the case following the usual leads. They ran the plates of all suspicious cars seen in the neighborhood. They tried to track down the burglar or burglars and followed up on area burglary suspects known to police. They followed up on tips that said things like so and so said he knew who did it. They tried to track down all workers who were working on the homes on stargrass circle that day, of which there were quite a few. They considered an auto theft that happened on Stargrass on May 24. But the car boosters turned out to be 12 and 13 years old. They learned the names of the phillips pipeline company employees who had been working on locating pipes in the vacant lot behind allen's home. They went through allen's address book and made note of all the people and numbers in there, and always they compared the latent fingerprint lifts in allen's case to those of men arrested for burglary or other property offenses. None were ever a match. Time passed. In November of 1994, dawn got a message on her answering machine. Allen had been dead for six months. It said, hello, this is nancy, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but your husband has been messing around with me, and could you tell him that I left my panties over there and he left his tie over at my house. So tell him I'll be by to pick them up when you go back to work, okay? Thank you. Love and kisses makes a kissing sound. See you tomorrow. Dawn had tried to star 69 this number, and it had failed. Nancy would turn out to be someone allen knew. But it's unclear whether police really looked into this at this time. A January 1995 article in the austin american statesman addressed the increase of murders being committed by strangers. This was a noted shift in the types of crime typically seen in austin. The article referenced the yogurt shop slayings in 1992, recently solved and burt alan mann's murder. Anne hutchinson, the director of victim services for the austin police department, said, quote, something that's happening in austin is we're starting to experience these random, stranger and ruthless juvenile attacks that are different for our town, end quote. A 1996 article in the statesman about the impact of unsolved murders on victims loved ones quoted dawn saying, quote, there are times when a wave comes over you and you feel you can't take another breath. You just have to get through those moments, end quote. The austin police department has said that, quote, an exhaustive investigation over the next several years produced over 40 persons of interest, end quote. From what I saw, not one of those persons of interest rose to the level of a suspect. In February of 2001, the Allen Mann case was assigned to detective ellert of the cold case unit. On May 5, 2001, he discovered that a box of evidence in the mann case had been sent to texas dps and then returned to the Austin PD evidence room. It contained a bunch of physical evidence that had never been tested for DNA. Detective Joseph Thompson picked up the case in 2002 and submitted some of this evidence to the crime lab for testing. On January 31st of 2002, the lab reported that the blood on the Rolex contained DNA from Alan Mann. DNA from blood on the kitchen knife was also consistent with the victims, as was the DNA on the papers, the DNA from the hair and blood inside the front door, the blood on the kitchen cabinet door, and even the blood sample on the back fence gate. The only remotely positive news was that a blood sample from the shoe print in the kitchen was consistent with a mixture from which the victim could not be excluded. Hardly a bombshell the unsolved Bert Allen Mann case was featured in a piece by kxan in early 2002. Dawn was by now remarried and was very glad to hear the case was still being investigated. But then Detective Thompson retired in April 2002 and the man case bounced around. In September of that year it was reassigned to APD Cold Case Detective Richard Blackmore. He dug into the file and in 2004 started conducting interviews with people connected to the case. You're going to hear some names you haven't heard before, people in Allen's life who were looked back back in 94, but I have no idea how thoroughly because I wasn't provided with that part of the case file. In July of 2004, Detective Blackmore interviewed former exotic dancer sisters named Christy and Kelly. They knew Allan from the Yellow Rose where they were waitresses and went on to be dancers. They called Allen the sweetest guy who sat in the front bar and came there to socialize, not watch the dancers. They thought he was married but was probably separated. Christy and Kelly said the detectives should talk to Herb, a Allen's close friend. They always sat together at the Yellow Rose. Herb came in for an interview on January 26, 2005. He had been interviewed in 1994, but that file appeared to have been lost. Herb described himself as a close friend of Allen's. He, Allen and several other dudes were regulars at the Yellow Rose. They had met there in 1991 or 1992 and a group formed that continued to meet at the bar for each other's company and friendship. The group met almost every day at the club and usually stayed there from around 5pm until 9:30pm he said they didn't go there for the dancers. He described the patronage as a happy hour atmosphere. The others in the group were Harold S, Joe D, Tom T. And Ben L. Herb described his drinking buddy Alan Mann as a nice guy, a well mannered gentleman. They didn't socialize much outside the Yellow Rose. Herb had been to Allen's home only once. Herb then told the detectives that even though the Happy Hour group did not frequent the Yellow Rose to patronize the dancers, Allen had had a short term affair with one of the dancers, a woman named Miriam. Dawn found out about this affair. It ended when Allen helped Miriam move to Colorado. Herb said he thought a jealous boyfriend of Miriam's might be responsible for Allen's murder. Detective Blackmore spent a lot of time tracking down Harold S. Who is now living in Florida. He said he was Burt's best friend at the time of the murder and he had never been interviewed. He said he and Burt met at the Yellow Rose and were close friends for two years, but he didn't know about the affair or any financial problems. Allen rarely discussed his personal life or problems and didn't talk about his wife. He learned of the affair with the dancer Miriam from Dawn. At Allen's funeral, when asked, Harold said he had no idea who could have murdered Allen. He described him as a genuinely nice guy and was shocked to learn of his murder. He said that he always assumed that Allen had surprised a burglar. Next, Detective Blackmore located and interviewed Allen's former mistress, Miriam. She at least had been interviewed in the original investigation after police found a diary that Allen kept that detailed his relationship with her. Now, Miriam told Detective Blackburn that she met Allan at the Yellow Rose. She described him as very sweet, gentle and polite. Miriam said that she was attracted to him and that they often sat and talked for hours. He told her he was married, but said his relationship with his wife was largely platonic at that point. Miriam described herself as the aggressor in the relationship and asked Allen for a date. They saw each other for six to seven months. At some point during their relationship, Allen's wife learned of the affair and Allen was sent to sleep in the guest room. Miriam said she'd been to Allen's home a few times when his wife was at work. The affair slowed when in late summer 1991, she moved to Denver, Colorado to attend school. Allen helped her move and helped pay for the relocation. He came to visit her in Denver at least once, but when he started talking about leaving his wife, she cautioned him against the idea and suggested that he work on his marriage. First she didn't want him to leave his wife and then regret it later. She continued to see him when she returned to Austin periodically to visit family. But they finally ended it. Asked about what else was going on in Allen's life, Miriam said she was aware that his business was failing. She said he told her he and his business partner John had borrowed money from disreputable sources. Like a loan shark, she thought. She thought the amount they had borrowed was around 5,000 to $15,000. Allen was worried about it, she said. Detective Blackmore asked Miriam if there was anyone in her life who could have been jealous and offed Allen. She said when she started things up with Allen, she had a stalker. A very large 6 foot 4 man named Bob whom she'd gone on a date or two with. He was from Minneapolis, Minnesota and would come to Austin weekly for business. She said that Bob kept showing up, even finding her apartment. Once when Alan was there, she asked him to leave and he did. But he saw Alan there. Miriam said that after she moved to Denver, Bob located her there and showed up on the campus of the University of Denver where she was going to school. He pretended to be meeting with a professor at DU about an invention the two were working on. But she thought it was scary that he followed her to Colorado. Maybe he did something to Allen, she said. At the end of the interview, Detective Blackmore asked Miriam if she would provide a DNA sample. He wanted to eliminate her as a contributor to the DNA mixture found in evidentiary item number 11, the bloody shoe print in the kitchen. Miriam consented and willingly gave samples. Miriam's sister Shawna, also a dancer at the Yellow Rose, was interviewed by Detective Blackmore on March 7, 2005. She also knew Allen and had been to his house on one occasion. She had no idea who might have killed him. She said all she knew about the murder was that he was killed in his home while alone and that nothing was taken. Detective Blackmore did look extensively into this stalker Bob guy who was stalking Miriam. He certainly sounded like a good suspect because of the Miriam angle. I don't know how Bob was ruled out, but he was. He didn't kill Allen. The original detectives had looked into a lot of the personnel associated with the Yellow Rose. They didn't think that Allen's friends had anything to do with his murder. But there were plenty of unsavory types who were regulars at the large, bustling and popular strip club bouncers, dealers, dancers, boyfriends, and so on. Everyone with a record or who was rumored to have interacted with Allen in any way, even indirectly, was looked at A significant lead that Detective Blackmore followed up on was a female bartender at the Yellow Rose named Nancy. You'll remember that a woman named Nancy had left a message on Dawn's answering machine about six months after the murder professing to have had an affair with Allen. Many of Allen's Yellow Rose friends mentioned this woman, Nancy, a bartender and dancer, as someone Allen was close with. Kelly and Kristen, the dancer's sisters, had even made statements back in 1994 to the effect that Allen and Nancy were having an affair. Now, in 2004, Kelly said she didn't recall making the 1994 statements about Allen having an affair with Nancy, but she wouldn't be surprised. They were very close. She said that Nancy was the type of person who seemed to thrive on drama in her life. She described her back in 1994 as sleazy and trailer trash. Detective Blackmore was able to track down this Nancy H. Which was pretty incredible considering the Yellow Rose had reportedly employed over a thousand people a year, and this was 10 years after the murder. Nancy described Allen as very sweet, a man who was an atypical customer in the topless bar environment because he was there for the friendships and did not appear interested in the dancers except for Miriam. Nancy knew about this affair. Nancy said Allen was a good listener and they talked often, but he never made a pass at her and they were just friends. She said Allen and his drinking buddies were a little dorky, and other than the Miriam situation, there was nothing illicit going on. She never saw Alan have an issue with anyone, and no one had a problem with him that she knew of. Nancy said at the time. In 1994, she herself was married, was dating a bartender at the Yellow Rose named Randy T. On the side, and she had a lot of drama in her own life. Reports from the original investigators were interesting. Nancy was not the only side piece of this Randy T's at the Yellow Rose. He also had a thing with Allen's mistress, Miriam. Detective Blackmore now noted that Randy T. Had never been interviewed. He contacted him for an interview, and Randy was initially cooperative but did not remember much about the murder. He echoed that Allen was a gentleman who never drank to excess. He admitted to dating Nancy and Miriam as the interview went on and the detective probed about Allen, the drinking buddies, drama at the club, love triangles, jealousy, and so on. Randi grew increasingly nervous and shifty, giving terse answers. His attitude and demeanor seemed to have changed throughout the interview. He got more and more nervous, and several inconsistencies were noted. The detective also noted that Randy was a larger dude who wore a size 12 shoe, which was the approximate size of the boot print left at the scene. So Detective Blackmore requested that Randy submit to a polygraph exam. He refused and later emailed Detective Blackmore and said after consulting with an attorney, he would not be speaking with investigators any further. Well, that was interesting. In July of 2004, Detective Blackmore requested that the latent lifts in this case be considered for APHIS entry. Remember that there were several unidentified prints collected from the house on the outside sliding glass door and pantry door frame and top edge of the yellow plastic cup and the back cover of the Raven catalog. The Print examiner determined that while there were several prints that were comparison quality suitable for identification, only four of them appeared to qualify for the APHIS fingerprint system, and four of them qualified for the APHIS palm print system. All of the latent prints were entered into the unsolved latent print database for a continuing search against new exemplar entries. But remember, there was a belief that the suspect had been wearing gloves. Prince recovered from the scene could have been completely unrelated to him. Instacart understands that not all bananas are created equal. Some people want them green, some want them ripe, some want them ready right now. With Instacart's preference Picker, now available at most retailers, you can choose how you like certain items, like banana ripeness, deli thickness, even avocados before your shopper even starts. So instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, you get groceries picked the way you would pick them. It's a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Download the app and get bananas just how you like with Instacart. During this reinvestigation of the case, Detective Blackmore assessed the remaining physical evidence. In early 2005, he met with DNA analyst Teresa Francis of the DPS Crime Lab. They determined that there were numerous items of physical evidence that had never been tested or were overdue for updated testing. They started to start with an item that had been tested previously. The lab still had extract from item number 11, the bloody shoe print in the kitchen. Item 11 had previously been tested and found to be a mixture. Ms. Francis agreed to use new methods to amplify the profile. The next month, in February 2005, Detective Blackmore received a phone call from the DPS lab director, Brady Mills. He advised that the bloody footprint, item number 11, was consistent with a mixture. Allen Mann's profile was present in the mixture. The other contributor's profile contained insufficient markers present for CODIS entry. But Might be usable for inclusion or exclusion Should a suspect come along. They decided to move forward with new testing. In late February 2005, Detective Blackmore submitted Allen's fingernail clippings collected at his autopsy. His pants, Dawn's shoes, four pieces of Sheetrock, the Better Homes and Gardens magazine, the knife block and the Henckels knife, the papers with blood on them, the cutting from Allen's shirt, and the towel found near the back door. On April 4, 2005, lab analyst Teresa Francis had results. She had tested one of the Sheetrock samples submitted and was able to develop a single source male DNA profile from blood found on the Sheetrock that did not belong to Alan Mann. It was consistent with the drips of blood found on the foyer floor and in the kitchen. The unknown male DNA profile was suitable for entry into codis. All the other blood, hairs, fibers and fingernail scrapings, including blood on the shoe prints, kitchen cabinet and gate, were consistent with the victim. The hair on the knife collected at autopsy was consistent with Allen's hair. And the DNA from the blood on the Rolex was also Allen's. But now they had the DNA profile of the suspected killer. Several of the samples were depleted after this testing, but several were frozen for future use, including item 7A, the knife blade, item R08, the knife handle, item R08A, the cuttings and the DNA extracts. The DNA profile was entered into CODIS at the state and national levels. And I imagine everyone was quite surprised when it hit to no one. Detective Blackmore kept at it. On February 24, 2006, he re interviewed a man who had given a sworn statement back in 1994. Adam B. the time, he lived on Alabama on the northern side of the wooded area that backed up to the man's home. He was the one building a deck in his backyard who saw a truck come to the dead end of Sweet Clover where it intersects with Alabama and turn around. He recalled the truck was brown and driven by a white male. When asked, Adam said he thought he would have noticed if someone walked out of the woods and got into the truck parked at the dead end. Because he was outside most of the day, he'd seen nothing of the sort. Detective Blackmore collected a voluntary DNA sample from Adam just in case. On April 20, 2006, Detective Blackmore received a copy of the DPS DNA report from Lindsay Smith, a DNA technician at the crime lab. The report advised that the DNA swab obtained from Adam B. Had been subject to testing and compared to the DNA profile developed from the sheetrock recovered from the crime scene and there was no match. Adam B. Was eliminated as a suspect in the case. Detective Rick Blackmore also saw to it that as many as 20 persons of interest were checked against the fingerprints and evidence in the case. And then he retired the case, remaining open like a wound. In May of 2013, Austin Police Cold case investigator Jeff Gabler was assigned to the man. Kate. He brought himself up to speed, noting that the foreign male DNA profile was derived from a blood drop on one of the pieces of sheetrock. This piece of sheetrock was in the area where the body was found, and it was apparent that the victim fought his attacker and was a very bloody scene. Allen's assailant had possibly been struck or kicked by Allen and had bled on the wall. In April of 2013, Gabler contacted retired Detective Rick Blackmore about the case. Blackmore felt that the initial investigators focused more on the victim, having interrupted a burglary of his home in progress, then on his assailant being known to him. The two investigators discussed the wounds suffered by Allen and the possibility that he was attacked from behind the overall scene. And the overkill pointed to someone who was angry with Allen and not just a burglar trying to get away. Detective Gabler's 2013 report says, quote, the likely avenue of escape would have been the sliding glass patio door. There would be no reason for the burglar to encounter Mr. Mann as he walked into the foyer where the fight and stabbing occurred. Any burglar, it would seem, would be able to run away with no physical contact with Mr. Mann. If it was true that the firearm had been taken by the burglar, there would be no need to attack Mr. Mann with the kitchen knife either, end quote. Considering the paucity of suspects in the case file, Detectives Gabler and Blackmore discussed Yellow Rose bartender Randy T. The one who was dating Nancy Allen's female bartender friend, and Miriam Allen's girlfriend. In his 2004 interview, Randy T. Had initially been cooperative and then changed throughout the interview, eventually refusing to cooperate. His refusal to take a polygraph and to speak with police further led Detective Blackmore to try to obtain a DNA sample from Randi, but he was unsuccessful in obtaining anything, and then he retired. Now Detective Gabler and Blackmore agreed it was time to get a DNA sample from Randi since they had an unknown male DNA profile to compare it to. The cold case and Missing Persons unit started surveilling Randy t. On Thursday, May 2, 2013, Detectives Gabler and Swann staked out Randy's Apartment complex and vehicle. They watched his car and apartment on and off for days, but kept missing him. Then on May 7, at 1:37pm, Randy walked out of his building and approached the Mazda that was registered to him. He was carrying a white trash bag with red drawstrings tied and closed. He opened the door to the blue Mazda CX7, put the bag on the passenger seat and then got in the driver's side and drove around to the dumpster area behind the complex. He got out and put the bag in the dumpster and then drove away. Detective Gabler went to the dumpster and saw many white trash bags, but only one had red drawstrings. He had to climb into the dumpster to get the bag. Mail inside the bag confirmed the trash was Randy's. The investigators collected empty water bottles and fused tea bottles and submitted them for DNA testing. Male DNA was found on the mouth of a water bottle. The testing results assumed that Randy was indeed the source of the DNA on the found bottle. Assuming that then he was excluded as the contributor of the unidentified partial profile from the mixture from item 11, the Bloody Shoe print, and also as the contributor of the DNA profile from the blood stain on the Sheetrock. All the latent prints also came back negative to Randy. It wasn't Randy who killed Allen. In January of 2023, the Allen Mann case was reassigned to Detective Joseph Jednack of the Austin Police Cold Case Unit. Detective Jednak set to work examining the evidence to determine which items should be submitted for updated DNA testing. He also emailed the FBI asking for assistance identifying the boot prints left by the suspect. He received the FBI's Boot Print Assessment Report on March 10, 2023. They concurred that the Brahma boot sold exclusively at Walmart was more likely than not the boot that made the impressions at the crime scene. Turning to the Rolex watch, Detective Jednak learned that the Rolex would be conservatively appraised at $4,000 to $5,000 in value at the time of the 1994 murder. But the suspect didn't take the watch. Detective Jednak's report says, quote, the only item determined to be missing was a semi automatic pistol which was not used during the murder. Also, the furniture and objects inside the house didn't appear to have been disturbed as seen in most burglary or home invasion type robberies. Burt Mann seemed to have been attacked as soon as he entered his home. The brutality of the assault would leave a reasonably objective person to believe that Burt Mann was deliberately targeted. In this attack. End quote. It was time to turn to IGG to identify the source of the foreign male DNA profile once and for all. In early March of 2023, Detective Jednack learned from the Austin PD Forensic Science Unit that the sample from the Sheetrock was sufficient for SNP testing. Although such testing would deplete the entire sample, they gave it the green light. On March 27, DNA extracts from item EG11. The Sheetrock sample were sent to Bode Technology for IgG analysis. Detective Jednak received the results from Bode on June 27, 2023. They had identified three likely first cousins of the unknown suspect in the open source databases on both paternal and maternal sides of the suspect's family tree. Family names included Robbins, Yolita Haygood and Nash. Detective Jen Next said it was like winning the lottery. Three first cousins, two on the paternal side and one on the maternal side, triangulated right to the suspect's parents. And they had only one son. Building out the trees of these cousins and evaluating their relatedness to each other and the suspect, the genealogist concluded that the profile belonged to a male child resulting from the union of Kenneth Wayne Robbins and Doris Marie Haygood. The possible suspect was Kenneth Wayne Robbins Jr. He was the only documented child of Kenneth Sr. And Doris Haygood. His name had never appeared in the case file. Detective Jednak obtained a photo of Robbins from the time frame of Allen's murder and began showing it to people who knew Allan and people who had possibly seen the suspect that day. No one picked him out of a photo lineup, including Allen's friend Herb or the dancer Christy. Dawn had never seen him, nor had Herb, Allen's friend from the Yellow Rose. The dancer Christy had never seen him. Next, Detective Jednak turned to Kelly, the other dancer's sister. She picked Robbins out of the photo array as someone who looked familiar, but she couldn't remember where she knew him from. It was time to get a DNA sample from Robbins. Logistics were tricky. Lubbock, Texas, where the suspect was living, was a six hour drive from Austin. They could not regularly surveil the suspect with that kind of distance. So the Austin detectives called Texas Ranger Jimmy Chatfield asking for assistance. On July 14, the Rangers started surveilling the apartment Robin shared in Lubbock with his wife and their daughter. But Robbins was pretty much never there. He worked as an over the road truck driver and was gone much of the time. At the beginning of September, Detective Jednak decided to contact Robbins employer, Melton Trucklines. He explained to the company rep who answered the phone that he was hoping to gather a surreptitious DNA sample from one of their drivers, Robbins. But he was told that Robbins abruptly quit his job on July 24, leaving his tractor and loaded trailer in the company lot with the keys in it. He said he wanted to spend more time at home with his family. Then on September 4, 2023, Robbins updated his employer on Facebook. From Melton Truck Lines to Grandyke Transport. He had a new job. So Detective Jednak reached out to Grandyk requesting permission to enter the company vehicle driven by Robbins and swab the interior for DNA. Their attorney said that would require a warrant. Okay, fine. On September 7, 2023, Detective Jednak got an email from the attorney saying, I can confirm to you that Mr. Robbins has been employed by my client from July 26th to the present out of their Lubbock terminal and is anticipated to be back at that terminal tomorrow. After completing a run to Arlington, the detective filed a search warrant for a blood sample, a buccal swab, and a hair sample from Robbins. It charged that Robbins had committed capital murder and laid out the reasons why he should be required to submit samples. Judge Selina Alvarenga signed the warrant on September 7, 2023. The original plan was to execute the warrant at Robin's residence in Lubbock. But Detective Jednick decided it was best to approach Robin at Grandyke's Lubbock terminal. Most of the other employees would be gone for the weekend, which would allow for some privacy while speaking with Robbins. And it would be easier for the law enforcement personnel to surround him and disarm him than if he were inside his house with potential hostages. Robin's schedule and the truck's GPS information were relayed to the detective by Grandec Transport's attorney, Ms. Slattery, and the terminal manager, Jeff Cooper. So on September 8th, Detective Jednack, Detective Beathard and Lubbock county deputies were waiting at the front gate at 4:30pm when Robbins arrived in Grandyke Transport truck number 6771. When Robbins drove to the entrance gate, the deputies pulled behind his truck. As he exited from the truck's cab to open the gate, the deputies and Detective Jednik approached him on foot. Detective Jednak frisked Robbins for weapons and introduced himself as a detective from Austin, Texas. Quote, I explained his name came up in an investigation and I had a search warrant to obtain his DNA. I gave Robbins a copy of the search warrant and allowed him time to read it. By going to my car and getting the materials needed to take the sample, end quote. Detective Jednak told me that as soon as Robbins saw that he was from Austin PD's Homicide Cold Case Unit, he knew what they were there for. He got visibly nervous and his knees started to shake. Detective Jednick's report says, quote, I explained to Robbins that if he wanted to discuss the reason for the search warrant, we would need to do so. In a Lubbock Police Department interview room. Robbins insisted that he didn't know why we would need his DNA, end quote. They talked a little bit about Robbins living in Austin in the early to mid-1990s, which he admitted. Then the detective collected his DNA via a buccal swab. The report continues, quote, Robbins still needs to decide whether to go to LPD for a formal interview. So I gave him my business card and asked him to think it over and offered to drive back to Lubbock to speak with him if he wanted to talk. The deputies and APD then left Robbins to finish dropping off his truck for the weekend, end quote. The APD detectives drove back to Austin on September 13, 2023. They shipped Robin's Buckle swabs to Bode Technology with requests for analysis. With a five day turnaround, they didn't even have time to get the results before there was news. On the morning of Wednesday, September 13, a Mrs. Roten from Grandyke Transport's Human Resources called and said Kenneth Robbins Jr. Had reported to work and picked up his truck on Monday morning, the 11th. The truck's GPS showed it had stopped at the Road Pilot in Weatherford, Texas that same day and it hadn't moved since, Ms. Roten said. On Tuesday, with the truck immobilized and not following its designated route and unable to get in touch with Robbins, she called Robbins home and spoke with his daughter. She said she'd spoken to Robbins and he said he was sick. Ms. Roten told Detective Jednak that Road Pilot employees had recently knocked on the truck's door and no one answered. They told her the curtains were drawn on the truck and therefore they couldn't see inside. At 9:19am Detective Gennak called over to the Weatherford Police Department dispatch and requested a welfare check on Robbins and the truck. He told them to exercise caution as Robbins was a suspect in a capital murder case. But he couldn't be arrested until they received DNA confirmation, which they were waiting for. The Weatherford PD sent out a unit. They called Detective Jednak. At 10:24am Robbins was dead. Inside his truck's cab. There were no obvious signs of trauma and no suspicious items in the truck. Weatherford PD Detective Morrow agreed to seize Robbins cell phone and get it to the Austin Police. Robbins body was inspected by the Parker county medical examiner and then transported to Tarrant county medical examiner for an autopsy the next day. On the 14th, Dr. Frase at the TCME reported to Detective Jednak that he believed Robbins overdosed on stimulants or a combination of stimulants and opioids, but he couldn't be sure until he received the toxicology report. In about four to six weeks, APD experts did a phone dump of Robin's phone and found nothing relating to the man case or any kind of confessional videos. But there were Internet searches for poisons on September 9 and September 12 after the search warrant for his DNA had been served on him. On September 9, he searched for sleeping pills. He also searched that same day for nicotine poisoning and rodenticide and antifreeze. On the 12th, he searched again for antifreeze. On September 20, 2023, Bode Technologies issued their final DNA report relating to Robin's buccal swab. It compared the sample from Robins to the DNA profile obtained from the bloodstain on the drywall. The BODE report says this DNA profile matches the DNA profile obtained From Kenneth Robbins Jr. The probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual with this DNA profile is at least 1 in 62 quintillion in the US population. In other words, it was a match. Kenneth Robbins Jr. S cause of death turned out to be ethylene glycol poisoning, most likely from drinking antifreeze. The manner of death was suicide. So who was Robbins? Kenneth Wayne Robbins Jr. Was born in Lubbock, Texas to Kenneth Wayne Robbins Sr. And Doris Marie Haygood on May 5, 1971. His father, Kenneth Sr. Was a Navy veteran and head chemist working at South Plains drugs when Ken Jr. Was born. Ken Jr. Married Christina V. In January 1973 in Tucson, where his father had moved when he died. He was married to his wife, who I'm not naming, and they shared a daughter whom I'm also not naming, his obituary says. Kenneth. Ken Wayne Robbins Jr. 52, passed away unexpectedly at work on Tuesday, September 12, 2023 in Weatherford, Texas. He was born in Lubbock and is preceded in death by his father, Kenneth Wayne Robbins. Ken achieved his lifelong dream when he received his CDL license and became a big rig truck driver just like his paw paw while he was on the road for a delivery. He passed away at a truck stop. Ken had previously received an honorable discharge from the military on October 7, 2023. There was a celebration of life for immediate family. Ken will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him. Many, many extended family members were listed in the obituary. In December, Detective Jednik returned a phone call from Robin's wife. She had been absolutely blindsided by finding out her husband was a murderer and was devastated and in tears every time Detective Jednak spoke with her for weeks to come. So what else did Robbins do? His first known arrest was on May 31, 1991 in the Austin area, Travis County. He was working as a security guard at Capitol Protective Services and was charged with stealing a.45 caliber pistol and $40 in cash from a desk of a client of his employer. He was charged with felony three theft. On September 19, 1991, he got four years conditional probation. Meanwhile, on July 23, 1991, Robbins was working at an Austin area stop and Go gas station and took a credit card that was secured in the manager's office for safekeeping after a customer accidentally left it behind. Robbins then attempted to use the card at the same stop and go to charge purchases in the amounts of 100, 500, $1,000 and $5,000. This guy doesn't sound too bright. He also tried to use the card at Mission Jewelers at Highland Mall. On July 26, 1991, he was arrested and charged with credit card abuse. Felony 3. This conviction was sentenced together with the felony 3 theft that I just mentioned from the gas station and was why he got the four years conditional probation on September 19, 1991. On March 8 of 93, the 147th District Court issued a probation violation warrant for Robin's arrest. On May 10th of that year, he was again placed on four years probation in conjunction with the ABD theft charge. Then on January 13th, 1994, the Travis County 147th District Court issued probation violation warrants for both the 1991 offenses. On April 25th, 1994, Robbins was finally arrested in Montgomery county for the Travis county probation revocation warrant. He'd been caught creeping around a residential neighborhood, not his own late at night and called in as a suspicious person. The deputy discovered the Travis county warrants and arrested him. The report documented that Robbins was wearing black boots and had two knives in his possession. When he was processed into the jail, he listed his home address as Route 1, Box 173, West Kyle, Texas. He was transported to Travis County Jail on April 27, 1994 and received six years of conditional probation for both cases. He was released from the Travis county jail on May 4, 1994 and presumably returned to his home address In Kyle, about 15 miles from the Mann's home. He murdered Burt Allen Mann just eight days later on May 12. On May 26, Robbins failed to report for his initial probation interview in Travis County. It appears right after Allen's murder he absconded to Arizona as he was issued a driver's license there on June 20, 1994. On November 26, his ex girlfriend named Anita filed a harassment report with the Pima County Sheriff's Office alleging domestic violence by Robbins. Then on December 22, 1994, Travis county issued probation violation warrants for his arrest. Once again, on October 24, 1995, Robbins filed a report of an assault with the Sheriff's Office in Pima County, Arizona alleging Hispanic male asked him for money at a truck stop parking lot and then cut his arm with a knife. Then on February 9, 1996, a Pima County Sheriff's deputy found Robbins and a woman in a vehicle parked near the airport. The deputy documented numerous injuries to Robbins face and head. Robbins claimed he was in a bar fight in Tucson. However, Tucson PD had no information about any bar fight. What was Robbins really up to next? On March 29, 1996, a Pima County Sheriff's deputy pulled Robbins over and arrested him for reckless driving. Then between June and September 1998, there were several law enforcement contacts with Robbins for traffic or suspicious vehicles in Lakeway City park in which he was cited numerous times. On September 22, 1998, APD arrested Robbins for theft. He had started working at Lowe's on September 10, 1998 and on September 22 he was recorded stealing $302 from the cash register. Again not that bright. Then he was arrested in October 1998 in Williamson County, Texas for theft of property less than $500. He pleaded guilty and got 90 days in jail with credit for 30 days. On July 7, 2021 he was arrested by Texas DPS for DWI and four days later on July 11 he was arrested for the two Tarrant County Probation Violation warrants dating back to 1991. On August 28, 2001 he was finally sentenced to two years in the Texas Department of Corrections for the two 1991 charges. He was released on April 12, 2002 after serving just eight months. He was arrested by Austin PD on March 18, 2004 on the DPS DWI warrant and then again January 16, 2005. He was arrested for another DWI second offense and driving while license suspended. I don't know if he did prison time for that or just got probation. His next arrest was on May 3, 2006, when the Cedar Park, Texas PD arrested him for probation violation for DWI. Then on September 18, 2006, Travis county arrested Robbins for GWI's second offense warrant. And on April 27, 2013, Williamson County, Texas charged Robins with criminal damage to property related to a road rage incident in Cedar Park. Robbins admitted to chasing a vehicle and punching and breaking the windshield of the other driver's car. I don't have any more details, so note that even though he had an overwhelming number of arrests, none of his arrests were really for violent crimes. Except for the road rage incident, a domestic violence incident and a claimed bar fight. There is no doubt quite a lot we don't know about about what Kenneth Robbins was up to. All right, let's get back to our victim, Alan Mann. Detective Jednak met with Alan's Sister Catherine on December 16, 2023. She said she would like to have the victim's Rolex watch back because it was a gift her father gave to Alan. And so the APD agreed to return it. It was time. Get it. The Austin PD held a press conference on February 28, 2024, announcing the identification of the killer of Burt Allen Mann. In 1994, Sergeant Melanie Rodriguez of the Cold Case Homicide Missing Persons Unit told the assembled media that on May 12, 1994, the victim, Bert Allen Mann, met a burglar in his home and a very violent encounter ensued. Allen was stabbed multiple times and died in the entryway to his house. The suspect was injured and left his blood inside the residence. Not until 2005 did the APD Cold Case Unit obtain a single source suspect DNA profile from blood from the crime scene and enter it into CODIS. Sgt. Rodriguez said that over the last 29 years, over 29 detectives had contributed to the progression and investigation of the case. Investigators developed over 40 persons of interest during the investigation. These included recent burglary suspects, neighbors and acquaintances of Allen. They were all ruled out via latent print comparisons, DNA or confirmed alibis. The investigation showed Robbins lived in Austin at the time of Mann's murder and he is believed to be the person responsible for Alan Mann's death. Had he not taken his own life after his DNA was collected, the authorities specified he would have been charged with capital murder. Sergeant Rodriguez wrapped up with quote, Mr. Mann is survived by his wife and his sister and they are happy enough to have an answer as to the who. I don't know that they will ever have an answer as to the why. And I don't know, quite honestly, if any of those answers would ever be sufficient for their grief. End quote Kathy Mae, Allen's younger sister, told KVUE that it's been emotional hearing the news almost 30 years later. She said, quote, I always felt like I could walk right past him on the street and not even know it. We don't have to wonder anymore. We don't have that big question hanging over our hearts. I had really kind of given up hope that it would happen, and I'm so grateful. Kathy added that even though her family can begin healing, she feels deep sadness for Robin's family after finding out the news all these years later. They stay on my mind all the time because I can't imagine learning this after nearly 30 years with your son and husband and father's background, kathy said. Interestingly, Robyn's teenage daughter did not really get along with her father upon learning he was a murderer. She was reportedly more concerned about the trauma her father had inflicted on his victim's family than she was about the impact on her and her mother. So Kenneth Robbins Jr. Was 23 years old when he killed Alan Mann. There is no evidence that the crime was anything other than random. He did not know Allen from the Yellow Rose or anywhere else the detectives could find. It's believed that Robbins burgled the man's home, and since there were no cars in the driveway and it was during typical walk working hours, he believed the residents of the home were at work. He had parked at the dead end on Sweet Clover, where the witness, Adam B. Later saw him do a U turn in his truck. He walked through the wooded area along the tree line, pried open the back slider and entered the house. We can only speculate about what happened inside the home. The luminal seemed to indicate that Robbins did not take the gun from the headboard of the bed in the bedroom after stepping in the blood. But if he had the gun on him when Allen came home, why did he not use it? Perhaps it wasn't loaded. It may be that simple. Anyway, while Robbins was in the house, Allen walked in carrying his satchel and the mail. He put down his bag on its usual table and was sorting the mail when the attack occurred. So why did Robbins go after Allen instead of just running outside and escaping? Allen was a big man, as you heard. Detectives say it was unusual for a burglary suspect to go after the homeowner in that manner, Robbins was a large man as well, standing at over 6ft and weighing more than 200 pounds. When he was finally arrested. Unfortunately, I don't know his shoe size and whether it was consistent with the bloody boot prints on the floor. In any event, Allen was confronted by the suspect. The onslaught could have happened in the foyer, or Allen could have dropped the mail in the foyer as he was trying to escape out the front door. But Detective Jetnak thinks he knows why Robbins made the split second decision to kill Allen. Allen saw him. Robbins had just days earlier been released on probation. Once again, we heard how many times he managed to get probation instead of actual prison time. And this time, the judge told him he was giving him one more chance. But if he violated probation again, he would be sent back to prison for a nice long stretch. Well, Robbins was willing to kill to avoid prison. And decades later, he was willing to take his own life to avoid prison as well. The overkill that Robbins exhibited in stabbing Allen 16 times after bludgeoning him indicates, though, that the murder was not a calm and calculated decision. It exhibited significant rage, something we suspect Robbins experienced at other times in his life, such as when he was arrested for domestic violence and road rage. I suspect there are many more incidents that we do not know about. I spitballed with Detective Jednak about Robin's decision to take his own life by drinking antifreeze rather than a more pleasant method such as taking pills or shooting himself. After all, he had stolen a gun from the man's house. We had no answers for this conundrum other than the observation that Robbins, despite stealing the gun, had no documented history with firearms that we know of. He may have just sold it for some quick cash. I wonder if perhaps drinking antifreeze was Robbins way of punishing himself, ensuring his death was agonizing as penitence for his crime. That would be giving him a lot of credit for being remorseful. Something I'm not sure he was capable of, given his lifelong criminal history. One thing I do know is that the murder of Alan Mann was a tragic, senseless waste of human life. Again, while we have answers as to the who, they seem unsatisfactory, because the answer fails to infuse Allen's death with meaning. I hope his family is able to make peace with it. Anyway, thanks so much to Austin Cold Case Detective Jednack for speaking with me about this case. And if you are one of the bad guys, they are coming for you. Thanks for listening to this episode of dnaid before you leave. Please let me tell you about some important things related to the show. If you'd like to support this podcast and in the process get access to early and ad free episodes as well as bonus content like crime scene photos, you can sign up for a Patreon subscription for only $5 a month by heading over to patreon.com dnaid. Of course, you're welcome to contribute more than $5 a month. We rely on Patreon funds to pay for the original source materials I use to research each episode. If Patreon isn't your thing, you can also show your support with an AbJack Insider subscription through Apple Podcasts. It costs just $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. Your Abjak Insider subscription will give you the same benefits for not only dnaid but for all of the shows on the abjak Network like Killer Communications and Campus Killings. Head over to Apple Podcasts and find the DNAID page or look for the ABJAC Network to get started. If you're on social media, we'd love to interact with you there. DNAID is on every major social media platform. Search your favorite platforms for DNAID podcasts to find us. We also have a YouTube channel and our website is DNAIDpodcast.com you can find links links to all of these anytime in our show notes. If you need to reach the show, contact us by emailing dnaid podcastmail.com finally, if you want to pick up some fun DNA ID merch and represent the show, visit the store at www.customizedgirl.coms DNAIDpodcast. DNAID is researched, written and hosted by me, Jessica Bettencourt. It's produced by me and Mike Morford of abjack Entertainment Music by Connor Bettencourt.
Podcast: DNA: ID
Host: Jessica Bettencourt (produced by AbJack Entertainment)
Episode Theme:
The episode investigates the 1994 murder of Bert Allen “Allen” Mann in Austin, Texas—a case recently solved using investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). While the crime scene pointed to a burglary gone wrong, decades of investigation revealed a complex hunt for the killer, culminating in the identification of Kenneth Wayne Robbins Jr. The episode encapsulates the transformation of cold case techniques and the emotional closure DNA technologies can finally bring.
The central theme is the intersection of classic detective work and modern genetic genealogy in solving a bewildering cold case. The show goes beyond the “whodunit,” delving deeply into Allen Mann’s life, the horror and chaos of his brutal murder, the exhaustive (and often frustrating) efforts of investigators, and finally, the layered implications of finding the “who” but not truly understanding the “why.”
Collecting the Suspect’s DNA (2023):
DNA Match Confirmation:
DNA from crime scene matches Robbins with virtually absolute certainty ([2:28:00]).
On the lack of burglary evidence:
On overkill:
Reflections on closure:
Host's closing reflection:
Jessica Bettencourt’s narration is detailed, compassionate, and analytical, blending clinical breakdowns of evidence with the human impact of the murder. The tone remains empathetic, especially regarding the Mann family’s suffering and the bittersweet nature of genetic genealogy “solving”—generating answers, but seldom true closure or understanding.
The DNA: ID episode on Bert Allen Mann is a compelling narrative about technology’s power to answer mysteries, but also of the emotional void that even a perfect forensic answer can leave. It’s a story of heartbreak, tireless investigation, human resilience, and the enduring randomness of violent loss.
If you want more episodes or updates, visit DNA: ID’s website or their Patreon for bonus content.