WEBVTT
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During the 1990s in Bridgeport, Connecticut, four women were brutalized, violated,
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and strangled to death.
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This is a serial killer. He's leaving a signature on
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how he commits these homicides.
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In a violent city where many murders went unsolved, the
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deaths were not immediately linked.
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They were dead-ended. The cases had no suspects, they had
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no leads.
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Ten years later, cold case detectives re-ran the DNA evidence
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and they got a hit.
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Then the computer made the link and notified Bridgeport PD
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that there is a hit and it belongs to this
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guy down in Georgia.
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Drifter Emmanuel Webb used his charisma to conceal dark and
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destructive desires.
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Webb is the smiling face of evil, always warm, never threatening,
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and yet something utterly horrifying is going on behind that facade.
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He wanted to kill.
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He had opportunities to kill, and he didn't miss one
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of them.
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Although his crimes went unpunished for years, a dedicated task
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force would eventually unmask Emmanuel Webb as one of the
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world's most evil killers. In 2006, 40-year-old drifter Emmanuel Webb
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thought he'd committed the perfect murders.
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These serial offenders, the narcissism, they think they're smarter than
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everybody else, and each murder they get away with proves
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it to them. They begin to think they're infallible.
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In the 1990s, forensic science was limited, but it was
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only a matter of time before it caught up with Webb.
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DNA wasn't refined, so you had this sample that was
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saved with the hopes of, at some point, technology would
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catch up. And it did.
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18 years after Webb killed his first victim, the man
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the papers called the East End Killer would face justice
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for what he'd done.
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He'll never get out. You know, I mean, that's a
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death sentence for him.
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This killer's story begins on the 9th of April, 1966,
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in Vidalia, Georgia.
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Emmanuel Webb's father, who was a disabled veteran, died when
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he was about three years old, and he lived with
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his mother.
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Webb grew up with his mother and older sister in
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Mount Vernon. In 1984, Webb graduated from high school, and
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he and his sister traveled north.
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He left Georgia to go and live with his sister
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in Bridgeport and Connecticut.
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He worked as a security guard in Fairfield, which is
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an adjacent town to Bridgeport. Lived down the east side.
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The east end of Bridgeport was, I would call, a
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working class area of the city. People lived there all
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their lives.
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Emmanuel Webb was a hardworking man on the surface with
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quite a charismatic manner, very attractive to women. He meets
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a girl called JD.
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He met her when she was kind of lost, and
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he inserted himself into that situation and ingratiated himself, and
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they started a relationship.
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In 1988, he and 22-year-old JD had a baby. But
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by this time, Webb had developed a serious drug habit.
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There was a second child that came along. He was
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a problematic father. He didn't pay any attention really to
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his partner or his children. He was going on binges.
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He'd go missing for days.
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Emmanuel Webb's behaviour was not unusual in 1990s Bridgeport. It
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was a city in sharp decline.
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In the 1990s, Bridgeport was suffering a crack cocaine epidemic.
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And all that that brings with organized crime and gangs
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and the addiction and the need to get the money
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to pay for that addiction and the poverty that was around,
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that's going to have a massive impact.
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It was also just a very violent city. We had
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high murder rates back then in our cities, mostly from
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either gang activity or drug activity.
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In Bridgeport from 1990 to 1993, there were 287 homicides.
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Most of the murders could be linked to gangs or drugs,
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but there were a handful which did not fit into
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this pattern.
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In April 1990, the fire brigade were called to a
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car fire in the East End.
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And I was one of the first patrol officers that responded.
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Once the car fire was extinguished, there was a body
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that was found there.
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The body belonged to 39-year-old Sharon Cunningham.
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She was found in the car with terrible burns to
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her face and to her body. She was partially clothed.
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She was nude from the waist down.
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But this was no tragic accident.
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She had been ligature strangled with her pantyhose, and then
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there was also secondary injuries, beating, blunt force trauma to
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the head.
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There was no doubt that the death was an unnatural one.
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It was mysterious as to why the car had been
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burned and how she ended up where she ended up.
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Sharon did not drive herself there, did not undress herself.
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There was an attacker who planned this and who took
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every step of the way to try and wipe out
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the evidence of their crime.
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Detectives suspected that Sharon had been sexually assaulted.
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There was DNA found vaginally.
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They found smeritosa in her, and that was saved and preserved.
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The evidence was bagged and recorded, but the investigators had
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no idea who Sharon's killer was.
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A lot of the background work that was done at
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the time, knew where she worked, knew who she frequented,
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but there was really no suspect.
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Two years later, on the 28th of March, 1992, police
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were called to another suspected homicide, just a few blocks
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from where Sharon's body had been found.
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A 29-year-old woman called Minnie Sutton is found dead in
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her apartment.
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Family lady, worked, people knew her. Would go to the
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clubs every once.
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In a while.
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She has been brutally attacked. Her three-year-old son is also
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found in the apartment, but he, thankfully, is unharmed.
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What they discover is Minnie partially clothed with her lower
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torso naked and no underwear on. She also has suffered
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stab wounds to her neck, to her torso, and to
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her stomach area.
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A post-mortem revealed crack cocaine to be present in Minnie's system.
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The cause of death was multiple stab wounds combined with strangulation.
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This is a person who died being choked to death
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while bleeding to death. This is not an attack that
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could have been survived by anyone.
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Interviews with Minnie's family and friends quickly led police to
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a suspect.
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Her boyfriend's brother had assaulted Minnie a couple of weeks before,
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and two days before the homicide. She'd woken up and
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he was kind of threatening her with a knife. This
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is the complex issue of dealing with these homicide cases.
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You can develop good-looking suspects right off the go only
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to wash them out, you know, down the line. And
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that's what occurred here. They're able to rule him out.
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The only lead police had was evidence recovered from the
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crime scene.
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The police investigators discovered two smoked cigarette butts near the
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body of Minnie. and they collect them and they preserve them.
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In the early 1990s, DNA profiling in criminals investigations was
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relatively new.
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DNA technology, as far as getting evidence processed and identifying
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a suspect, isn't as refined as it is now.
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Another murder case went cold. A year later, in April 1993,
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again in the east end of Bridgeport, the body of
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Elizabeth Gandhi was discovered.
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Elizabeth was last seen April 16th, and then her body
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was found on the 19th. It was in an abandoned
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building that was kind of a crack house.
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When her body was found, you know, she was badly beaten.
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Elizabeth's body is found missing. with her breast exposed. This
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is suggestive of a sexual element to the case.
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Elizabeth was a 34-year-old mother of two who'd looked forward
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to welcoming her first grandchild into the world.
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One of her daughters, when the attack took place, was
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in hospital about to give birth to a son, but
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Elizabeth Gandhi never got to see her grandson.
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The cause of death is determined as blunt force injuries
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and strangulation. She is killed, being hit, and also being
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choked to death.
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The crime scene was a bloody one, and there were
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clear signs that a struggle had taken place.
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There's blood spatter on the walls, up to about six foot.
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Unfortunately, that building was an abandoned building, so a lot
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of contamination, a lot of people's DNAs could potentially be present.
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There was blood and tissue under her fingernails that was preserved, again,
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you know, in hopes of DNA analysis would catch up
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and allow that analysis to come with a match.
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Witnesses were interviewed, evidence bagged, but no link was made
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between the murders and no suspects identified. No one knew
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that a violent sexual predator was targeting the women of Bridgeport.
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In June 1993, just 10 weeks after Elizabeth Gandy's death,
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Bridgeport PD were called to the home of another young
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woman in the city's East End.
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Sheila Etheridge, once again, person that had her own home, worked,
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social life, family.
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She's been missing for a few days.
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She'd had a birthday celebration on June 25th. The last
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known contact with her was a telephone call on the
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morning of June 26th. Her body was found a couple
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of days later in her apartment.
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Her father and a friend break into Sheila's apartment by
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climbing through a window, only to discover, tragically, Sheila's body
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already decomposed.
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There are signs of strangulation, including hemorrhages, bruising in the neck.
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But the decomposition took away the degree of confidence required
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to definitively call.
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The manner of death a homicide.
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A search of the property found evidence that 29-year-old Sheila
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had not been alone.
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There was a beer can found in the house.
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A used condom that appeared to contain semen was discovered.
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Police inquiries revealed Sheila to be a recreational drug user.
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They also learned she had a boyfriend.
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She was in a relationship with somebody. Nobody really knew
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his name. They kind of were speculating who it was.
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One of the names in the mix was local man
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Emmanuel Webb. Police quickly ruled him out of their inquiries.
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They talked to him, but he is plausible. amenable, helpful,
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and charming.
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By August 1993, 27-year-old Webb's relationship with his partner, J.D.,
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was over, and he'd returned to his home state of Georgia.
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He was living the life of a single man.
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He was very attractive to women, I think several of
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the women who knew him said how extraordinarily attractive and
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charming he was.
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By the summer of 1994, Webb was dating 37-year-old Evelyn Charity.
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On 10th July, Evelyn's colleagues were concerned when she failed
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to turn up for work.
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A friend checked on her. and found the body in
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the victim's apartment on her bed.
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She's laying in bed on her side. There's a stab
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wound to the neck, and there's evidence of strangulation.
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She was dressed in a nightgown and like a housecoat,
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no underwear on, and the housecoat and nightgown were pushed up,
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exposing the vaginal area.
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Evelyn had been sexually assaulted and murdered. When police attended,
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they found a chaotic crime scene.
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The scene is crawling with neighbors and friends who are there,
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so potential DNA and evidence could have been cross-contaminated. They
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had to quickly isolate the relevant from the irrelevant and
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protect the important from the unimportant.
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The killer had stolen Evelyn's car and a gun. When
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they began looking into her lifestyle and associates... Emmanuel Webb's
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name quickly came up as someone Evelyn may have been
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romantically involved with.
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The police track down Evelyn's car and they trace it
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to Emmanuel Webb. When Webb is confronted with the fact
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that he has Evelyn Charity's car and that she's been
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found dead, he does something quite astonishing.
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He tried to talk his way out of it with, well, yeah,
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I was there and I had sex with her, but
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it was consensual. She died accidentally, and then I tried
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to stage it to look like a homicide and robbery.
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The explanation did not match up with the evidence from
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Evelyn's autopsy. Bones in Evelyn's neck were broken, and she'd
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been stabbed.
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There are many accidental deaths that happen during sex, but
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you don't break your own hyoid bone by participating in
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wild sex, and you certainly don't bleed to death through
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a stab wound.
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Facing a murder charge, Webb's legal team offered a plea bargain,
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which prosecutors accepted.
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Webb was allowed to plead in voluntary manslaughter. That's not
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an uncommon thing to plea deal, and it does save
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the cost of a trial, and it also saves all
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the uncertainty around whether you're going to get a conviction
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or not.
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In 1995, he's given 20 years. As a result of
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his conviction in Georgia, Webb's DNA is taken for the
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first time.
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At the time, there was not a national register, but
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Emmanuel Webb's DNA was stored on the database of the
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Georgia Bureau of Investigation. In late 2001, after serving six
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years of his sentence, Webb was paroled. The 35-year-old was free,
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and he was on the move once again.
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Emmanuel Webb is out of jail. In fact, he's not
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only out of jail in Georgia, he's gone back to Connecticut.
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In the mid-1990s, Bridgeport's police commander set up a homicide
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task force to look at dozens of unsolved murders from
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earlier in the decade.
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They were charged with probably looking at 207 open cases.
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And the cases were defined by evidence that was collected
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that had been analyzed.
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They started to do a linkage analysis on the cases.
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Are these cases related?
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There were four unsolved murders where the female victim had
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been strangled. All had taken place within the same square mile.
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The cold case team wondered if they were looking at
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the work of a serial killer.
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It is very often the case with serial offenders, and
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especially with serial killers, that they operate in what you
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might call a comfort zone. If you're going to kill somebody,
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you don't necessarily want to do it in a place
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you've never been to before.
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So in this case, obviously they were all in Bridgeport,
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but more importantly, they were all on the east side,
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all within really almost blocks of one another to a
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large degree. So they're isolated sort of geographically.
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It was an area that was seeing an increase in
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drug-related activity, gang-related activity, homicides.
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Though detectives suspected a so-called East End killer was responsible
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for a cluster of women's murders, the investigation in the
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mid-1990s quickly hit a dead end.
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The cases were going nowhere. They had no suspects. They
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had no leads.
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MUSIC PLAYS.
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In 2000, cold case detectives began taking a fresh look
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at the evidence.
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00:21:38.089 --> 00:21:42.019
There was a lot of forensic evidence at these crime scenes.
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The kind of forensic evidence that now a criminal would
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avoid leaving. So we had things like cigarette butts and
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nail scrapings and semen.
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There was evidence that was collected that was never sent
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up to the lab because there was really nothing you
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could do with it. Some of the DNA is difficult
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00:22:02.220 --> 00:22:04.869
to extract. They sat in evidence for almost 10 years
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until technology caught up.
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The cold case detectives, they collect this evidence and they
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send it for DNA profiling.
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It was a slow process, but when they finally tested
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00:22:21.240 --> 00:22:26.839
in 2005, the state forensic lab's findings were worth the wait.
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00:22:28.359 --> 00:22:31.799
Evidence collected from four of the East End crime scenes
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held forensic traces that came from just one person's DNA profile.
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So the likelihood of it being the same killer is considerable.
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00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:55.359
The police in Connecticut have all the DNA. All they're
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missing is the killer.
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The profile was run through the U.S. National Database, which
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00:23:02.130 --> 00:23:07.390
since 1998 had contained the DNA profile of many newly
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convicted serious offenders.
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They put the DNA into the CODIS system, into the database,
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which was obviously a very good thing to do, but nothing.
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There were no hits at all.
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It was a frustrating turn of events. Bridgeport detectives had
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00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:36.140
unearthed a serial killer, but they had no idea who
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00:23:36.220 --> 00:23:49.599
he was or how to find him. In early 2006,
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the Bridgeport PD cold case unit investigating the suspected East
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00:23:56.390 --> 00:23:59.960
End serial killer finally struck gold.
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00:24:00.700 --> 00:24:02.480
They get a DNA match.
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00:24:04.200 --> 00:24:06.359
There was a hit. and it dealt with a death
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00:24:06.740 --> 00:24:12.259
in Vidalia, Georgia, and identified an offender, and that DNA
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00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:17.339
from the homicide in Georgia matched the unknown DNA profiles
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in the cases in Bridgeport.
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The offender had been jailed for the manslaughter of 37-year-old
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Evelyn Charity in Vidalia in July 1994. 39-year-old Emmanuel Webb.
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In late 2005, Webb had once again been on the
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wrong side of the law in his home state of Georgia.
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And in November that year, he's arrested on drug possession
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and also.
329
00:24:59.539 --> 00:25:01.359
Because he's left the state in which he was supposed
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to be serving his parole. And so the police arrest him.
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Investigators in Georgia took a DNA sample from Webb, which
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now revealed him to be the number one suspect for
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00:25:23.309 --> 00:25:25.630
the East End murders in Connecticut.
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00:25:27.329 --> 00:25:29.289
So now we have a DNA hit and then we
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have a suspect that's incarcerated for a similar type of crime.
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00:25:33.430 --> 00:25:38.670
Hearing the details of Evelyn Charity's death, Bridgeport detectives realized
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they were looking at a near identical homicide to the
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00:25:42.690 --> 00:25:44.529
ones they were investigating.
339
00:25:46.829 --> 00:25:49.789
It had both behavioral and forensic linkages.
340
00:25:50.769 --> 00:25:52.250
There was too much of a commonality there.
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Bridgeport detectives visited Webb to verify his DNA link to
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their cases.
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00:25:58.529 --> 00:26:00.069
So then they had to get a warrant together to
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get a confirmatory DNA sample. They swab him, get it, and,
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00:26:04.819 --> 00:26:08.420
you know, once that came back as positive identification of him,
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then the case moves forward.
347
00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:23.259
With Emmanuel Webb safely locked up for the time being
348
00:26:23.339 --> 00:26:28.089
for his parole violation in Georgia, Bridgeport detectives had time
349
00:26:28.119 --> 00:26:31.750
to learn everything they could about their suspect.
350
00:26:33.970 --> 00:26:36.049
Who the hell is this guy, and could he have
351
00:26:36.369 --> 00:26:38.950
killed these women? And it didn't take long to realize
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he literally had lived in Bridgeport the whole time that
353
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this happened.
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00:26:43.309 --> 00:26:48.759
He had ties to Georgia, had family in Connecticut. He
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00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.420
was transient. He would go back to Georgia, come back.
356
00:26:54.019 --> 00:26:57.740
He lived in Bridgeport on the east side, many times
357
00:26:57.779 --> 00:27:02.740
within blocks of where these homicides occurred. All these women
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00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:05.720
lived on the east side of Bridgeport. They all knew
359
00:27:05.900 --> 00:27:09.160
one another. They all were using crack.
360
00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:16.220
By charting Webb's network of friends, the places he frequented,
361
00:27:16.809 --> 00:27:21.230
and the lifestyle he lived, investigators were able to establish
362
00:27:21.549 --> 00:27:25.470
a strong likelihood he knew all of the victims.
363
00:27:26.829 --> 00:27:29.089
When our officers and detectives went out there to do
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00:27:29.109 --> 00:27:32.269
the canvassing and get background information, everybody knew who he was.
365
00:27:33.230 --> 00:27:37.029
There were witnesses who'd seen Webb socializing with some of
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his victims.
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00:27:39.869 --> 00:27:42.109
There was a street there called Stratford Avenue, which had
368
00:27:42.150 --> 00:27:44.309
a number of clubs on it. In bars, people used
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00:27:44.329 --> 00:27:46.049
to go in there. So they saw him. They knew
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00:27:46.069 --> 00:27:48.589
who he was. Hey, you know what? We saw him
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00:27:48.609 --> 00:27:49.569
with some of these females.
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00:28:01.170 --> 00:28:06.299
Though the DNA evidence was compelling, prosecutors feared it would
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00:28:06.430 --> 00:28:09.039
not be enough to secure a conviction.
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00:28:10.109 --> 00:28:13.990
In order to actually produce a viable case in the courtroom,
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00:28:14.089 --> 00:28:14.869
you need much more.
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00:28:15.849 --> 00:28:19.069
They reached out to the FBI. The Federal Bureau of
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00:28:19.089 --> 00:28:22.829
Investigation has a behavior analysis unit. It's called BAU.
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00:28:24.150 --> 00:28:28.029
FBI agent Greg McCrary was assigned to the case.
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00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:33.759
I was contacted by the state attorney in Connecticut about
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taking a look at a series of cases that they
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00:28:37.180 --> 00:28:40.579
believed were linked. How could his DNA be at every
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00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:43.240
crime scene and him not be involved?
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00:28:44.599 --> 00:28:48.400
Agent McCrary was asked if he could identify features of
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00:28:48.460 --> 00:28:52.440
the murders that linked them to one killer. He looked
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00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:54.509
at what he called back cloth.
386
00:28:55.410 --> 00:29:00.049
Back cloth is the overall context in which the cases occur.
387
00:29:00.250 --> 00:29:05.259
We're talking about geography. We're talking about victimology. And by that,
388
00:29:05.299 --> 00:29:10.349
we're talking about socioeconomic issues, commonalities among the victims as well.
389
00:29:18.589 --> 00:29:20.869
When we looked at the method and manner of death,
390
00:29:21.230 --> 00:29:22.970
strangulation was involved.
391
00:29:24.150 --> 00:29:29.009
Strangulation is a relatively unusual method of homicide.
392
00:29:29.970 --> 00:29:34.220
I did a statistical analysis. In the homicides in Bridgeport
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00:29:34.259 --> 00:29:41.440
from 1990 to 1993, there were 287 homicides. Of those,
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00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:46.220
seven involved strangulation. Three of those dealt with male victims,
395
00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:49.670
so now we're down to four females that were killed
396
00:29:49.750 --> 00:29:52.750
by strangulation. One of those cases was solved.
397
00:29:56.630 --> 00:30:02.230
The four victims were Sharon Cunningham, Minnie Sutton, Elizabeth Gandhi,
398
00:30:02.869 --> 00:30:04.049
and Sheila Etheridge.
399
00:30:07.769 --> 00:30:12.569
Strangulation is a very close and up personal way to
400
00:30:12.630 --> 00:30:17.069
kill somebody. When men kill each other, they rarely strangle
401
00:30:17.109 --> 00:30:17.470
each other.
402
00:30:19.569 --> 00:30:20.630
When men kill women.
403
00:30:20.650 --> 00:30:25.619
It's a bit more common that they will use strangulation.
404
00:30:34.109 --> 00:30:38.630
Another pattern McCrary identified was that each of the women
405
00:30:38.930 --> 00:30:41.150
had suffered additional violence.
406
00:30:42.970 --> 00:30:46.009
There were other injuries inflicted on the victims that were
407
00:30:46.109 --> 00:30:50.710
unnecessary to cause death. We had these secondary injuries in
408
00:30:50.750 --> 00:30:54.309
many cases that involved blunt force trauma to the head
409
00:30:54.430 --> 00:30:58.329
or knife wounds and incise wounds and lacerations.
410
00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:03.119
Minnie Sutton was the one that was really mutilated. There
411
00:31:03.140 --> 00:31:05.950
were stab wounds there, not fatal stab wounds, but slashings.
412
00:31:08.190 --> 00:31:11.609
She was stabbed in the neck, the left-hand side, the forehead.
413
00:31:13.450 --> 00:31:16.670
From a behavioral aspect, looking at what an offender does
414
00:31:16.710 --> 00:31:20.359
that he doesn't have to do is very compelling because
415
00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:24.000
it goes to that individual perpetrator and no one else.
416
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:42.220
Another hallmark of the killer was that each victim had
417
00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:44.220
likely been sexually assaulted.
418
00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:51.220
The clothes of the victims had been moved to expose
419
00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:56.079
sexual parts of their bodies. So that's quite an obvious
420
00:31:56.420 --> 00:31:58.829
sign to us that there's a sexual motivation here.
421
00:32:00.769 --> 00:32:04.609
Semen was recovered from the body of Elizabeth and from
422
00:32:04.670 --> 00:32:10.849
a condom near to Sheila. Eleven years later, DNA from
423
00:32:10.950 --> 00:32:16.170
that condom helped link Emmanuel Webb definitively to the scene.
424
00:32:19.470 --> 00:32:24.170
And that is a key piece of evidence that was identified, collected,
425
00:32:24.410 --> 00:32:29.750
properly documented, stored, And eventually, it was analyzed, and that
426
00:32:29.869 --> 00:32:34.210
gave us DNA material of the person who used that condom.
427
00:32:34.670 --> 00:32:37.410
It was a magnificent piece of police work.
428
00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:43.740
Along with the physical links and commonalities between the crime scenes,
429
00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:49.619
detectives discovered Webb's behavioral patterns were a fit for the crimes.
430
00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:53.460
The one thing there that we did learn from individuals
431
00:32:53.480 --> 00:32:55.980
that had relationships with him, he was rough, all right?
432
00:32:56.490 --> 00:32:59.140
It was domestic violence, but it was sexual in nature.
433
00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:02.559
It was a pattern of behavior that, for him, that
434
00:33:02.579 --> 00:33:07.799
was his gratification. You know, it was sexual force, dominance,
435
00:33:08.039 --> 00:33:08.660
and violence.
436
00:33:10.339 --> 00:33:15.019
This knowledge suggested a possible motivation for the murders.
437
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:19.619
He either covered up his sexual acts by trying to
438
00:33:19.740 --> 00:33:22.740
kill them, or he knew he was going to kill them,
439
00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:25.180
and he wanted to have sex with them anyway.
440
00:33:34.930 --> 00:33:39.869
Having found links between the deaths in Bridgeport, prosecutors next
441
00:33:40.009 --> 00:33:43.009
needed to link them with the one Webb had already
442
00:33:43.069 --> 00:33:48.900
been convicted of, the manslaughter in Vidalia of Evelyn Charity.
443
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:53.619
The victim in Georgia died of ligature strangulation, and there
444
00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:57.079
was cocaine in that victim, and these other victims had
445
00:33:57.140 --> 00:33:59.420
cocaine in their system as well. They were known to
446
00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:03.950
be doing crack cocaine. And there was injuries secondary to
447
00:34:03.970 --> 00:34:08.039
the strangulation that were unnecessary in the Georgia case and
448
00:34:08.059 --> 00:34:08.500
the other ones.
449
00:34:11.539 --> 00:34:15.280
The forensics and the profiling made for a strong case.
450
00:34:15.739 --> 00:34:20.230
But leaving no stone unturned, the team revisited the files
451
00:34:20.550 --> 00:34:23.250
to do some old-fashioned detective work.
452
00:34:24.449 --> 00:34:27.750
In cold case homicides, you're always looking for new evidence.
453
00:34:28.550 --> 00:34:30.500
It's one thing to make an arrest, but then to
454
00:34:31.260 --> 00:34:33.420
get a conviction, proof beyond a reasonable doubt. You want
455
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:35.960
to make sure that you've got all the information there.
456
00:34:36.679 --> 00:34:40.519
These detectives were phenomenal detectives. They were very, very self-motivated.
457
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:42.010
They looked at it, and they had to go back.
458
00:34:42.219 --> 00:34:45.989
You're talking going back 10 years and finding witnesses, going back,
459
00:34:46.050 --> 00:34:47.050
talking to family members.
460
00:34:51.150 --> 00:34:56.320
Among those investigators tracked down were people who'd known 29-year-old
461
00:34:56.480 --> 00:35:03.699
Sheila Etheridge, who'd been found murdered in June 1993. They
462
00:35:03.820 --> 00:35:09.119
finally confirmed that her mystery boyfriend was none other than
463
00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:10.199
Emmanuel Webb.
464
00:35:13.989 --> 00:35:16.550
When they started doing their background work, you know, two-edged
465
00:35:16.590 --> 00:35:19.050
sword here, right? Hey, yes, he was in a relationship
466
00:35:19.070 --> 00:35:22.059
where it kind of got fleshed out. Their family said, hey,
467
00:35:22.079 --> 00:35:24.489
they knew it was a rough relationship, it was sexual
468
00:35:24.510 --> 00:35:26.469
in nature, and then he was abusive towards her.
469
00:35:28.170 --> 00:35:33.289
Investigators revisited the file of Elizabeth Gandy, whose body had
470
00:35:33.329 --> 00:35:37.929
been found in an abandoned building. The walls were spattered
471
00:35:37.989 --> 00:35:42.309
with blood, not all of which was hers, suggesting her
472
00:35:42.389 --> 00:35:44.969
attacker may have been injured himself.
473
00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:49.380
The other lead that we suggest in those cases is
474
00:35:50.289 --> 00:35:54.309
is going to the local emergency rooms or primary care
475
00:35:54.349 --> 00:35:57.449
centers and ask if anyone has come in with a
476
00:35:57.489 --> 00:36:00.920
laceration wound to be stitched up or fixed up.
477
00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:05.639
Detectives dug deep to find out whether Webb had attended
478
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:10.260
a medical facility around the time of Elizabeth's murder.
479
00:36:10.780 --> 00:36:14.340
Remarkably, it was discovered that Webb had gone to hospital
480
00:36:15.079 --> 00:36:16.179
the following day.
481
00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:22.599
He was being treated at Bridgeport Hospital. Supercuts, scrapes, abrasions
482
00:36:22.659 --> 00:36:24.739
that were indicative of a struggle.
483
00:36:27.849 --> 00:36:30.690
And that turned out to be his blood at the
484
00:36:30.750 --> 00:36:33.349
crime scene, on the victim's clothing and on the wall.
485
00:36:33.530 --> 00:36:35.849
So when you begin to put all of this together,
486
00:36:36.110 --> 00:36:37.969
I thought it made a very compelling case.
487
00:36:41.929 --> 00:36:48.300
In June 2006, Emanuel Webb, already incarcerated in Georgia... was
488
00:36:48.380 --> 00:36:53.320
charged by Bridgeport police officers with the April 1993 murder
489
00:36:53.750 --> 00:36:59.809
of Elizabeth Gandy. Convinced he was responsible for three more deaths,
490
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:04.969
prosecutors prepared their case, but Webb was not going down
491
00:37:06.050 --> 00:37:21.159
without a fight. On the 14th of February, 2007, 40-year-old
492
00:37:21.300 --> 00:37:27.000
Emmanuel Webb was extradited to Connecticut from Georgia. He arrived
493
00:37:27.019 --> 00:37:29.780
with his ankles and wrists in shackles.
494
00:37:31.179 --> 00:37:33.780
They were able to get four warrants for his arrest
495
00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:37.920
before the homicides, and he came up to Bridgeport to
496
00:37:37.960 --> 00:37:40.719
stand trial while he was still incarcerated in Georgia.
497
00:37:43.659 --> 00:37:47.179
As Webb waited in a Connecticut prison for his trial
498
00:37:47.239 --> 00:37:51.730
to begin, there was months of legal wrangling over how
499
00:37:51.789 --> 00:37:53.929
the four murders would be tried.
500
00:37:55.389 --> 00:38:00.250
The prosecution wanted to basically have one trial for all
501
00:38:00.289 --> 00:38:01.090
four cases.
502
00:38:02.829 --> 00:38:08.010
Agent Greg McCrary's analysis connecting the crime scenes was central
503
00:38:08.360 --> 00:38:09.239
to their argument.
504
00:38:10.300 --> 00:38:15.610
Early April 2008, I was contacted by the prosecutor in Bridgeport.
505
00:38:15.710 --> 00:38:19.610
They wanted to try these cases together, and they asked
506
00:38:19.670 --> 00:38:22.289
if I would be willing to render an opinion.
507
00:38:24.150 --> 00:38:26.889
The aim was to show that the four murders had
508
00:38:26.969 --> 00:38:30.719
enough in common to be tried in a single court case.
509
00:38:40.920 --> 00:38:44.300
They're tying it together, showing the signature events and why
510
00:38:44.340 --> 00:38:47.079
there's a commonality there. And it's not a coincidence. It
511
00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:48.480
has to be from the same individual.
512
00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:53.769
The only people believing they shouldn't be tried together was
513
00:38:53.849 --> 00:38:55.349
Webb and his defense attorneys.
514
00:38:57.389 --> 00:39:00.210
They wanted each case to be done individually because there
515
00:39:00.250 --> 00:39:05.389
was different evidence. And they also felt that if you
516
00:39:05.429 --> 00:39:07.679
did them all at once, it would be easier for
517
00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:10.300
a jury to just convict them on all of them.
518
00:39:12.539 --> 00:39:15.840
I ended up testifying on May 1st in a hearing
519
00:39:15.940 --> 00:39:18.840
before a judge in Connecticut on the cases. And I
520
00:39:18.860 --> 00:39:24.070
was linking actually the Georgia case with four cases in Bridgeport.
521
00:39:24.349 --> 00:39:26.730
At the end of the day, the judge excluded one
522
00:39:26.750 --> 00:39:27.989
of the Bridgeport cases.
523
00:39:30.199 --> 00:39:33.019
Webb would not be tried for the June 1993 murder
524
00:39:33.099 --> 00:39:33.920
of Sheila Etheridge.
525
00:39:39.630 --> 00:39:45.349
Sheila exhibited enough decomposition to render the pathologist unable to
526
00:39:45.409 --> 00:39:49.050
determine the cause and manner of death with scientific precision
527
00:39:49.130 --> 00:39:53.230
and accuracy. So although we found hemorrhages to her left eye,
528
00:39:53.809 --> 00:39:57.679
although we found bruising to her neck, we couldn't really
529
00:39:57.719 --> 00:39:59.860
determine that this was due to a homicide.
530
00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:05.639
Webb's DNA was at the crime scene, on the beer
531
00:40:05.659 --> 00:40:10.690
can and in the condom. but neither could be deemed incriminating.
532
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:13.079
He was in a relationship with her, so it wouldn't
533
00:40:13.099 --> 00:40:16.019
be unusual to find a beer can empty there. They
534
00:40:16.059 --> 00:40:20.420
couldn't really tie him there as closely and as tightly
535
00:40:20.539 --> 00:40:21.880
as they did the other three cases.
536
00:40:24.010 --> 00:40:26.610
The judge erred on the side, I guess, of caution
537
00:40:27.329 --> 00:40:30.469
and took that one out, but kept the other three in,
538
00:40:31.190 --> 00:40:32.409
which was still a win-win.
539
00:40:39.110 --> 00:40:43.530
It was a devastating blow for Sheila Etheridge's loved ones.
540
00:40:43.550 --> 00:40:49.500
42-year-old Emmanuel Webb would be tried for the murders of
541
00:40:49.579 --> 00:40:58.300
Minnie Sutton, Sharon Cunningham, and Elizabeth Gandy. But at the
542
00:40:58.360 --> 00:41:03.280
last minute, as detectives and prosecutors finessed their arguments ready
543
00:41:03.360 --> 00:41:07.269
for trial, Emmanuel Webb changed his plea.
544
00:41:08.429 --> 00:41:11.409
They were ready to go to trial, but Webb pled out.
545
00:41:11.590 --> 00:41:13.809
He didn't want to go to trial because the evidence
546
00:41:13.829 --> 00:41:15.230
then was overwhelming.
547
00:41:17.309 --> 00:41:21.070
On the 22nd of May, 2008, Emmanuel Webb cuts a
548
00:41:21.110 --> 00:41:24.170
plea deal with the Connecticut authorities.
549
00:41:27.429 --> 00:41:33.030
Webb pled no contest to the three murders. A month later,
550
00:41:33.349 --> 00:41:38.860
he was sentenced... the state had not proven the aggravating factors,
551
00:41:39.159 --> 00:41:42.760
such as rape or kidnap, needed to make the murders
552
00:41:43.119 --> 00:41:44.510
death penalty cases.
553
00:41:46.750 --> 00:41:52.269
He was sentenced to 60 years in prison, 20 to
554
00:41:52.389 --> 00:41:55.269
life on each of the three cases, as I understand it,
555
00:41:55.769 --> 00:41:58.409
to run consecutively, one after the other.
556
00:42:01.050 --> 00:42:02.429
So basically, it's a life sentence.
557
00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:07.409
First, however, he would return to Georgia to serve out
558
00:42:07.469 --> 00:42:11.989
his time for the parole violation there. His sentence at
559
00:42:12.030 --> 00:42:16.889
Hancock State Prison ended in July 2014.
560
00:42:17.670 --> 00:42:19.690
As of then, he was turned over to Connecticut Corrections
561
00:42:20.110 --> 00:42:22.219
to serve the three sentences for those homicides.
562
00:42:29.159 --> 00:42:32.829
When Webb's sentence was handed down in a Bridgeport court
563
00:42:32.929 --> 00:42:37.210
on the 25th of June 2008, there was applause from
564
00:42:37.250 --> 00:42:41.110
his victims' loved ones. It had taken 18 years to
565
00:42:41.190 --> 00:42:45.690
get them justice and the dedication of a committed team
566
00:42:46.190 --> 00:42:46.929
of detectives.
567
00:42:48.010 --> 00:42:51.139
It was tireless work. You know, and for me, as
568
00:42:51.590 --> 00:42:54.840
a supervisor, as a commander of that unit, you know,
569
00:42:56.210 --> 00:42:59.099
No more pride than to have distinguished detectives do what
570
00:42:59.139 --> 00:43:02.460
they did and bring these cases to a successful culmination.
571
00:43:13.130 --> 00:43:17.949
Webb was a dangerous predator who hid in plain sight.
572
00:43:19.050 --> 00:43:21.550
Emmanuel Webb was a man who was actually the devil,
573
00:43:22.320 --> 00:43:26.070
hiding around the corner. or in the coffee shop, and
574
00:43:26.090 --> 00:43:32.710
you never suspected him. He remains, for me, literally one
575
00:43:32.730 --> 00:43:36.920
of the most dangerous killers in America because he's shown
576
00:43:36.980 --> 00:43:42.900
no remorse, no reticence, no regret, no conscience. That makes
577
00:43:42.940 --> 00:43:45.079
him a very evil man indeed.
578
00:43:46.389 --> 00:43:50.630
It took many years to bring Webb to justice, but
579
00:43:50.670 --> 00:43:53.670
for those involved, it was worth the wait.
580
00:43:54.590 --> 00:43:58.150
I've had cases that have taken over 20 years to solve,
581
00:43:58.679 --> 00:44:00.980
but it doesn't matter. I mean, as long as you
582
00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:06.119
can solve the case, it's the perseverance. It's getting justice
583
00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:09.820
for the victims and holding people accountable for their behavior.
584
00:44:12.480 --> 00:44:14.199
You'd always get calls from family members, you know, on
585
00:44:14.219 --> 00:44:16.719
the anniversary dates of the homicide or their birthdays. It's
586
00:44:16.739 --> 00:44:18.590
not going to change anything, but you're bringing them a
587
00:44:18.590 --> 00:44:20.590
little bit of closure and they get justice. You know,
588
00:44:20.610 --> 00:44:21.590
that's what you try to do. You try to bring
589
00:44:21.989 --> 00:44:24.860
justice to the family. and to the victim themselves.
590
00:44:33.750 --> 00:44:36.769
Emmanuel Webb was known as a man who liked to
591
00:44:36.849 --> 00:44:40.769
party and a man who could charm his way into
592
00:44:40.869 --> 00:44:47.340
women's lives. But he abused their trust, murdering his victims
593
00:44:47.440 --> 00:44:54.289
in terrible acts of sexually motivated violence. After escaping justice
594
00:44:54.329 --> 00:44:58.170
for years, he was finally unmasked as one of the
595
00:44:58.349 --> 00:45:00.519
world's most evil killers.
1
00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:13.779
During the 1990s in Bridgeport, Connecticut, four women were brutalized, violated,
2
00:00:14.130 --> 00:00:15.439
and strangled to death.
3
00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:20.280
This is a serial killer. He's leaving a signature on
4
00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:21.839
how he commits these homicides.
5
00:00:24.739 --> 00:00:28.980
In a violent city where many murders went unsolved, the
6
00:00:29.050 --> 00:00:31.010
deaths were not immediately linked.
7
00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:36.439
They were dead-ended. The cases had no suspects, they had
8
00:00:36.579 --> 00:00:37.380
no leads.
9
00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:43.600
Ten years later, cold case detectives re-ran the DNA evidence
10
00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:45.420
and they got a hit.
11
00:00:47.299 --> 00:00:50.969
Then the computer made the link and notified Bridgeport PD
12
00:00:51.009 --> 00:00:53.149
that there is a hit and it belongs to this
13
00:00:53.189 --> 00:00:54.149
guy down in Georgia.
14
00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:01.500
Drifter Emmanuel Webb used his charisma to conceal dark and
15
00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:03.000
destructive desires.
16
00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:09.349
Webb is the smiling face of evil, always warm, never threatening,
17
00:01:09.750 --> 00:01:15.329
and yet something utterly horrifying is going on behind that facade.
18
00:01:17.469 --> 00:01:18.829
He wanted to kill.
19
00:01:19.230 --> 00:01:22.920
He had opportunities to kill, and he didn't miss one
20
00:01:22.950 --> 00:01:23.189
of them.
21
00:01:24.469 --> 00:01:29.189
Although his crimes went unpunished for years, a dedicated task
22
00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:33.359
force would eventually unmask Emmanuel Webb as one of the
23
00:01:33.480 --> 00:02:04.260
world's most evil killers. In 2006, 40-year-old drifter Emmanuel Webb
24
00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:07.299
thought he'd committed the perfect murders.
25
00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:12.180
These serial offenders, the narcissism, they think they're smarter than
26
00:02:12.219 --> 00:02:14.900
everybody else, and each murder they get away with proves
27
00:02:14.979 --> 00:02:17.400
it to them. They begin to think they're infallible.
28
00:02:18.659 --> 00:02:23.319
In the 1990s, forensic science was limited, but it was
29
00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:26.960
only a matter of time before it caught up with Webb.
30
00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:31.310
DNA wasn't refined, so you had this sample that was
31
00:02:31.349 --> 00:02:34.330
saved with the hopes of, at some point, technology would
32
00:02:34.349 --> 00:02:35.689
catch up. And it did.
33
00:02:35.689 --> 00:02:41.879
18 years after Webb killed his first victim, the man
34
00:02:41.939 --> 00:02:45.819
the papers called the East End Killer would face justice
35
00:02:46.099 --> 00:02:47.020
for what he'd done.
36
00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:50.860
He'll never get out. You know, I mean, that's a
37
00:02:50.900 --> 00:02:51.719
death sentence for him.
38
00:03:03.789 --> 00:03:07.289
This killer's story begins on the 9th of April, 1966,
39
00:03:07.289 --> 00:03:10.770
in Vidalia, Georgia.
40
00:03:10.789 --> 00:03:15.659
Emmanuel Webb's father, who was a disabled veteran, died when
41
00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.599
he was about three years old, and he lived with
42
00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:19.139
his mother.
43
00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:23.680
Webb grew up with his mother and older sister in
44
00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:29.659
Mount Vernon. In 1984, Webb graduated from high school, and
45
00:03:29.750 --> 00:03:31.990
he and his sister traveled north.
46
00:03:33.620 --> 00:03:36.659
He left Georgia to go and live with his sister
47
00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:38.139
in Bridgeport and Connecticut.
48
00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:42.039
He worked as a security guard in Fairfield, which is
49
00:03:42.219 --> 00:03:45.219
an adjacent town to Bridgeport. Lived down the east side.
50
00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:48.319
The east end of Bridgeport was, I would call, a
51
00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:51.800
working class area of the city. People lived there all
52
00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:52.419
their lives.
53
00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:59.050
Emmanuel Webb was a hardworking man on the surface with
54
00:03:59.110 --> 00:04:03.569
quite a charismatic manner, very attractive to women. He meets
55
00:04:03.629 --> 00:04:04.669
a girl called JD.
56
00:04:06.370 --> 00:04:08.710
He met her when she was kind of lost, and
57
00:04:09.129 --> 00:04:14.759
he inserted himself into that situation and ingratiated himself, and
58
00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.240
they started a relationship.
59
00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:24.560
In 1988, he and 22-year-old JD had a baby. But
60
00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:28.439
by this time, Webb had developed a serious drug habit.
61
00:04:36.170 --> 00:04:38.389
There was a second child that came along. He was
62
00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:42.620
a problematic father. He didn't pay any attention really to
63
00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:47.579
his partner or his children. He was going on binges.
64
00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:49.660
He'd go missing for days.
65
00:04:54.790 --> 00:05:00.290
Emmanuel Webb's behaviour was not unusual in 1990s Bridgeport. It
66
00:05:00.350 --> 00:05:02.810
was a city in sharp decline.
67
00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:09.389
In the 1990s, Bridgeport was suffering a crack cocaine epidemic.
68
00:05:09.649 --> 00:05:13.689
And all that that brings with organized crime and gangs
69
00:05:14.009 --> 00:05:16.850
and the addiction and the need to get the money
70
00:05:16.970 --> 00:05:19.939
to pay for that addiction and the poverty that was around,
71
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:21.759
that's going to have a massive impact.
72
00:05:23.459 --> 00:05:26.240
It was also just a very violent city. We had
73
00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:30.579
high murder rates back then in our cities, mostly from
74
00:05:30.740 --> 00:05:32.790
either gang activity or drug activity.
75
00:05:34.459 --> 00:05:41.509
In Bridgeport from 1990 to 1993, there were 287 homicides.
76
00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:48.290
Most of the murders could be linked to gangs or drugs,
77
00:05:49.209 --> 00:05:52.089
but there were a handful which did not fit into
78
00:05:52.129 --> 00:05:52.750
this pattern.
79
00:05:58.069 --> 00:06:02.189
In April 1990, the fire brigade were called to a
80
00:06:02.389 --> 00:06:04.529
car fire in the East End.
81
00:06:06.730 --> 00:06:08.889
And I was one of the first patrol officers that responded.
82
00:06:09.089 --> 00:06:11.449
Once the car fire was extinguished, there was a body
83
00:06:11.470 --> 00:06:12.250
that was found there.
84
00:06:13.870 --> 00:06:17.750
The body belonged to 39-year-old Sharon Cunningham.
85
00:06:19.310 --> 00:06:22.089
She was found in the car with terrible burns to
86
00:06:22.129 --> 00:06:25.750
her face and to her body. She was partially clothed.
87
00:06:26.189 --> 00:06:27.769
She was nude from the waist down.
88
00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:32.139
But this was no tragic accident.
89
00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:36.560
She had been ligature strangled with her pantyhose, and then
90
00:06:36.579 --> 00:06:40.689
there was also secondary injuries, beating, blunt force trauma to
91
00:06:40.709 --> 00:06:41.069
the head.
92
00:06:41.089 --> 00:06:47.050
There was no doubt that the death was an unnatural one.
93
00:06:47.889 --> 00:06:50.500
It was mysterious as to why the car had been
94
00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:53.620
burned and how she ended up where she ended up.
95
00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:01.180
Sharon did not drive herself there, did not undress herself.
96
00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:04.360
There was an attacker who planned this and who took
97
00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.370
every step of the way to try and wipe out
98
00:07:07.430 --> 00:07:08.750
the evidence of their crime.
99
00:07:11.990 --> 00:07:16.189
Detectives suspected that Sharon had been sexually assaulted.
100
00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:20.040
There was DNA found vaginally.
101
00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:23.980
They found smeritosa in her, and that was saved and preserved.
102
00:07:27.550 --> 00:07:31.550
The evidence was bagged and recorded, but the investigators had
103
00:07:31.689 --> 00:07:34.240
no idea who Sharon's killer was.
104
00:07:34.259 --> 00:07:37.199
A lot of the background work that was done at
105
00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:39.560
the time, knew where she worked, knew who she frequented,
106
00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:40.850
but there was really no suspect.
107
00:07:46.970 --> 00:07:51.939
Two years later, on the 28th of March, 1992, police
108
00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:56.060
were called to another suspected homicide, just a few blocks
109
00:07:56.300 --> 00:07:58.699
from where Sharon's body had been found.
110
00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:04.899
A 29-year-old woman called Minnie Sutton is found dead in
111
00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:05.620
her apartment.
112
00:08:08.550 --> 00:08:12.170
Family lady, worked, people knew her. Would go to the
113
00:08:12.209 --> 00:08:13.029
clubs every once.
114
00:08:12.910 --> 00:08:13.290
In a while.
115
00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:19.300
She has been brutally attacked. Her three-year-old son is also
116
00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:22.459
found in the apartment, but he, thankfully, is unharmed.
117
00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:28.060
What they discover is Minnie partially clothed with her lower
118
00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:31.779
torso naked and no underwear on. She also has suffered
119
00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:35.159
stab wounds to her neck, to her torso, and to
120
00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:36.120
her stomach area.
121
00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:42.639
A post-mortem revealed crack cocaine to be present in Minnie's system.
122
00:08:45.509 --> 00:08:49.929
The cause of death was multiple stab wounds combined with strangulation.
123
00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:52.919
This is a person who died being choked to death
124
00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:56.720
while bleeding to death. This is not an attack that
125
00:08:56.860 --> 00:08:58.860
could have been survived by anyone.
126
00:09:00.659 --> 00:09:05.259
Interviews with Minnie's family and friends quickly led police to
127
00:09:05.299 --> 00:09:05.919
a suspect.
128
00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:10.850
Her boyfriend's brother had assaulted Minnie a couple of weeks before,
129
00:09:11.250 --> 00:09:14.759
and two days before the homicide. She'd woken up and
130
00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:17.399
he was kind of threatening her with a knife. This
131
00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:20.200
is the complex issue of dealing with these homicide cases.
132
00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:23.740
You can develop good-looking suspects right off the go only
133
00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:25.799
to wash them out, you know, down the line. And
134
00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:28.750
that's what occurred here. They're able to rule him out.
135
00:09:30.590 --> 00:09:34.669
The only lead police had was evidence recovered from the
136
00:09:34.730 --> 00:09:35.509
crime scene.
137
00:09:36.649 --> 00:09:41.210
The police investigators discovered two smoked cigarette butts near the
138
00:09:41.250 --> 00:09:45.039
body of Minnie. and they collect them and they preserve them.
139
00:09:55.850 --> 00:10:01.659
In the early 1990s, DNA profiling in criminals investigations was
140
00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:02.759
relatively new.
141
00:10:02.779 --> 00:10:07.539
DNA technology, as far as getting evidence processed and identifying
142
00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:09.700
a suspect, isn't as refined as it is now.
143
00:10:11.750 --> 00:10:21.980
Another murder case went cold. A year later, in April 1993,
144
00:10:21.980 --> 00:10:25.539
again in the east end of Bridgeport, the body of
145
00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:27.960
Elizabeth Gandhi was discovered.
146
00:10:29.620 --> 00:10:34.379
Elizabeth was last seen April 16th, and then her body
147
00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:37.309
was found on the 19th. It was in an abandoned
148
00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:39.289
building that was kind of a crack house.
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When her body was found, you know, she was badly beaten.
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Elizabeth's body is found missing. with her breast exposed. This
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is suggestive of a sexual element to the case.
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Elizabeth was a 34-year-old mother of two who'd looked forward
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to welcoming her first grandchild into the world.
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One of her daughters, when the attack took place, was
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in hospital about to give birth to a son, but
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Elizabeth Gandhi never got to see her grandson.
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The cause of death is determined as blunt force injuries
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and strangulation. She is killed, being hit, and also being
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choked to death.
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The crime scene was a bloody one, and there were
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clear signs that a struggle had taken place.
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There's blood spatter on the walls, up to about six foot.
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Unfortunately, that building was an abandoned building, so a lot
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of contamination, a lot of people's DNAs could potentially be present.
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There was blood and tissue under her fingernails that was preserved, again,
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you know, in hopes of DNA analysis would catch up
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and allow that analysis to come with a match.
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Witnesses were interviewed, evidence bagged, but no link was made
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between the murders and no suspects identified. No one knew
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that a violent sexual predator was targeting the women of Bridgeport.
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In June 1993, just 10 weeks after Elizabeth Gandy's death,
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Bridgeport PD were called to the home of another young
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woman in the city's East End.
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Sheila Etheridge, once again, person that had her own home, worked,
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social life, family.
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She's been missing for a few days.
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She'd had a birthday celebration on June 25th. The last
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known contact with her was a telephone call on the
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morning of June 26th. Her body was found a couple
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of days later in her apartment.
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Her father and a friend break into Sheila's apartment by
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climbing through a window, only to discover, tragically, Sheila's body
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already decomposed.
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There are signs of strangulation, including hemorrhages, bruising in the neck.
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But the decomposition took away the degree of confidence required
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to definitively call.
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The manner of death a homicide.
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A search of the property found evidence that 29-year-old Sheila
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had not been alone.
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There was a beer can found in the house.
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A used condom that appeared to contain semen was discovered.
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Police inquiries revealed Sheila to be a recreational drug user.
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They also learned she had a boyfriend.
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She was in a relationship with somebody. Nobody really knew
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his name. They kind of were speculating who it was.
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One of the names in the mix was local man
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Emmanuel Webb. Police quickly ruled him out of their inquiries.
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They talked to him, but he is plausible. amenable, helpful,
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and charming.
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By August 1993, 27-year-old Webb's relationship with his partner, J.D.,
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was over, and he'd returned to his home state of Georgia.
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He was living the life of a single man.
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He was very attractive to women, I think several of
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the women who knew him said how extraordinarily attractive and
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charming he was.
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By the summer of 1994, Webb was dating 37-year-old Evelyn Charity.
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On 10th July, Evelyn's colleagues were concerned when she failed
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to turn up for work.
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A friend checked on her. and found the body in
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the victim's apartment on her bed.
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She's laying in bed on her side. There's a stab
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wound to the neck, and there's evidence of strangulation.
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She was dressed in a nightgown and like a housecoat,
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no underwear on, and the housecoat and nightgown were pushed up,
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exposing the vaginal area.
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Evelyn had been sexually assaulted and murdered. When police attended,
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they found a chaotic crime scene.
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The scene is crawling with neighbors and friends who are there,
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so potential DNA and evidence could have been cross-contaminated. They
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had to quickly isolate the relevant from the irrelevant and
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protect the important from the unimportant.
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The killer had stolen Evelyn's car and a gun. When
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they began looking into her lifestyle and associates... Emmanuel Webb's
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name quickly came up as someone Evelyn may have been
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romantically involved with.
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The police track down Evelyn's car and they trace it
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to Emmanuel Webb. When Webb is confronted with the fact
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that he has Evelyn Charity's car and that she's been
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found dead, he does something quite astonishing.
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He tried to talk his way out of it with, well, yeah,
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I was there and I had sex with her, but
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it was consensual. She died accidentally, and then I tried
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to stage it to look like a homicide and robbery.
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The explanation did not match up with the evidence from
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Evelyn's autopsy. Bones in Evelyn's neck were broken, and she'd
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been stabbed.
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There are many accidental deaths that happen during sex, but
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you don't break your own hyoid bone by participating in
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wild sex, and you certainly don't bleed to death through
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a stab wound.
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Facing a murder charge, Webb's legal team offered a plea bargain,
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which prosecutors accepted.
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Webb was allowed to plead in voluntary manslaughter. That's not
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an uncommon thing to plea deal, and it does save
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the cost of a trial, and it also saves all
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the uncertainty around whether you're going to get a conviction
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or not.
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In 1995, he's given 20 years. As a result of
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his conviction in Georgia, Webb's DNA is taken for the
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first time.
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At the time, there was not a national register, but
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Emmanuel Webb's DNA was stored on the database of the
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Georgia Bureau of Investigation. In late 2001, after serving six
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years of his sentence, Webb was paroled. The 35-year-old was free,
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and he was on the move once again.
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Emmanuel Webb is out of jail. In fact, he's not
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only out of jail in Georgia, he's gone back to Connecticut.
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In the mid-1990s, Bridgeport's police commander set up a homicide
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task force to look at dozens of unsolved murders from
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earlier in the decade.
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They were charged with probably looking at 207 open cases.
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And the cases were defined by evidence that was collected
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that had been analyzed.
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They started to do a linkage analysis on the cases.
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Are these cases related?
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There were four unsolved murders where the female victim had
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been strangled. All had taken place within the same square mile.
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The cold case team wondered if they were looking at
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the work of a serial killer.
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It is very often the case with serial offenders, and
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especially with serial killers, that they operate in what you
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might call a comfort zone. If you're going to kill somebody,
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you don't necessarily want to do it in a place
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you've never been to before.
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So in this case, obviously they were all in Bridgeport,
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but more importantly, they were all on the east side,
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all within really almost blocks of one another to a
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large degree. So they're isolated sort of geographically.
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It was an area that was seeing an increase in
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drug-related activity, gang-related activity, homicides.
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Though detectives suspected a so-called East End killer was responsible
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for a cluster of women's murders, the investigation in the
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mid-1990s quickly hit a dead end.
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The cases were going nowhere. They had no suspects. They
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had no leads.
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MUSIC PLAYS.
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In 2000, cold case detectives began taking a fresh look
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at the evidence.
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There was a lot of forensic evidence at these crime scenes.
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The kind of forensic evidence that now a criminal would
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avoid leaving. So we had things like cigarette butts and
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nail scrapings and semen.
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There was evidence that was collected that was never sent
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up to the lab because there was really nothing you
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could do with it. Some of the DNA is difficult
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to extract. They sat in evidence for almost 10 years
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until technology caught up.
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The cold case detectives, they collect this evidence and they
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send it for DNA profiling.
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It was a slow process, but when they finally tested
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in 2005, the state forensic lab's findings were worth the wait.
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Evidence collected from four of the East End crime scenes
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held forensic traces that came from just one person's DNA profile.
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So the likelihood of it being the same killer is considerable.
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The police in Connecticut have all the DNA. All they're
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missing is the killer.
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The profile was run through the U.S. National Database, which
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since 1998 had contained the DNA profile of many newly
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convicted serious offenders.
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They put the DNA into the CODIS system, into the database,
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which was obviously a very good thing to do, but nothing.
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There were no hits at all.
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It was a frustrating turn of events. Bridgeport detectives had
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unearthed a serial killer, but they had no idea who
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he was or how to find him. In early 2006,
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the Bridgeport PD cold case unit investigating the suspected East
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End serial killer finally struck gold.
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They get a DNA match.
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There was a hit. and it dealt with a death
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in Vidalia, Georgia, and identified an offender, and that DNA
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from the homicide in Georgia matched the unknown DNA profiles
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in the cases in Bridgeport.
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The offender had been jailed for the manslaughter of 37-year-old
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Evelyn Charity in Vidalia in July 1994. 39-year-old Emmanuel Webb.
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In late 2005, Webb had once again been on the
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wrong side of the law in his home state of Georgia.
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And in November that year, he's arrested on drug possession
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and also.
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Because he's left the state in which he was supposed
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to be serving his parole. And so the police arrest him.
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Investigators in Georgia took a DNA sample from Webb, which
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now revealed him to be the number one suspect for
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the East End murders in Connecticut.
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So now we have a DNA hit and then we
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have a suspect that's incarcerated for a similar type of crime.
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Hearing the details of Evelyn Charity's death, Bridgeport detectives realized
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they were looking at a near identical homicide to the
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ones they were investigating.
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It had both behavioral and forensic linkages.
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There was too much of a commonality there.
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Bridgeport detectives visited Webb to verify his DNA link to
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their cases.
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So then they had to get a warrant together to
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get a confirmatory DNA sample. They swab him, get it, and,
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you know, once that came back as positive identification of him,
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then the case moves forward.
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With Emmanuel Webb safely locked up for the time being
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for his parole violation in Georgia, Bridgeport detectives had time
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to learn everything they could about their suspect.
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Who the hell is this guy, and could he have
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killed these women? And it didn't take long to realize
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he literally had lived in Bridgeport the whole time that
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this happened.
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He had ties to Georgia, had family in Connecticut. He
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was transient. He would go back to Georgia, come back.
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He lived in Bridgeport on the east side, many times
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within blocks of where these homicides occurred. All these women
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lived on the east side of Bridgeport. They all knew
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one another. They all were using crack.
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By charting Webb's network of friends, the places he frequented,
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and the lifestyle he lived, investigators were able to establish
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a strong likelihood he knew all of the victims.
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When our officers and detectives went out there to do
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the canvassing and get background information, everybody knew who he was.
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There were witnesses who'd seen Webb socializing with some of
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his victims.
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There was a street there called Stratford Avenue, which had
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a number of clubs on it. In bars, people used
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to go in there. So they saw him. They knew
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who he was. Hey, you know what? We saw him
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with some of these females.
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Though the DNA evidence was compelling, prosecutors feared it would
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not be enough to secure a conviction.
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In order to actually produce a viable case in the courtroom,
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you need much more.
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They reached out to the FBI. The Federal Bureau of
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Investigation has a behavior analysis unit. It's called BAU.
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FBI agent Greg McCrary was assigned to the case.
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I was contacted by the state attorney in Connecticut about
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taking a look at a series of cases that they
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believed were linked. How could his DNA be at every
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crime scene and him not be involved?
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Agent McCrary was asked if he could identify features of
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the murders that linked them to one killer. He looked
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at what he called back cloth.
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Back cloth is the overall context in which the cases occur.
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We're talking about geography. We're talking about victimology. And by that,
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we're talking about socioeconomic issues, commonalities among the victims as well.
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When we looked at the method and manner of death,
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strangulation was involved.
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Strangulation is a relatively unusual method of homicide.
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I did a statistical analysis. In the homicides in Bridgeport
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from 1990 to 1993, there were 287 homicides. Of those,
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seven involved strangulation. Three of those dealt with male victims,
395
00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:49.670
so now we're down to four females that were killed
396
00:29:49.750 --> 00:29:52.750
by strangulation. One of those cases was solved.
397
00:29:56.630 --> 00:30:02.230
The four victims were Sharon Cunningham, Minnie Sutton, Elizabeth Gandhi,
398
00:30:02.869 --> 00:30:04.049
and Sheila Etheridge.
399
00:30:07.769 --> 00:30:12.569
Strangulation is a very close and up personal way to
400
00:30:12.630 --> 00:30:17.069
kill somebody. When men kill each other, they rarely strangle
401
00:30:17.109 --> 00:30:17.470
each other.
402
00:30:19.569 --> 00:30:20.630
When men kill women.
403
00:30:20.650 --> 00:30:25.619
It's a bit more common that they will use strangulation.
404
00:30:34.109 --> 00:30:38.630
Another pattern McCrary identified was that each of the women
405
00:30:38.930 --> 00:30:41.150
had suffered additional violence.
406
00:30:42.970 --> 00:30:46.009
There were other injuries inflicted on the victims that were
407
00:30:46.109 --> 00:30:50.710
unnecessary to cause death. We had these secondary injuries in
408
00:30:50.750 --> 00:30:54.309
many cases that involved blunt force trauma to the head
409
00:30:54.430 --> 00:30:58.329
or knife wounds and incise wounds and lacerations.
410
00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:03.119
Minnie Sutton was the one that was really mutilated. There
411
00:31:03.140 --> 00:31:05.950
were stab wounds there, not fatal stab wounds, but slashings.
412
00:31:08.190 --> 00:31:11.609
She was stabbed in the neck, the left-hand side, the forehead.
413
00:31:13.450 --> 00:31:16.670
From a behavioral aspect, looking at what an offender does
414
00:31:16.710 --> 00:31:20.359
that he doesn't have to do is very compelling because
415
00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:24.000
it goes to that individual perpetrator and no one else.
416
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:42.220
Another hallmark of the killer was that each victim had
417
00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:44.220
likely been sexually assaulted.
418
00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:51.220
The clothes of the victims had been moved to expose
419
00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:56.079
sexual parts of their bodies. So that's quite an obvious
420
00:31:56.420 --> 00:31:58.829
sign to us that there's a sexual motivation here.
421
00:32:00.769 --> 00:32:04.609
Semen was recovered from the body of Elizabeth and from
422
00:32:04.670 --> 00:32:10.849
a condom near to Sheila. Eleven years later, DNA from
423
00:32:10.950 --> 00:32:16.170
that condom helped link Emmanuel Webb definitively to the scene.
424
00:32:19.470 --> 00:32:24.170
And that is a key piece of evidence that was identified, collected,
425
00:32:24.410 --> 00:32:29.750
properly documented, stored, And eventually, it was analyzed, and that
426
00:32:29.869 --> 00:32:34.210
gave us DNA material of the person who used that condom.
427
00:32:34.670 --> 00:32:37.410
It was a magnificent piece of police work.
428
00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:43.740
Along with the physical links and commonalities between the crime scenes,
429
00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:49.619
detectives discovered Webb's behavioral patterns were a fit for the crimes.
430
00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:53.460
The one thing there that we did learn from individuals
431
00:32:53.480 --> 00:32:55.980
that had relationships with him, he was rough, all right?
432
00:32:56.490 --> 00:32:59.140
It was domestic violence, but it was sexual in nature.
433
00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:02.559
It was a pattern of behavior that, for him, that
434
00:33:02.579 --> 00:33:07.799
was his gratification. You know, it was sexual force, dominance,
435
00:33:08.039 --> 00:33:08.660
and violence.
436
00:33:10.339 --> 00:33:15.019
This knowledge suggested a possible motivation for the murders.
437
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:19.619
He either covered up his sexual acts by trying to
438
00:33:19.740 --> 00:33:22.740
kill them, or he knew he was going to kill them,
439
00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:25.180
and he wanted to have sex with them anyway.
440
00:33:34.930 --> 00:33:39.869
Having found links between the deaths in Bridgeport, prosecutors next
441
00:33:40.009 --> 00:33:43.009
needed to link them with the one Webb had already
442
00:33:43.069 --> 00:33:48.900
been convicted of, the manslaughter in Vidalia of Evelyn Charity.
443
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:53.619
The victim in Georgia died of ligature strangulation, and there
444
00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:57.079
was cocaine in that victim, and these other victims had
445
00:33:57.140 --> 00:33:59.420
cocaine in their system as well. They were known to
446
00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:03.950
be doing crack cocaine. And there was injuries secondary to
447
00:34:03.970 --> 00:34:08.039
the strangulation that were unnecessary in the Georgia case and
448
00:34:08.059 --> 00:34:08.500
the other ones.
449
00:34:11.539 --> 00:34:15.280
The forensics and the profiling made for a strong case.
450
00:34:15.739 --> 00:34:20.230
But leaving no stone unturned, the team revisited the files
451
00:34:20.550 --> 00:34:23.250
to do some old-fashioned detective work.
452
00:34:24.449 --> 00:34:27.750
In cold case homicides, you're always looking for new evidence.
453
00:34:28.550 --> 00:34:30.500
It's one thing to make an arrest, but then to
454
00:34:31.260 --> 00:34:33.420
get a conviction, proof beyond a reasonable doubt. You want
455
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:35.960
to make sure that you've got all the information there.
456
00:34:36.679 --> 00:34:40.519
These detectives were phenomenal detectives. They were very, very self-motivated.
457
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:42.010
They looked at it, and they had to go back.
458
00:34:42.219 --> 00:34:45.989
You're talking going back 10 years and finding witnesses, going back,
459
00:34:46.050 --> 00:34:47.050
talking to family members.
460
00:34:51.150 --> 00:34:56.320
Among those investigators tracked down were people who'd known 29-year-old
461
00:34:56.480 --> 00:35:03.699
Sheila Etheridge, who'd been found murdered in June 1993. They
462
00:35:03.820 --> 00:35:09.119
finally confirmed that her mystery boyfriend was none other than
463
00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:10.199
Emmanuel Webb.
464
00:35:13.989 --> 00:35:16.550
When they started doing their background work, you know, two-edged
465
00:35:16.590 --> 00:35:19.050
sword here, right? Hey, yes, he was in a relationship
466
00:35:19.070 --> 00:35:22.059
where it kind of got fleshed out. Their family said, hey,
467
00:35:22.079 --> 00:35:24.489
they knew it was a rough relationship, it was sexual
468
00:35:24.510 --> 00:35:26.469
in nature, and then he was abusive towards her.
469
00:35:28.170 --> 00:35:33.289
Investigators revisited the file of Elizabeth Gandy, whose body had
470
00:35:33.329 --> 00:35:37.929
been found in an abandoned building. The walls were spattered
471
00:35:37.989 --> 00:35:42.309
with blood, not all of which was hers, suggesting her
472
00:35:42.389 --> 00:35:44.969
attacker may have been injured himself.
473
00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:49.380
The other lead that we suggest in those cases is
474
00:35:50.289 --> 00:35:54.309
is going to the local emergency rooms or primary care
475
00:35:54.349 --> 00:35:57.449
centers and ask if anyone has come in with a
476
00:35:57.489 --> 00:36:00.920
laceration wound to be stitched up or fixed up.
477
00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:05.639
Detectives dug deep to find out whether Webb had attended
478
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:10.260
a medical facility around the time of Elizabeth's murder.
479
00:36:10.780 --> 00:36:14.340
Remarkably, it was discovered that Webb had gone to hospital
480
00:36:15.079 --> 00:36:16.179
the following day.
481
00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:22.599
He was being treated at Bridgeport Hospital. Supercuts, scrapes, abrasions
482
00:36:22.659 --> 00:36:24.739
that were indicative of a struggle.
483
00:36:27.849 --> 00:36:30.690
And that turned out to be his blood at the
484
00:36:30.750 --> 00:36:33.349
crime scene, on the victim's clothing and on the wall.
485
00:36:33.530 --> 00:36:35.849
So when you begin to put all of this together,
486
00:36:36.110 --> 00:36:37.969
I thought it made a very compelling case.
487
00:36:41.929 --> 00:36:48.300
In June 2006, Emanuel Webb, already incarcerated in Georgia... was
488
00:36:48.380 --> 00:36:53.320
charged by Bridgeport police officers with the April 1993 murder
489
00:36:53.750 --> 00:36:59.809
of Elizabeth Gandy. Convinced he was responsible for three more deaths,
490
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:04.969
prosecutors prepared their case, but Webb was not going down
491
00:37:06.050 --> 00:37:21.159
without a fight. On the 14th of February, 2007, 40-year-old
492
00:37:21.300 --> 00:37:27.000
Emmanuel Webb was extradited to Connecticut from Georgia. He arrived
493
00:37:27.019 --> 00:37:29.780
with his ankles and wrists in shackles.
494
00:37:31.179 --> 00:37:33.780
They were able to get four warrants for his arrest
495
00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:37.920
before the homicides, and he came up to Bridgeport to
496
00:37:37.960 --> 00:37:40.719
stand trial while he was still incarcerated in Georgia.
497
00:37:43.659 --> 00:37:47.179
As Webb waited in a Connecticut prison for his trial
498
00:37:47.239 --> 00:37:51.730
to begin, there was months of legal wrangling over how
499
00:37:51.789 --> 00:37:53.929
the four murders would be tried.
500
00:37:55.389 --> 00:38:00.250
The prosecution wanted to basically have one trial for all
501
00:38:00.289 --> 00:38:01.090
four cases.
502
00:38:02.829 --> 00:38:08.010
Agent Greg McCrary's analysis connecting the crime scenes was central
503
00:38:08.360 --> 00:38:09.239
to their argument.
504
00:38:10.300 --> 00:38:15.610
Early April 2008, I was contacted by the prosecutor in Bridgeport.
505
00:38:15.710 --> 00:38:19.610
They wanted to try these cases together, and they asked
506
00:38:19.670 --> 00:38:22.289
if I would be willing to render an opinion.
507
00:38:24.150 --> 00:38:26.889
The aim was to show that the four murders had
508
00:38:26.969 --> 00:38:30.719
enough in common to be tried in a single court case.
509
00:38:40.920 --> 00:38:44.300
They're tying it together, showing the signature events and why
510
00:38:44.340 --> 00:38:47.079
there's a commonality there. And it's not a coincidence. It
511
00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:48.480
has to be from the same individual.
512
00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:53.769
The only people believing they shouldn't be tried together was
513
00:38:53.849 --> 00:38:55.349
Webb and his defense attorneys.
514
00:38:57.389 --> 00:39:00.210
They wanted each case to be done individually because there
515
00:39:00.250 --> 00:39:05.389
was different evidence. And they also felt that if you
516
00:39:05.429 --> 00:39:07.679
did them all at once, it would be easier for
517
00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:10.300
a jury to just convict them on all of them.
518
00:39:12.539 --> 00:39:15.840
I ended up testifying on May 1st in a hearing
519
00:39:15.940 --> 00:39:18.840
before a judge in Connecticut on the cases. And I
520
00:39:18.860 --> 00:39:24.070
was linking actually the Georgia case with four cases in Bridgeport.
521
00:39:24.349 --> 00:39:26.730
At the end of the day, the judge excluded one
522
00:39:26.750 --> 00:39:27.989
of the Bridgeport cases.
523
00:39:30.199 --> 00:39:33.019
Webb would not be tried for the June 1993 murder
524
00:39:33.099 --> 00:39:33.920
of Sheila Etheridge.
525
00:39:39.630 --> 00:39:45.349
Sheila exhibited enough decomposition to render the pathologist unable to
526
00:39:45.409 --> 00:39:49.050
determine the cause and manner of death with scientific precision
527
00:39:49.130 --> 00:39:53.230
and accuracy. So although we found hemorrhages to her left eye,
528
00:39:53.809 --> 00:39:57.679
although we found bruising to her neck, we couldn't really
529
00:39:57.719 --> 00:39:59.860
determine that this was due to a homicide.
530
00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:05.639
Webb's DNA was at the crime scene, on the beer
531
00:40:05.659 --> 00:40:10.690
can and in the condom. but neither could be deemed incriminating.
532
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:13.079
He was in a relationship with her, so it wouldn't
533
00:40:13.099 --> 00:40:16.019
be unusual to find a beer can empty there. They
534
00:40:16.059 --> 00:40:20.420
couldn't really tie him there as closely and as tightly
535
00:40:20.539 --> 00:40:21.880
as they did the other three cases.
536
00:40:24.010 --> 00:40:26.610
The judge erred on the side, I guess, of caution
537
00:40:27.329 --> 00:40:30.469
and took that one out, but kept the other three in,
538
00:40:31.190 --> 00:40:32.409
which was still a win-win.
539
00:40:39.110 --> 00:40:43.530
It was a devastating blow for Sheila Etheridge's loved ones.
540
00:40:43.550 --> 00:40:49.500
42-year-old Emmanuel Webb would be tried for the murders of
541
00:40:49.579 --> 00:40:58.300
Minnie Sutton, Sharon Cunningham, and Elizabeth Gandy. But at the
542
00:40:58.360 --> 00:41:03.280
last minute, as detectives and prosecutors finessed their arguments ready
543
00:41:03.360 --> 00:41:07.269
for trial, Emmanuel Webb changed his plea.
544
00:41:08.429 --> 00:41:11.409
They were ready to go to trial, but Webb pled out.
545
00:41:11.590 --> 00:41:13.809
He didn't want to go to trial because the evidence
546
00:41:13.829 --> 00:41:15.230
then was overwhelming.
547
00:41:17.309 --> 00:41:21.070
On the 22nd of May, 2008, Emmanuel Webb cuts a
548
00:41:21.110 --> 00:41:24.170
plea deal with the Connecticut authorities.
549
00:41:27.429 --> 00:41:33.030
Webb pled no contest to the three murders. A month later,
550
00:41:33.349 --> 00:41:38.860
he was sentenced... the state had not proven the aggravating factors,
551
00:41:39.159 --> 00:41:42.760
such as rape or kidnap, needed to make the murders
552
00:41:43.119 --> 00:41:44.510
death penalty cases.
553
00:41:46.750 --> 00:41:52.269
He was sentenced to 60 years in prison, 20 to
554
00:41:52.389 --> 00:41:55.269
life on each of the three cases, as I understand it,
555
00:41:55.769 --> 00:41:58.409
to run consecutively, one after the other.
556
00:42:01.050 --> 00:42:02.429
So basically, it's a life sentence.
557
00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:07.409
First, however, he would return to Georgia to serve out
558
00:42:07.469 --> 00:42:11.989
his time for the parole violation there. His sentence at
559
00:42:12.030 --> 00:42:16.889
Hancock State Prison ended in July 2014.
560
00:42:17.670 --> 00:42:19.690
As of then, he was turned over to Connecticut Corrections
561
00:42:20.110 --> 00:42:22.219
to serve the three sentences for those homicides.
562
00:42:29.159 --> 00:42:32.829
When Webb's sentence was handed down in a Bridgeport court
563
00:42:32.929 --> 00:42:37.210
on the 25th of June 2008, there was applause from
564
00:42:37.250 --> 00:42:41.110
his victims' loved ones. It had taken 18 years to
565
00:42:41.190 --> 00:42:45.690
get them justice and the dedication of a committed team
566
00:42:46.190 --> 00:42:46.929
of detectives.
567
00:42:48.010 --> 00:42:51.139
It was tireless work. You know, and for me, as
568
00:42:51.590 --> 00:42:54.840
a supervisor, as a commander of that unit, you know,
569
00:42:56.210 --> 00:42:59.099
No more pride than to have distinguished detectives do what
570
00:42:59.139 --> 00:43:02.460
they did and bring these cases to a successful culmination.
571
00:43:13.130 --> 00:43:17.949
Webb was a dangerous predator who hid in plain sight.
572
00:43:19.050 --> 00:43:21.550
Emmanuel Webb was a man who was actually the devil,
573
00:43:22.320 --> 00:43:26.070
hiding around the corner. or in the coffee shop, and
574
00:43:26.090 --> 00:43:32.710
you never suspected him. He remains, for me, literally one
575
00:43:32.730 --> 00:43:36.920
of the most dangerous killers in America because he's shown
576
00:43:36.980 --> 00:43:42.900
no remorse, no reticence, no regret, no conscience. That makes
577
00:43:42.940 --> 00:43:45.079
him a very evil man indeed.
578
00:43:46.389 --> 00:43:50.630
It took many years to bring Webb to justice, but
579
00:43:50.670 --> 00:43:53.670
for those involved, it was worth the wait.
580
00:43:54.590 --> 00:43:58.150
I've had cases that have taken over 20 years to solve,
581
00:43:58.679 --> 00:44:00.980
but it doesn't matter. I mean, as long as you
582
00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:06.119
can solve the case, it's the perseverance. It's getting justice
583
00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:09.820
for the victims and holding people accountable for their behavior.
584
00:44:12.480 --> 00:44:14.199
You'd always get calls from family members, you know, on
585
00:44:14.219 --> 00:44:16.719
the anniversary dates of the homicide or their birthdays. It's
586
00:44:16.739 --> 00:44:18.590
not going to change anything, but you're bringing them a
587
00:44:18.590 --> 00:44:20.590
little bit of closure and they get justice. You know,
588
00:44:20.610 --> 00:44:21.590
that's what you try to do. You try to bring
589
00:44:21.989 --> 00:44:24.860
justice to the family. and to the victim themselves.
590
00:44:33.750 --> 00:44:36.769
Emmanuel Webb was known as a man who liked to
591
00:44:36.849 --> 00:44:40.769
party and a man who could charm his way into
592
00:44:40.869 --> 00:44:47.340
women's lives. But he abused their trust, murdering his victims
593
00:44:47.440 --> 00:44:54.289
in terrible acts of sexually motivated violence. After escaping justice
594
00:44:54.329 --> 00:44:58.170
for years, he was finally unmasked as one of the
595
00:44:58.349 --> 00:45:00.519
world's most evil killers.
