'Unlocking the Truth' Recap: Episode 6, He Who Knows Too Much
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Tonight's MTV Unlocking the Truth returns to the case of Byron Case and try to dissect key testimony. It also returns to Kalvin Michael Smith.
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Unlocking the Truth: Byron Case
Byron Case was convicted for murdering a woman named Anastasia WitbolsFeugen. Anastasia was with her boyfriend (Justin), Byron, and Byron's girlfriend (Kelly) on the night of the murder.
Although at first it seemed like the murderer was Justin's doing -- an assumption that was reinforced when Justin committed suicide a few days later, things changed after a few years.
At that time, Kelly, Byron's girlfriend, went to police claiming that Byron was the murderer.
This episode starts with Byron talking about what happened to Justin.
Byron says he called Justin and didn't get an answer, so he and Kelly went looking for him. But the next day, a police officer in Kansas found Justin's body behind a building, dead with a shotgun between his legs.
So the question is why did Justin commit suicide? Justin was known to have a history of depression and suicide attempts. But is that it?
The Unlocking the Truth team decides to look carefully at the timeline. According to Byron: on the night of the murder, at around 6pm, the whole gang was in the car, and Anastasia got into an argument with Justin and leaves.
At 9pm Justin and Byron dropped Kelly off at home. Then at 10pm, Just dropped Byron off. So Justin was unaccounted for for the next at least 12 hours, during which Anastasia was found dead.
The next morning, at 10:30am, Justin was recorded on a security camera buying the shotgun he used to kill himself.
Given the time he bought the gun, it was clear that that gun wasn't the murder weapon. Although the murder weapon was not found, the medical examiner knows that a shotgun was not used in Anastasia's death.
According to Justin's father, he had attended a gun show a week before the murder weapon.
But why would he have needed a new gun? One theory: he got rid of the murder weapon and ran away, but he then decided to kill himself, so he needed a new gun.
The Unlocking the Truth team returns to the murder scene. In Kelly's testimony, she had said that Byron used a "big gun" to kill Anastasia. But that isn't consistent with the team's understanding of the murder weapon.
So they recreate the scene and take some measurements. Using the measurements, they construct a computer model. The model shows that Kelly's testimony could possibly have been accurate.
Check out the clip below:
The team then talks to the medical examiner who originally examined Anastasia. He tells the team something they didn't expect: Everything that Kelly said fit the evidence.
The examiner says that the gun was touching Anastasia's skin when it was shot. He says that the gun was a "high powered" gun. He originally uses the term "rifle" but he then says a handgun could have been used.
The examiner seems convinced that Kelly was accurate, even though in the original autopsy report, he had said he couldn't determine the weapon. The team thinks he is wrong about Kelly.
After the break, the team explains that there was only one piece of physical evidence: a lead fragment that was part of a bullet. They visit an expert who examines the case and says that the murder weapon was unlikely to have been a rifle.
He says it was a handgun (a light-caliber revolver) with a lead bullet. But a different expert says that a rifle can't be eliminated as a possible murder weapon.
Unlocking the Truth: Kalvin Michael Smith
Next, the Unlocking the Truth team returns to Kalvin Michael Smith's case. Kalvin was convicted for murdering a woman named Jill Parker in her store.
In the last episode, the team looked at videos of Jill Parker, who after being brain-damaged, pointed out Kalvin in a lineup. They also spoke with Eugene Littlejohn, the friend who implicated Kalvin in the crime.
In this episode, the Unlocking the Truth team goes to see Chris Swecker, former assistant director of the FBI and famous investigator. Swecker says that this investigation had been botched.
He doesn't believe that Jill was psychologically able to identify the attacker. He also doesn't believe that Kalvin was even in the area during the crime.
The Unlocking the Truth team then introduces a new person, Shane Fletcher, who actually confessed to the crime at one point.
He had severe mental problems, and had been in and out of mental institutions, but he appears to know a lot of what happened during the murder.
However, Shane's mother told police that Shane was in a mental hospital at the time. The hospital, Forsythe Hospital, corroborated this. So Shane was dropped as a suspect.
But how did Shane know the details of the case? He had been housed on the same floor of the hospital as Kenneth Lamoureaux, the man who had an obsession with Jill Parker and who was seen near the crime location.
Here's a clip of the Unlocking the Truth team discussing Shane:
The Unlocking the Truth team manages to get an interview with Shane's mother. The mother tells team that Shane was a good kid but got mixed up with the wrong crowd.
She says he swallowed batteries and knives. She says it's plain as day that Kenneth Lamoureaux was guilty of the crime.
The team asks Shane's mother how he may have learned the details of the crime. In complete shock, she says it was possible that Shane communicated with Lamoureaux by phone.
Ryan then goes to a prison to meet with Shane. He doesn't remember much, but he thinks he was involved in the Jill Parker crime.
Ryan then asks about Lamoureaux, and Shane says he remembers him, but remember his knowing Jill. He seemed to think that Kalvin, and some of the others were rappers -- so he wasn't in a good mental state.
The episode ends with Ryan a bit deflated.