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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. Behind every massacre, there lies a reason. Sometimes they're obvious. Many mass murderers have similar traits. Sensation-seeking, lack of remorse, impulsivity, need for control, and predatory behavior. But other times, massacres are almost impossible to explain.
Introducing Anatomy of a Massacre. Anatomy of a Massacre is Rockefeller Audio's newest podcast series. Anatomy of a Massacre is a true crime podcast investigating the most notorious massacres in human history. From serial killers to mass shooters to genocides, there lies a new horrid reason to expose in each episode.
Join me, your host, Courtney Fretwell, a forensic psychologist, as I dive deep into the psychology, criminal theories, and policy implications behind each massacre. Anatomy of a Massacre begins Monday, October 3rd, 2022. Follow Anatomy of a Massacre on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your favorite shows so you don't miss an episode.
You know what happened? Now, let's uncover why. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. In December 1991, a 36-year-old woman was found dead inside a popular Phoenix, Arizona bar. She was last seen closing up the bar the night before.
Although the killer was careful not to leave behind much physical evidence, the police quickly identified their first suspect. Inside the victim's purse, the police found a name and phone number for Ray Krohn. Ray was someone who frequently visited the bar and was identified as the last person to see the woman alive. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 143, The Ray Krohn Story.
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Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new exciting cases, conduct in-depth, fact-based research, produce and edit this weekly show. As a thank you for supporting the show, you'll get early ad-free access to weekly episodes, shout-outs and episodes, priority on case suggestions, and access to weekly bonus episodes.
To support Forensic Tales, please visit patreon.com slash Forensic Tales or simply click the link in the show notes. Before we get to the episode, we've got a new supporter that I want to thank. Thank you so much to Adele for becoming our newest patron of the show. You can also support the show by leaving a positive rating with a review. Now, let's get into this week's episode.
Before we get into Ray Krohn's story, there's been some recent updates to a few cases that we've covered on the show. The first update is the case of Ellen Greenberg. We covered Ellen's story in episode number 49. On January 26, 2011, 27-year-old elementary school teacher Ellen Greenberg was found dead inside her locked Philadelphia apartment. She had 20 stab wounds to her chest, stomach, and back of her head.
The initial autopsy ruled her death a homicide until the ruling was reversed a few weeks later to suicide. For the next several years, Ellen's family pushed to have the case reopened and investigated as a homicide. This entire time, her family never believed she killed herself.
Just a couple weeks ago, the Chester County District Attorney's Office announced they would reinvestigate Ellen's case. It's unclear why the DA's office has decided to reopen it, but this is a massive step in the right direction for the Greenberg family. Once we know more, I'll bring any updates to you in a future episode.
The second update is the case of Sherry Papini. We covered the Sherry Papini story in episode number 39. Sherry Papini was a young wife and mother who was allegedly kidnapped while out jogging. After 22 days, Sherry was discovered wandering near a California highway on Thanksgiving morning. Her nose was broken, her body was covered with injuries, and she had lost a lot of weight.
Initially, Sherry Papini told the police that she was kidnapped by two unknown Hispanic women. However, her story eventually fell apart and she was arrested for allegedly faking her own kidnapping. A few days ago, on September 19th, Sherry was sentenced to 18 months in prison for making false statements to the FBI.
She had admitted to making up the entire story and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Episode number 49, Ellen Greenberg, and episode number 39, Sherry Papini, are available to listen right now. Now, let's get to Ray Krohn's story. On the morning of December 19, 1991, the body of a 36-year-old woman was found in Phoenix, Arizona.
Phoenix is the capital of Arizona and best known for its year-round sun and warm temperatures. But on the morning of December 19, 1991, Phoenix became known for something else. That morning, the owner of CBS Lounge, a popular bar in Phoenix, arrived at the bar to open up for the day. It was late morning and the CBS Lounge had been closed since the early hours the night before.
When he arrived at work, he didn't expect anyone to be there. It had been hours since the lounge was open, so all of the employees from the night before should be long gone. But when he opened the front door, his attention was drawn to the men's room. Coming out from under the men's room door, he saw a large pool of blood. He slowly stepped towards the door and noticed that the pool was coming from someone inside.
And when he opened the restroom door, that's when he made the grisly discovery. It was the body of 36-year-old Kim Onkana. Kim Onkana worked as a cocktail waitress and manager at the CBX Lounge in Phoenix. Her body was completely naked with a row of stab wounds like a necklace across her neck. In total, she suffered 11 stab wounds, and she'd also been sexually assaulted.
Phoenix investigators quickly learned that Kim worked as a shift manager the night before her body was discovered. This was her very first shift as bar manager. And as the bar manager, she was in charge of closing the bar, including cleaning the floors and restroom after the bar's last customers left the night before around 2 a.m.
Because she was found in the men's restroom, investigators theorized she might have been attacked while she cleaned the men's room before the end of the shift. They didn't know whether Kim was alone at the time or if the attack could have come from a co-worker who also closed with her that night. The scene was full of potential evidence. A knife from the bar's kitchen was found underneath a plastic bag in the trash can.
The police found fingerprints, including prints, on the condom machine and on the inside of the men's room door. When they finished processing the scene, they found a total of 50 prints. But we're talking about a public men's restroom. In any public setting, the police are going to find fingerprints.
They had to figure out if the prints were connected to the crime or not, or if the prints simply got there because it's a public restroom and there's going to be fingerprints everywhere. Now, besides fingerprints, Phoenix investigators found a mixture of blood and other bodily fluids at the scene. They found blood on Kim's clothes and saliva on her tank top and cheek.
When investigators compared the blood and saliva collected at the scene to Kim's blood and saliva, they got a match. The blood was matched to Kim's blood, but the saliva didn't match. It belonged to someone other than Kim, likely her killer. This discovery might have seemed promising in the beginning, but it didn't prove to be much.
In 1991, most police departments weren't doing advanced DNA testing. The testing was far less complex than what it is today. When it came to DNA evidence, most police departments were only doing blood typing. They collected blood or DNA evidence at a crime scene, sent it to the crime lab, and then the lab told investigators the blood type, A, B, O, or AB.
Other than identifying the blood type, there wasn't much else the DNA revealed. So Phoenix investigators sent the unknown saliva sample to the lab and found out that Kim's killer was someone with the most common blood type, type O. A recent study by the Red Cross found that over 38% of the population has O-positive blood, making it the most common blood type.
So other than discovering that Kim's killer had O blood type, they didn't know anything else. In 1991, they didn't perform any DNA testing other than blood typing, and no semen testing was performed. When the blood typing test came back as O blood, investigators went back to Kim's body. They wanted to see if there was any more evidence they could collect from her body.
They needed something better than just blood type to find their suspect. And that's when they discovered the bite mark. On Kim's left breast, they discovered a large bite mark. They also found a second bite mark on the side of her neck. Crimes associated with bite marks are usually homicides, sexual assaults, and child abuse. In child abuse cases, bite marks can reflect punitive measures.
If it's a young child, they may have been bitten as punishment. If they're an older child, it might be connected to a sexual assault. In homicides, the bite mark may either be on the victim or the suspect. If it's on the suspect, it's usually left behind by the victim. During the struggle, the victim might have biten their attacker to try and defend themselves. When it's seen on the victim, it's left behind by their killer.
It's not uncommon in homicides involving sexual assault to find bite marks. When a suspect bites their victim, it's another form of control. It can also be used as a weapon. If the victim is fighting back, the suspect can bite them to regain control.
Sexual assaults are crimes of power. So when there is a bite mark involved, that usually tells investigators it's the suspect's way of displaying total and complete power over their victim. The police found two bite marks on Kim's body, one on her left breast and the other on the side of her neck. The marks were swabbed for DNA and photographed for evidence.
While Phoenix police examined the bite marks, they got their first possible suspect, Ray Krohn. On the night of Kim's murder, she left her purse on the counter of the bar. Inside her purse, the police found an address book and notepad. On the notepad, it listed a phone number for Ray Krohn. After speaking with a few of Kim's co-workers at the bar, the police discovered that Ray was a friend of Kim's.
He frequently visited the CBS lounge and liked to play darts there. According to Kim's coworkers, Ray sometimes stayed with Kim to help her close down the bar for the night. And Kim's coworkers said that Ray had stayed with Kim at the bar on the night of her murder. After learning that Ray Krohn might have been the last person to see Kim alive that night at the bar, they quickly focused in on him as a potential suspect.
Once they got a search warrant, Phoenix police searched Ray's house and car for any potential evidence linking him to the murder. They also seized the pair of shoes and clothes he wore that night. They hoped the clothes might have DNA or other trace evidence from the murder. But the most important thing the police did was take a styrofoam impression of his teeth. They wanted to compare his teeth with the bite marks on Kim's body.
When Phoenix police first spoke with Ray, one of the first things they noticed about him was his teeth. They noticed they were crooked. Phoenix police had Ray bite into a styrofoam plate to make bite mark impressions. This impression was sent to the Arizona dental examiner, Dr. Ray Piakis.
Dr. Piakis is a member of the Arizona State Dental Association and is a board-certified forensic odontologist with the American Board of Forensic Odontology. When the doctor received Ray's bite mark impression, he compared it to the bite marks found on Kim's body.
Since the early 1950s, bite mark evidence and forensic dentists have played an important role in police investigation and our criminal justice system. The basis behind bite mark analysis is the premise that no two people have the same bite. Everyone has different size, shape, and alignment of teeth. So when they leave a mark, the mark is unique to the individual.
Like fingerprints, bite marks can be compared. The more similarities between the bite marks, the higher probability they're a match. The less similarities, the lower the chances of a potential match. In most criminal investigations, a potential suspect's bite mark is compared to a photograph of the bite mark collected at the crime scene.
then the forensic dentists look for unique features of both to determine whether the potential suspect left the original mark. It's important that when the comparison is done, the forensic dentists rule out any injuries or wounds caused by objects other than teeth and differentiate between animal and human bites.
In some cases, a forensic dentist can determine a person's likely age and race based on an examination of his teeth. To make a good comparison, the photograph of the bite mark on the victim should be clear, balanced, and to scale.
Because the forensic dentist will need to know the scale shown in the picture, it's very important to have some method of measurement, either a ruler or a tape measure, photographed next to the bite mark. When Dr. John Piakis compared Ray's impression to Kim's bite marks, he found many similarities. He concluded that Ray's teeth were consistent with the bite mark on Kim's left breast.
Dr. Piakas' findings was all the physical evidence the Phoenix police needed to make an arrest. On December 31st, 1991, Ray Crone was arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault. Phoenix police alleged that Ray knew Kim. He frequently played darts at the bar where she worked. He often stayed behind to close the bar with her.
According to Kim's co-workers, he stayed with her at the bar on the night of her murder, and his bite mark impression was consistent with the mark on Kim's body. After Phoenix police arrested Ray, they stopped investigating Kim's murder and prepped the case for trial. No one other than Ray was considered a suspect, and Ray Crome became known as the Snaggletooth Killer.
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Ray always maintained his innocence. He claimed he wasn't at the bar and was asleep at home at the time of Kim's murder. He had admitted going to the CBS lounge where Kim worked on several occasions, but he denied having anything to do with the murder. But the prosecutors had a different story. Arizona prosecutors focused on Kim and Ray's relationship. They said Kim and Ray knew each other because Ray frequently visited the lounge.
They also testified that Ray's phone number was listed on Kim's address book found inside her purse. The prosecution had witnesses testify that Ray had given Kim a ride home after Kim closed the bar a few days before the murder, and the two allegedly shared a brief kiss under the mistletoe at a Christmas party that year.
Kim's co-workers testified that on the night of the murder, Ray was the last one in the bar. He stayed behind to help close and give Kim a ride home. But Ray's defense also had witnesses testify. Ray's roommate at the time testified that Ray had gone to bed early that night and said that he was home when the murder took place, so he couldn't possibly be in two places at once.
Phoenix police and prosecutors were quick to debunk Ray's alibi. Prosecutors argued that Ray could have left the apartment in the middle of the night, committed the murder, and then returned home without his roommate knowing. When Phoenix police initially questioned Ray, he never denied knowing Kim. He did, however, deny having any romantic or sexual relationship with her. He always maintained that the two were friends and nothing more.
The police and prosecutors interpreted these statements as Ray hiding something, or he was trying to deny any type of association or relationship with Kim. When Ray first sat down with detectives, they thought he seemed nervous. He appeared like someone who was hiding something.
Ray testified that he and Kim had never dated, but admitted that he had seen her on several occasions outside of the bar, including at that Christmas party. The biggest part of the prosecution's case was the forensic evidence. A lot of the forensic evidence came back inconclusive. Ray and Kim had similar hair, so Ray couldn't be excluded as a possible source of hairs collected at the scene.
DNA tests were also inconclusive because the only DNA testing they did was blood typing. The police also discovered that Kim's killer had type O blood. Kim also had type O blood. Beyond that, no advanced DNA testing was done. Fingerprint evidence also came back inconclusive.
The original investigators collected a lot of fingerprints from the scene, but because it was a public restroom, they found a lot of unidentified prints. They couldn't conclusively link any of the fingerprints to Ray's prints to prove that he was inside the bathroom that night. According to the prosecution, the only conclusive piece of forensic evidence they had was the bite mark comparison.
The bite mark evidence quickly became the centerpiece for the prosecution's case against Ray. The prosecution's forensic experts testified that the bite marks were like fingerprints. They're unique to each person. They argued that a cast of Ray's teeth were compared to the teeth impressions on Kim's breast and neck, and both were found to be a match.
According to the prosecution, Ray's crooked teeth further proved he was the killer. That's because the unique bite marks on Kim's skin were a perfect match to Ray's unique dental structure. This further proved that the mark couldn't have been left by anyone other than Ray.
The state's star witness was Dr. Raymond Rawson, a Nevada state senator, college professor, and deputy coroner. He presented a video comparison of Ray's teeth to the victim, which seemed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that, quote, they were a perfect match between the two. Ray's defense denied that it was Ray's bite mark on Kim's body, and they also had their own expert take the stand.
But their expert had a lot less credentials than the prosecution's. They only had a dentist testify. Following a week of testimony, the case was handed over to the jury. The question for the jury became, which forensic expert did they believe? The prosecution's expert with far more credentials or the defense's dentist? After only a few hours of deliberation, the jury returned.
They found Ray Krohn guilty on the counts of murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to death for the murder charge and received an additional 21-year prison sentence for the kidnapping charge. The only criminal charge that he was acquitted on was for sexual assault. As soon as Ray arrived at prison, he filed an appeal.
His appeal was based on the state's circumstantial case against him and the forensic evidence used to convict him, stating that the forensic evidence was wrong. The Arizona Supreme Court heard the appeal in 1996. They listened to the state's argument that the bite mark evidence should be upheld. And they also listened to Ray's defense that argued the exact opposite.
They argued bite mark evidence was junk science. And besides the bite mark, the prosecution didn't have any other solid evidence against Ray. On direct appeal, the Arizona Supreme Court sided with Ray's defense and his conviction was overturned, but not for the reasons you might think.
The state Supreme Court overturned the conviction because of the late disclosure of Dr. Rollins' video at trial. According to the court's ruling, the prosecution didn't turn over the video soon enough for Ray's defense to properly prepare a defense, and therefore, the prosecution's mistake warranted a retrial.
The court didn't rule on the prosecution's use of the bite mark testimony. Ray's second trial began later that year in 1996. Like the first trial, the bite mark analysis was the state's star piece of evidence. But they also highlighted other new evidence.
The prosecution argued that Ray did laundry the night after Ken's murder. This might have hinted Ray was trying to destroy evidence on his clothes. They also said that shuffleboard wax beads from the CBS lounge were found inside of Ray's car. According to the prosecution, this further proved that Ray was at the bar that night.
For the second trial, Ray hired a private defense attorney instead of a public defender. Ray's family had chipped in financially to get him better counsel. His defense attorney, Chris Plord, conducted a very extensive investigation into the case and put on a strong defense for Ray at trial. Ray's defense hoped that this would be enough to get an acquittal.
Four defense experts took the stand and questioned the state's experience and conclusions about the bite mark evidence. They accused the prosecution's experts of fabricating the truth about the comparisons made between Ray's bite mark and the evidence. They also attacked their experts' credibility.
They argued that many of the state's quote-unquote experts weren't qualified in the field of forensic odontology. Instead, they were simply self-proclaimed experts who lacked the proper credentials to prove to be reliable testimony about bite marks.
Also during the second trial, Ray's defense presented evidence pointing to another possible suspect, an unidentified American Indian man. Ray's defense presented as much evidence as they could to argue that the police simply had the wrong guy and that there were other credible suspects out there.
Ray's second trial lasted much longer than the first one. The first trial lasted eight days, while this one lasted seven weeks. But the jury came to the same conclusion. They also found Ray guilty of Kim's murder. Instead of receiving a death sentence, the judge sentenced Ray to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge, Judge James McDougal, spared Ray the death penalty because he had his own doubts of Ray's guilt. He said, quote, the court is left with a residual or lingering doubt about the clear identity of the killer, end quote. But his hands as a judge were tied. The jury convicted Ray based on the testimony they heard at trial.
So instead of death, he would spend the rest of his life in prison. After the sentencing, Judge McDougal wrote, Ray spent the next decade in prison for a murder he says he never committed.
Ray, an Air Force veteran with no prior criminal record, was a postal worker and liked to play darts at the CBS lounge in Phoenix. Although the second trial spared him the death penalty, a sentence of life in prison was just as bad. He sat in prison labeled as the snaggle-tooth killer. Ray's family and defense attorneys didn't give up on him.
Ray's parents took out a second mortgage on their home to pay for his legal fees, and several private defense attorneys offered their legal services pro bono to fight for an appeal. It wasn't until 10 years later, in 2001, that Ray's case would be looked at again. In 2001, Phoenix lawyer Alan Simpson joined Ray's defense legal team.
Right away, he filed an application for DNA testing to be done on the remaining evidence from the crime scene. He wanted whatever evidence remained in the case to be retested. Kim's clothes, a beer bottle, a glass, and a substance found on the men's bathroom were all going to be tested. One year later, Ray's defense got the results.
In April 2002, DNA testing on the remaining evidence was complete. By then, DNA testing had become much more advanced than what it was at the time of the murder. Besides simply blood typing, DNA testing could be done to identify specific individuals.
On April 4th, 2002, DNA test results of saliva and blood found on Kim's clothes and body proved that Ray Krohn wasn't her killer and that he had been telling the truth all along. After the DNA tests were revealed, Ray's attorney, Alan Simpson, said, quote, This proves with certainty that Ray Krohn is an innocent man.
Every day from this point forward that Ray spends in jail is a day the county acts at their own peril, end quote. The DNA test didn't just confirm that Ray Crone was innocent, but the test revealed Kim's real killer, Kenneth Phillips.
Investigators ran the DNA through the FBI's DNA database, and that's when they found that the sample matched the DNA profile for a man named Kenneth Phillips. Kenneth Phillips' DNA was in the FBI system because he had been previously convicted of an unrelated sexual assault, and during that case, he was required to submit his DNA.
At the time of Kim's murder, Kenneth Phillips was living just a couple blocks away from the CBS lounge. On April 8, 2002, Ray Krohn was released from prison after serving over a decade behind bars.
In response to Ray's release, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley defended his prosecution of Ray by saying there was, quote, strong circumstantial evidence of his guilt, end quote. In response to a comment that Ray had spent over a decade behind bars, four of which were spent on Arizona's death row, Prosecutor Romley said, quote, we will try to do better, end quote.
The prosecution's star witness, forensic dentist Dr. Raymond Rawson, also defended his testimony. In an April 2002 article for the Arizona Republic, Dr. Rawson was quoted as saying, "...the bite marks were just one piece of evidence with whatever else the jury considered. That is what convicted him."
Ray Crone became the 100th former death row inmate freed because of innocence since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976. He also became the 12th death row inmate whose innocence was proved through DNA testing. After his release, Ray filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Maricopa County and the state of Arizona.
He was eventually awarded $3 million in a settlement with the city of Phoenix and $1.4 million in a settlement with Maricopa County. Ray's case called into question the credibility of bite mark analysis in criminal trials. Countless studies and newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, have regarded bite mark analysis as junk science.
In April 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that over 63% of bite mark investigations resulted in false positives and another 22% resulted in false negatives. This was according to a study by the American Board of Forensic Odontologists.
As more criminal cases are overturned based on faulty bite mark evidence, experts are calling on the ban of this type of testimony at trial. According to many experts, bite mark testimony is dangerous because of the jury's false belief that it is scientific, when many experts claim it's not scientific at all. This type of testimony is especially dangerous in capital punishment cases where
where the life of the accused is at stake, or in the cases where the prosecution's key piece of evidence against a criminal defendant is bite mark analysis. Ray Krohn was fortunate enough to still have enough DNA evidence remaining to be retested with new technology. If the evidence wasn't preserved, he might still be sitting in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
Kim's real killer, Kenneth Phillips, was sentenced to 53 years to life in prison for the murder and sexual assault on August 18, 2006. DNA evidence definitively linked Phillips to the crime, and instead of taking his case to trial, he agreed to plead guilty.
Initially, Maricopa County prosecutors sought the death penalty against Phillips, just like what they did with Ray Krohn. But prosecutors eventually decided to drop the death penalty and settled on 53 years to life in prison based on mitigating evidence presented by Phillips' defense.
They also took the death penalty off the table once they learned that Phillips agreed to plead guilty instead of taking his case to trial. Since his release, Ray has become an activist for getting rid of the death penalty in the United States. He is also the director of membership and training for Witness to Innocence, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the abolishment of the death penalty.
Ray Krohn was the 100th inmate to be freed by death row since 1973. Since then, there have been 123 more. With continuing advancements in DNA testing, it's expected that many more innocent people will be freed from death row in the coming years. And the future of bite mark analysis in criminal trials remains uncertain.
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Thank you for listening. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
