Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, or podcasting like me, it's easy to let your priorities slip. Even when we know it makes us feel good, it's hard to make time for it.
But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. Therapy can help with things like how to set healthy boundaries or find ways to be the best version of yourself. So if you're thinking about starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.
Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist or switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash tails to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash tails.
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 1995, a bloodied and broken body of a teenage girl was found along Utah's Provo River. Completely naked, her body was so badly beaten by the river's sharp rocks that investigators almost couldn't even make out her face.
At the same time, this teenager's life was cut so short, her killer would go on for years completely undetected. And after 18 excruciating years, it seemed like the murder of 17-year-old Crystal Beslanowicz would forever remain a cold case.
Could police use the latest advancements in forensic science to finally catch their killer and bring him to justice after all of these years? This is Forensic Tales, episode number four. The murder of Crystal Beslanowicz. ♪♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fratwell.
Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast that covers real, bone-chilling true crime stories with a forensic science twist. Some of the cases have been solved with the help of forensic science. Others have turned cold. The stories we cover each week send a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
If you're interested in supporting the show and getting early access to weekly episodes, bonus material, ad-free episodes, merchandise, and so much more, consider visiting our Patreon page, patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. Another great way you can help support Forensic Tales is by leaving us a positive rating with a review or telling friends and family who love true crime about us.
Now, let's jump right into this week's episode. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for listening and joining me for episode number six of Forensic Tales. The case we're covering this week is one that baffled investigators for years. For 18 long years, Crystal Beslanowicz's killer remained completely under the police's radar. As the years went by, it seemed as though this case would never be solved.
leaving a killer to get away with the perfect murder. On December 14th, 1995, around 8 o'clock p.m. near Salt Lake City, Utah, 17-year-old Tracy Beslanowich told her boyfriend Chris that she's going to go run to the local Circle K to get some food. A few hours pass, and Tracy still hasn't returned back to the motel she shared with Chris.
Around 11 o'clock p.m., Chris starts to worry about Tracy and decides that he just can't sit at the hotel and do nothing. He needs to do something. He makes his way to the local Circle K to see if Tracy might still be there or maybe talk to someone who might have seen her. But Chris learns nothing about where his girlfriend is. Tracy has never been gone the whole night, let alone a few hours.
She and Chris were incredibly close and spent almost every waking moment with each other. When Tracy wasn't at the motel, Chris knew where she was. It was unlike Tracy to just be gone and not heard from. The entire night passed and there was absolutely no sign of Tracy anywhere. Instead of calling the police, Chris starts knocking on several neighbors' doors throughout the motel.
But after each knock, he gets nothing. No one has seen or heard from Tracy all night. At this point, Chris is starting to feel really worried about his girlfriend. He starts getting that gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of his stomach that something might be really, really wrong. The following morning at 8.40 a.m. on December 15th, 1995,
Nearly 45 miles away from Tracy and Chris's motel room, a rancher and his son spot something in the distance that catches their eye. As the rancher gets closer, he tells his son that he thinks there might be a mannequin down by the river. A few minutes later, they realize that that is no mannequin.
The rancher and his son immediately call the local sheriff to report that there's a dead body down by the Provo River. The officer who first arrives on scene thinks he's just responding to a simple call. Maybe a fisherman who simply passed away along the river. But as he makes his way up to the body, he realizes that this is so much more than that. The first responding officer immediately calls over the police radio for backup.
He tells radio dispatchers that there is a young girl down by the river, completely naked. Her body was bloodied and broken. Once backup arrives on the scene, police immediately close off the entire area and begin their initial investigation. Now, these types of crime scenes are very difficult for police to try to investigate. Because it's down by the river in a completely wide open space,
It's hard for crime scene technicians to find and collect evidence that is constantly being exposed to the elements. They have to deal with weather, with wildlife in the area, even with transients. And by this point in the investigation, police have no idea exactly how long the body's been out there and has been exposed to these elements.
It's not like a crime scene inside of a house where you can just easily close the front door and basically lock down the entire area. An area like this is difficult for investigators and crime scene technicians. So right away, first responders are now up against the clock to find and collect valuable forensic evidence and come to the realization that valuable evidence may have already been lost.
Despite the exposure to the elements, investigators were able to collect valuable evidence around the victim's body. Police noticed that there were several bloody rocks surrounding the victim's body, telling police they may have just found their murder weapon. Not far from the victim's body, police found a pair of women's socks neatly folded on a rock nearby. Besides the socks, the victim was completely naked,
Whoever had dumped her body took with them all of her clothes. After police collect the socks, they make their way back to the body. By this point, the medical examiner has arrived on the scene and are now able to turn the body over in order to determine the cause of death. Once the medical examiner turned the girl's body over, her face was described as being almost gone.
In addition to the blunt force trauma to both her head and face, the victim also showed signs of defensive wounds on her hands and a large puncture on the bottom of her foot. The defensive wounds on her hands and wrists are really important here and tell a story. It tells us that whoever this Jane Doe is fought for her life. She fought and fought to save her life against her attacker.
And when I read about cases in which we see these obvious defensive wounds, it just really hits me and makes me think about the strength and the courage victims have, even up until the very last minute. They keep fighting even when they know they're going to die. By looking at the victim and how badly her face was attacked, police luckily were able to identify two tattoos on her body.
Tattoos are a great indicator for police, especially when attempting to identify a Jane Doe. That's because police can talk to people like friends and family and find out from them who their victim is based on physical markers like tattoos. So the victim had two tattoos on her body, one on her shoulder and one on her left breast.
The tattoo on the left breast was interesting to police because it read the name Chris over a heart. Without looking much farther, this tattoo tells police that they've already have their first suspect. The first person they need to find and speak to is Chris. On the scene, the medical examiner and the police believe that the victim was beaten to death by the granite rocks found around the body.
So investigators collected several rocks with blood on them. Some rocks were the size of a softball, while others were over 50 pounds. Besides the rocks and the socks found near the body, investigators really couldn't find any other valuable evidence. It appeared to first responders that this was going to be a difficult case and that their first step was to try and give Jane Doe a name.
The following day, the medical examiner was able to confirm that the woman found dead along the river was killed by blunt force trauma to her skull. At the autopsy, the medical examiner found 16 separate blows to her face and to her neck.
By the rigor mortis and other factors, they were also able to determine that Jane Doe likely died sometime between 8 and 10 hours prior to when she was discovered. Rigor mortis is a really useful tool for medical examiners to be able to determine the time of death.
And that's because when we die, our bodies begin to stiffen. And the progression of rigor mortis serves as a stopwatch in terms of figuring out how much time has passed since someone has died. In other words, the longer time after death, the greater rigor mortis. Once the medical examiner determined that Jane Doe likely died 8 to 10 hours before her discovery,
He made the very smart decision to collect valuable forensic evidence from the body. Remember, this murder occurred in 1995, which in terms of forensic science, well, that is practically the dark ages. Back in 1995, we didn't have anywhere near the amount of technology and tests that we have now in 2020 or whenever you're listening to this episode.
So the medical examiner was such a forward thinker and knew, hey, I might not be able to perform these tests today, but let me collect evidence such as hair samples, bodily fluids, fingernail clippings, and save them for when our abilities in forensic science are much better, a decision that may have changed the entire outcome of this case.
The next huge step for the medical examiner was to give Jane Doe a name. He knew she was someone's daughter, someone's friend, and someone was going to be looking for her. The medical examiner ran her fingerprints in the National FBI database but got nothing. Next, the police decide to submit her information to the National Missing Person Database.
A move that, just like before, led to nothing. Jane Doe has no ID, no wallet, no clothes, nothing. The only thing she had were those two tattoos. Police knew that someone out there has to recognize those two tattoos.
That's when they decided to have one of their officers draw a sketch of the tattoos and decided to broadcast them on the local news to try and find someone who recognized them. Someone out there has to have seen this girl with those tattoos. That same exact night, police got a phone call that they had been waiting for. On the other end of the phone was a young man who identified himself as Chris.
He tells police, almost in a panic, that he saw the news and that he thinks his girlfriend is Jane Doe. Police arrive at the motel Chris is staying at and start asking him questions. Now, we true crime addicts know that the boyfriend or husband or whoever the significant other is, is always the first and prime suspect.
That's because our significant others are the closest people to us and sadly, oftentimes have the biggest motive when it comes to murder, whether that's rage or jealousy or something else. In fact, you're far more likely to be killed by someone you know than a complete stranger or some serial killer.
Once the police arrive at Chris's motel, he tells the detectives that, yeah, that's my girlfriend. Her name is Tracy, and she usually goes by the nickname BBC. When questioned about when was the last time he's seen Tracy, he told them how she left the night before and went to go pick up some dinner at the Circle K. And he told police that it was so unlike her to not come home.
Further into his conversation with the police, Chris shared some very interesting facts about his girlfriend, Tracy. Chris told police during their interview that his girlfriend, Tracy, had a very weird phobia about socks. He told police that she had a big phobia about taking her socks off even in front of him. Chris said he would always make fun of her for folding her socks a certain way whenever she took them off.
By this point, Chris is still the number one suspect. Even though police don't have any physical or forensic evidence against him, things just don't seem right here. And the police are operating under the assumption that the boyfriend is always the one responsible. After talking to police, the police now have positively identified their Jane Doe. Once they returned to the police station, they immediately pulled any records they could find on Tracy.
which just so happens to include contact information for her father. One of the hardest jobs that I think homicide detectives have to do is to notify the family of a murder victim. I can't imagine how terrible and awful it would be to have to be the one to tell someone that their son, daughter, or whoever is dead.
But on December 17th, police picked up the phone and dialed Tracy's father. Police broke the devastating news to Tracy's father and explained to him that his young teenage daughter was found murdered along the Provo River. But when the officers broke the news, the phone line went silent. After a few moments, the man on the other end simply said, that can't be my daughter.
My daughter, Tracy, is sleeping in the room right next to me. The detective thought that maybe this guy was mistaken. They had already positively identified Tracy as Jane Doe. How could his daughter be sleeping in the room right next door? After a few minutes of just total confusion,
The man on the other end of the phone explained to police that the Jane Doe they were talking about might actually be his stepdaughter, Crystal. He told the detectives that Crystal has a long history of using Tracy's name and identity and was always giving out false information so that no one really knew who Crystal was.
According to her stepfather, Crystal started working as a prostitute at a very young age and, quote, never had a chance in life. Jane Doe wasn't Tracy, after all. Jane Doe was Crystal Beslanowicz. Crystal Beslanowicz was born on June 6, 1978.
Her biological father died in a drowning accident when Crystal was only four years old, and she had a terrible relationship with her mother. Crystal was constantly running away from home. She was in and out of youth homes, getting arrested, and just spending her time out on the streets. According to friends and family, Crystal actually felt safer on the streets than she did in her very own home.
After talking to Crystal's stepfather, police were able to get her mother's contact information. When police sat down with Crystal's mom, she confirmed Crystal's troubled childhood. She got into drugs as a kid. She ran with a wild group of friends. She knew this day would come for her daughter. After speaking with the mom, Crystal's boyfriend, Chris, just keeps on looking better and better as their prime suspect.
Remember, Chris told police himself that her name was Tracy. Police suspected that he was deliberately lying about Crystal's true identity, and this just made Chris seem more and more guilty. If Chris was lying about Crystal's true identity, what else was he lying about? For the third time, the police and Chris sit down for another interview.
Police go into the interview expecting to just get that much closer to making an arrest. But that's not exactly what happens. Chris tells police that Crystal was the breadwinner in their relationship. He really relied on her. Chris had absolutely no money. He's broke. He doesn't work. He doesn't even have a car. And without a car...
How was Chris supposed to kill his girlfriend Crystal and get her body nearly 45 miles away from the motel that they lived in? And why would Chris kill Crystal? She made all the money. His life depended on her. What motive does he have to kill the one person that he relies on for almost everything?
As much as the police wanted to have their suspect, the story just didn't add up. The police started to come to the realization that Chris didn't really have the motive or, quite frankly, the means to kill Crystal that night. There was no motive. Chris relied on Crystal. There was no means. He didn't even own a car. As quickly as Chris rose to the top of the suspect list...
He came crashing right back down to the bottom. Since Chris was ruled out as a suspect, police now had to start back at square one to try and figure out who Crystal's killer really was. But if her boyfriend Chris didn't kill her, then who did? Police knew that Crystal worked as a sex worker and was known on the streets as Baby Tracy.
So police started talking to girls on the streets and asking them if they knew anything about what happened to Crystal or who she might have been with on the night she was killed. But not surprisingly, the plan to try and get information about Crystal's murder from sex workers wasn't very successful.
People out on the streets just don't talk to the police. They don't trust the police. Nobody ever sees anything or hears anything when it comes to police investigations. So three days later, on December 19th, police get what they had been hoping for, a brand new lead in the case. A guy named Herb Fry met Crystal while driving his taxi throughout her neighborhood.
Herb admitted to investigators that he had some pretty deep feelings for Crystal and that he really cared about her. The guy even told police that he wanted to marry Crystal someday. With this new information, the police really wanted to talk to Herb more about what he remembers the last time he saw Crystal alive.
Herb told police that he was actually with Crystal the day before she went missing. He said the two of them were chatting outside her motel room and that he was trying to get her to go hang out with him. But she told him she couldn't because she had to work that night. The next thing Herb says is that Crystal just left, that he had no idea what happened to her next and he has no idea where she went.
To police, Herb Fry was starting to look pretty good for the murder. Unlike the boyfriend, Chris, Herb had means. He had a taxi car. He had motive. He was head over heels in love with Crystal. So Herb Fry pretty quickly moved up to the top of the suspect list. Police think they may finally have their guy. Police started talking to some of Herb's friends.
And what they found out was even more disturbing than they previously had thought. Herb wasn't just in love with Crystal. He was obsessed with her. He was overheard telling friends that if he can't have her, then nobody can have her. After Crystal Beslanowicz was laid to rest by her family, police had two main suspects in her murder. The boyfriend, Chris, and the taxi driver, Herb Frye.
Police had absolutely zero forensic evidence linking either suspect to the murder. Although they felt Erb was better for it, they knew they weren't going to be able to make an arrest and bring him to trial without any physical or forensic evidence. Just because the guy was obsessed with Crystal doesn't really make him a killer, right? And unfortunately, without forensic or physical evidence, we see this happen a lot.
Juries nowadays pretty much expect that the prosecution will present some sort of forensic evidence to pin their suspect. It's very rare for cases, especially homicide cases, to be solved solely on what is called circumstantial evidence or evidence that basically relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion.
And a case is even harder to prosecute when, in addition to no forensic evidence, there's also no additional direct evidence. There are no witnesses. Nobody knows what happened. So at this point in the investigation, police, well, police just don't have enough to make an arrest either on Chris or Erb. Eleven long years would pass, and there's still no break in the case.
Back in 1995, when Crystal was murdered, it was pretty much common for crime scene investigators to only collect blood and fingerprints from crime scenes. Now, we collect everything at crime scenes. We collect hair, bodily fluids, fibers, anything and everything we can in hopes that it would lead us to a suspect. And that's what makes forensic evidence so important.
It doesn't lie. Forensic evidence is the truth. If you remember, the medical examiner in Crystal's case believed that someday our technology in the field of forensic science would improve. He knew that they weren't able to test much back in 1995, but that would change. And boy, was he right.
By 2008, forensic scientists were able to swab the rocks found around Crystal's body down by the river. They swabbed four of the six rocks found at the crime scene. They were able to confirm that the blood-stained rocks had a female DNA profile matching Crystal's. But they were also able to find skin cells from the unstained portions of the rocks.
Forensic scientists believed that the skin cells belonged to their killer, that they left the skin cells behind after they handled the rocks and used them to murder Crystal. The DNA found on the unstained portions of the rocks was determined to be a male DNA profile. The profile in the sample was so small that scientists weren't able to get a full DNA profile.
Police took this partial sample of a male DNA profile and compared it to their two main suspects, Crystal's boyfriend, Chris, and the taxi driver, Herb Fry. Chris doesn't hesitate in providing police his DNA, and a test comes back providing that his DNA did not match the partial sample. So Chris, once again, was officially eliminated.
The next person the police wanted to compare the partial profile to was Herb Fry, the taxi driver who, admittedly, was obsessed with Crystal back in 1995. Unlike Chris, police didn't want to approach Herb about providing a DNA sample. So they decided to set up surveillance to get a better idea about his movements and habits. One afternoon, police followed Herb to work and waited for him to take a break to smoke a cigarette.
As soon as Herb finished smoking the cigarette, he did as any other smoker did and threw his cigarette on the sidewalk. Once Herb returned back inside to work, police picked up the discarded cigarette and immediately tested it against the partial DNA profile they found on the rocks. The test? Well, it came back negative. Herb Fry didn't kill Crystal Beslanowicz.
After two failed DNA tests, just like in 1995, police again were asking the question, who killed Crystal? Several more years would pass without any answers as to who brutally murdered Crystal down by the river that day. But by 2013, there had been some advancements in DNA testing.
By 2013, there was a new DNA extraction tool known as the MVAC system. The MVAC is a sterile small wet vacuum. The system sprays a collection solution onto a surface while at the same time it vacuums the surface. It creates this mini hurricane that loosens up the DNA material that is collected to a collection bottle.
where the DNA material can be concentrated into a filter. Basically, the MVAC became the world's greatest vacuum and one of the best tools to hit the forensic science world at the time. In terms of forensic science, forget Dyson, the MVAC truly deserves the world's greatest vacuum award.
In 2013, forensic scientists decided to use the MVAC on the granite rocks found at the murder scene. Now, you might be thinking, how in the world can you test the same rock for DNA after 18 years? Well, we do this all the time.
If the forensic evidence is properly extracted and properly stored, forensic scientists can test DNA after many years, even longer than 18 years as in the case of Crystal's murder. So another reason why the MVAC was so revolutionary to DNA testing is that it can collect DNA on the toughest and most uneven surfaces.
And if you've ever touched or pick up a piece of granite rock, then you know that the surface is incredibly uneven and porous. But this makes it the perfect type of surface for the MVAC to extract a DNA profile from. When the MVAC is used to extract DNA from the granite rocks in Crystal's case, it
They got what they'd been looking for for almost two decades, a complete male DNA profile. 18 years after the murder of Crystal Beslanowich, police take the full DNA profile obtained using the MVAX system and enter it into FBI's CODIS system. Maintained by the FBI, CODIS is our country's national DNA database.
In most states in our country, I know California does, if you commit certain crimes, you're often required to submit your DNA to CODIS. So now once CODIS has your DNA profile, if you commit a crime in the future, your DNA can be run through CODIS and you can be tied to that subsequent crime.
So once investigators run the profile found on the granite rocks through CODIS, it comes back with an exact match. Joseph Michael Simpson. Simpson's DNA was found on the rocks used to hit and murder Crystal. Nearly 18 years after the brutal murder of Crystal Beslanowicz,
Police used the MVAC system to retrieve a full DNA profile from the granite rocks. Once the DNA profile was run through the FBI's national database, police got the hit they'd been waiting for, that they'd been waiting for almost two decades for. The DNA found on the granite rocks used to murder Crystal belonged to Joseph Michael Simpson. Joseph Simpson is no stranger to the criminal justice system.
Back in 1987, Simpson was convicted of homicide after he stabbed a man 13 times for talking to his girlfriend. When police learn about Simpson's 1987 murder conviction, they saw a lot of similarities between that case and the case of Crystal. They saw the rage, the overkill, the anger, the brutality, the
After the 1987 murder conviction, Simpson was released on parole in 1995 and started working for an airport hotel shuttle company. Simpson's job was to take people from the airport to the hotel and then vice versa.
Police discovered that the route between the airport and the hotel had him constantly driving through Park City and the Provo area. He drove this route day in and day out. Simpson would drive the same exact road where Crystal's body was found every single day.
In 2003, while out on parole, Simpson was allowed to leave the state of Utah and move in with his family down in Florida. In August 2013, police were able to track Simpson down at his mother's home. They knew they needed Simpson's DNA to make an arrest for the murder of Crystal all of those years back.
They needed to be 100% sure that they had the right suspect. After 18 years of searching, there was absolutely no room for error. Police started to watch every move made by Simpson. They watched him go home. They watched him go to work.
And finally, on August 25th, 2013, police saw Simpson smoke a cigarette and casually discard it on the sidewalk. And that's when they moved in. Police took the cigarette back to the crime lab to test it against the DNA profile obtained from the granite rocks. Now, all they had to do is wait. Ten days later, they had a perfect DNA match.
A match made in DNA heaven. 17 years, 9 months, and 2 days after the brutal and savage murder of Crystal Beslanowich, police arrest Joseph Michael Simpson. Prosecutors make the case that shortly after 8 p.m. on December 14, 1995, Crystal told her boyfriend that she was going to go grab some food at the local Circle K.
But she was actually going to go meet up with Simpson. Prosecutors believe that Simpson used money and drugs in order to get Crystal to go out with him that night. Simpson took her to that deserted River Road. He initiated an unwanted sexual encounter with her. And this is when Crystal wants out. Crystal got out of Simpson's car and started to make a run for it.
As Crystal is trying to run away from Simpson, she hits a wire and punctures the bottom of her foot. Simpson eventually catches up with her, where he picks up a granite rock and begins repeatedly hitting her over the head until she dies. No one was around. No one heard a sound. Crystal was simply left there to die. The forensic evidence in the case was overwhelming.
The blood-stained portions of the granite rock matched Crystal, and the male DNA profile discovered by the MVAC was a perfect match to Simpson. Simpson was 100% the man who held up and picked up those granite rocks to strike Crystal over the head, a story that can only be told by forensics. On September 29, 2016, all of these years after the murder,
A jury found Simpson guilty. Until the DNA connection was made using the MVAC technology, Simpson was never linked or even suspected in the murder. And it's likely that without the MVAC in this case, Simpson would still be a free man and Crystal's family would still be without justice.
The MVAC system technology provides us assurance that knowing that touch DNA and touch evidence are now easier than ever to find, no matter the surface, no matter how old the evidence. The MVAC has the power and technology to identify even the smallest traces of DNA. The MVAC just became the world's greatest vacuum.
To share your thoughts on the Crystal Beslanowicz case, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at Forensic Tales. Let me know what you think about the NVAC system. Also, to check out photos from the case, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com.
After each episode, I put up photos from the crime scene, photos of the victims, the suspect, and anything else I can find on the case. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love this show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon.
All right, you guys, thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case, a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings. Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller Audio Production.
The show is written and produced by me, Courtney Fretwell. For a small monthly contribution, you can gain access to bonus content and be one of the first to listen to new episodes. Or if you simply want to support the show, head over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash forensic tales.
You can also help support the show by leaving us a positive review and telling friends and family about us. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Please join me next week. We release a new episode every Monday.
Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
♪♪ ♪♪