The Bushy-Haired Man PT 1
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while uncovering the mystery of her sister's murder. There are twists, turns, and catchy tunes, all leading you deeper into the thrilling storyline. This is your chance to test your detective skills. And if you play well enough, you could make it to the detective club. There, you'll chat with other players and compete with or against them. June needs your help, but watch out.

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Discover your inner detective when you download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android. That's June's Journey. Download the game for free on iOS and Android.

I'm Kate Winkler-Dawson. I'm a journalist who's spent the last 25 years writing about true crime. And I'm Paul Holes, a retired cold case investigator who's worked some of America's most complicated cases and solved them. Each week, I present Paul with one of history's most compelling true crimes. And I weigh in using modern forensic techniques to bring new insights to old mysteries.

Together, using our individual expertise, we're examining historical true crime cases through a 21st century lens. Some are solved and some are cold, very cold. This is Buried Bones. ♪♪

Hey, Paul. Hey, Kate. How's it going? It's going well. It's going well. I was looking through my notes for this episode that we're going to talk about today, which is such a big story that we're having to break it up into two parts. I looked at the notes and I thought, maybe this is a time in our season to show the listeners how the sausage is made behind the scenes. Yeah.

And maybe a little bit about you because you drop in and, you know, you give me your opinion. And I'm not sure you know how extensive things are with the research back here.

But when I come up with a case, I'm always looking for a case that's going to appeal to you. What do you think are the things that I look for in a Paul Holes is happy sort of case for buried bones? What are the keys that I'm looking for? I think first and foremost, you're probably looking for, are there twists and turns? So as I'm hearing the details and I'm kind of guessing at investigative directions and my theories at a certain point during the episode, I'm

you know, then you can surprise me. You'll do a right-handed turn I'm unexpecting. And so I think that's part of it. And I also think that you're looking for, you know, whether there's forensic evidence in the case, crime scene investigative aspects, blood pattern interpretation, and even behavioral aspects, you know, which you want me to weigh in on. And, you know, as we've chatted over the course of this season, you know, sometimes because these are such old cases, you know,

I don't get all the information that I'm hoping to get. And so oftentimes I'm having to probably speculate more based on sketchy details than what I would normally be comfortable with. But it's legitimate based on the information you provide. Right. Sketchy is the appropriate word for many of the cases we cover because it was sketchy in 1812 or whatever year we're talking about. There was a lot of limited resources there.

But then there are times, like in this case, where we have a lot of information. And part of that is the time period because it's more recent than other cases or because it's a high-profile case. And that is the case with this story. This is Sam Shepard, which I know you know a little bit about. And one of my favorite movies is The Fugitive with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

And so this is a well-known case, even though it's from 1954, a long time ago. Don't tell me what you know about the case, but I know you understand little bits and pieces of the Sam Shepard case, right? Yeah, you know, I would say I am vaguely familiar with it in part.

just because of its notoriety. In part, you know, some aspects of that Harrison Ford movie you just brought up, The Fugitive, was inspired by details from the Sam Shepard case. Right. And in part, believe it or not...

My former mentor, if you will, from a CSI and forensic standpoint, who was an understudy of Paul Kirk, ends up having a box in his garage that contains some Sam Shepard evidence. It's always in the garage. What is going on with you investigators keeping stuff in your garage? At least be in the attic. I can say I have nothing like that in my garage. How's that? Good. You're absolved of any liability, I think is what you just did. That's right.

Well, I say this is the case that I'm interested in. This case has all of the hallmarks of a case that Paul would really enjoy. I put it in a database, and then our producer, Alexis, and our researcher, Maren, look through the database and start trying to organize information. And Maren does the primary amount of research. She's an outstanding researcher, as is Alexis, as an outstanding producer. Thank goodness, because the show would not exist if it weren't for the two of them. So Maren spends a long time pulling together research materials

And of course, in order for me to present you with this case, I have to know all about the story. So I give her suggestions and then I'll ask her facts and everything. So with each case, when you and I talk for maybe an hour and 10 minutes or something, usually the notes that she gives me front and back are maybe three or four pages long.

I'll highlight stuff, and anytime I highlight anything, it means this is something that I need Paul to react to. So I, for the Sam Shepard case, have in my hand a 10-page document. Oh, boy. And I know how you like to geek out on forensics. That's your job. And so I thought, yeah, this is a two-parter. And so when I see all that yellow...

I think, okay, we really are going to have to dig into this. So that is, to me, the sign of a really, really good case. And Marin pulls all this research together. You know, I add to it. And then we all learn a little bit. With every case, we all learn a little bit more about different ways that we need to research, different sources that we need to use, what's a good source and what's a bad source. So this is a great case. It was, again, another reminder of how grateful I am for a researcher like Marin to be able to do all this.

This is an exciting one for me. With all that yellow, I guess I'm going to have to pay attention. I hope you have two cavas. Actually, right now, I've got an energy drink. Okay, you need three of those. Okay, let's set the scene for Sam Shepard.

So I, like you, knew bits and pieces of the Sam Shepard case from The Fugitive, from newspaper articles I've read, but it was set in 1954. And I'm not sure, like my kids had never heard of The Fugitive and my college students haven't. I've asked them. They've never really heard of The Fugitive. So there was also a TV series based on this case because it was such a sensational case.

So I'm interested in what you know. What are the little tiny pieces that you know about Sam Shepard in that case?

From what I recall, Sam Shepard was married. He was a doctor. And it was a home invasion. I believe this is the case with the robber that he gets into a fight with inside the residence. I can't remember if he gets knocked unconscious, but then ultimately his wife is found killed. And it became controversial because Sam Shepard gets charged with the homicide of his wife, with the murder of his wife.

I think on the forensic side, I think there was some interesting blood patterns, but I don't recall, you know, exactly what they had. Okay. So let's start with where we are. This is 1954 in Bay Village, Ohio, which is less than 15 miles from Cleveland, and

And this is a very controversial case. This was for decades. In the mid-1950s, Sam was 30 years old, handsome, a doctor, and he was married to a woman named Marilyn Shepard, who was a year older than he was. This is a family like the families you and I have talked about, David Lamson, you know, these sort of nice, white, upper-middle-class families.

seemingly perfect marriage, someone who has it all. Sam is a neurosurgeon who comes from a very respected family. I gave you a little homework on what a neurosurgeon is and on a sort of a scale of difficulty in the medical field. Is this a challenging specialty? I'm assuming, I know you have to be intelligent to be a doctor, but do you need to be supercharged intelligent to be a neurosurgeon? Sam

Well, you hope so, right? If somebody is going to be operating on your brain, obviously there's certain specialties within the medical field that are, I wouldn't necessarily want to label anything more complex than another, but have a certain prestige. Mm-hmm.

And somebody who's a neurosurgeon, there's a level of prestige with having that specialty. No question, this is showing that Sam Shepard had a level of intelligence. And as I evaluate this case, as I hear the details, I'm going to be kind of weighing those details against somebody that I would consider to be sophisticated intelligence experts.

as the average lay person would understand, but also whether or not they're showing a level of sophisticated intelligence and how to commit a crime, because that's two different things. Okay. Yeah, that's true. We've talked about the smart killer and we've talked about the criminal mastermind and how that's different. You can be intelligent as a person and really stupid as a criminal, we hope. That's always the hope to find the stupid ones, right? Well, I'm not sure if that's the case here. So Marilyn was four months pregnant and

And then they have another child who is a seven-year-old named Sam Reese Shepard. He went by Chip.

And they all live together in a lakefront home on Lake Erie. Now, let's talk about being a pregnant woman because I do know the stats on that. And pregnant women are at a higher risk of being killed than women who aren't pregnant. So already when Marilyn, we know, ends up dead, the police are hyper aware that Sam Shepard could be a suspect too.

who wanted nothing to do with being a new father and just wanted to eliminate the issue. So I think that in 54, probably investigators' antennas go up a little bit when they find out the victim is pregnant. What do you think about that? Well, in situations where the,

homicide has occurred within the house and the spouse was present inside the house, then yes. Of course, I've had cases of women that were pregnant that were killed, such as sex workers, and we're not just necessarily focusing in on

the boyfriend or the biological father. You know, we're also taking a look at the totality of the victimology. But if it appears that you have the husband inside the house with his pregnant wife or pregnant girlfriend at the time of the homicide, then there has to be that consideration. Even if she wasn't pregnant, but the fact that she is pregnant, are we dealing with a biological father that is not wanting that life change?

and has decided that homicide is the only way out. And, you know, I do want to mention, I didn't realize that Sam Shepard's wife was pregnant at the time. So this is a double homicide. Yeah, four months pregnant. So the Shepards have a very rich social life.

And on the night before the 4th of July, July 3rd, 1954, Sam and Marilyn are having a little fun dinner party with their neighbors. And they have a meal with the neighbors and then they go to the living room where the two couples watch a movie together. And little Sam is asleep. The seven-year-old is asleep. During the film, the neighbors, you know, observing Sam and Marilyn, they seem very affectionate.

And, you know, Marilyn is sitting on his lap during the movie. This all goes to the state of their marriage, which will, as you can imagine, become important later on. So eventually, Sam falls asleep on the daybed in that room. The couple leaves, Sam falls asleep, and Marilyn says goodbye to the couple, and she goes upstairs to her bedroom. She and Sam have separate twin beds, and

and she falls asleep in one of her beds. My grandparents had separate twin beds. You know, it was in the 50s, it was becoming a little bit more common for people to sleep in the same bed, but it was really thought that men needed rest, and they weren't getting rest by sleeping with women, and women also, and so it was prudent for them to sleep in separate beds. But now, according to

to one research study, 25% of couples now sleep in separate beds. Really? They say it's because of sleep issues. Oh, yeah. So I just wanted to make this point that this was not a mark of a bad marriage. Around the late 50s and the early 60s, people were starting to accept that sleeping in the same bed together might be a nice thing. Well, it's interesting and it's important to understand the culture at the time. Yeah. You know, so that...

Of course, today, if I were to go into a house, let's say a homicide had occurred, and then I see, oh, there must be some sort of discord in this relationship. So, you know, this was not alarming to the police because it was common. So this is what happened. So we have Sam downstairs on the daybed after the couple left. He fell asleep. And Marilyn is upstairs in their bedroom in her twin bed.

So around 5.45 in the morning, the Bay Village mayor, who was very close friends with the Shepherds, got a call from Sam. He was very panicked. He said to the mayor, whose name was Spencer, get over here quickly. I think someone's killed Marilyn. And the mayor and his wife quickly go to the Shepherd home where they find Sam shirtless and

in soaking wet pants. His face is bruised and swollen, and I'm going to show you that photo in a second. And upstairs, they find Marilyn's dead body in her blood-soaked bed. So he has called his friend, the mayor, first about this.

That is interesting to me. In 1954, this is in the days before 9-1-1 as we know it today. You know, and I saw it extensively like in the Golden State Killer case, which was in Sacramento. Different areas implemented 9-1-1 type systems at different points in time. But up in Sacramento in the 70s, they did not have 9-1-1. So the victims, if they thought they were about to be attacked, would get on the phone with the operator. Okay.

And then now you have to wait for the operator to answer and then the operator having to get a hold of law enforcement. But that was sort of the standard process. So I imagine in 1954, the first instinct would be to call the operator to get law enforcement coming. So Sam is reaching out to a political friend, a high-level political friend, as the first person. And he's saying, I think Marilyn has been killed.

Yes, and I'm going to show you a photo of her first. I think they've killed Marilyn, is what he said. So let me actually show you a photo of Sam and his damage first. Okay. So this is him shortly after the attack. It looks like he has a neck brace on maybe, and he looks pretty swollen everywhere from what I can tell.

My initial impression was, oh, I'm not seeing hardly any injuries on him. Okay. I'd almost have to see a photo of him... Beforehand? Beforehand to see if, you know, if I could spot the swelling. But like his eyes aren't black and blue. I mean, his right eye, and maybe it's the exposure of this photo, because I can possibly see some swelling to his right eye orbit, like above the eye. Mm-hmm.

And maybe to the right side of his right cheek area. But I'm kind of surprised at the lack of bruising. I'm not seeing lacerations as if he had been, you know, punched repeatedly. Mm-hmm. The nose is intact. The lips aren't split. He's probably cleaned up in this photo. He's already received medical attention. Mm-hmm.

But in attacks, let's say there's been physical combat between two men and there's a lot of like fisticuffs, a lot of blows being delivered to one of the combatants' face. It's pretty obvious. Let me show you a normal shot of him. Normal meaning his mugshot. Okay. So this is his mugshot on the left and this is him with Marilyn and little Sam on the right. So is he always squinting? He just seems like he's squinting an awful lot.

And maybe that was one of the issues too. I mean, I like your observation. And the reason is because if you look at him and say, I don't know about the damage, then that's obviously what investigators see when they arrive, which is after the mayor and his wife arrive. It's at six o'clock. And so now this is where it becomes important to weigh his statements as to what happened to him relative to the injuries.

You know, when I'm dealing with looking at the homicide victim and I need to reconstruct kind of the crime scene and the activities between the offender and the victim, I always start with the autopsy. I need to know what kind of injuries, whether there's bleeding injuries, what types of bleeding injuries, what types of bruising is present and other aspects and correlate that with what I see at a crime scene.

So now I've seen his face. I haven't seen the rest of his body yet. You haven't described any other injuries to me from his body, but I'm kind of curious. Okay, what did he say happened? So do you want to hear about her injuries first or do you want to hear his story first?

Let's hear his story first. That's what the mayor would have heard. That's what law enforcement's going to hear. And the autopsy on Marilyn would be the next day in all likelihood. So they're probably not learning everything about Marilyn until later. Let me tell you a little bit first about his injuries and then let's talk about what happened, what he says happened. Okay. So his shirt is gone. He says everything.

I have no idea how I lost the shirt. The police say Sam's pants have a blood stain on them, but it's not the amount of blood that someone would have expected from a violent killing if he had been the one who killed his wife. There's not that kind of blood. It would probably be like, oh my God, cradling her, trying to figure out what happened blood. There is a 3.5 inch tear on his right rear pocket on his pants.

That could have been during the fight with the killer. He claims that he got into a fight with the killer. It could have happened when he killed her. We don't know, right? So let me then jump into what he says happened. So Sam says he went to sleep. The neighbors left. Marilyn went upstairs.

The little boy was asleep. He says he woke up early that morning, so presumably before, of course, 540 when he called his friend the mayor. He woke up early that morning to the sounds of Marilyn's cries. He

He thought she was having a convulsion that she had experienced earlier in her pregnancy. What is shorthand for that? What would that kind of convulsion have been in her pregnancy that he's describing? I don't know. You know, is she having a seizure? I mean, is she a known epileptic? There's probably multiple reasons why she had had a convulsion. But basically,

at least in his mind, in his fuzzy, you know, just woken up state, he's immediately going to a medical issue that he knows his wife has experienced during the pregnancy. Correct. He is completely panicked because he hears her crying. And he says when he was on the daybed, he made his way upstairs to the bedroom when he heard her cries. He then encountered someone he described as a bushy-haired stranger.

standing beside Marilyn's bed, who, after a struggle, knocked Sam unconscious. This sounds very much like the Jeffrey McDonald case that we just covered, the Green Beret surgeon who was accused of killing his wife and two little girls in 1970. Same type of story. Woke up, this is what happened, and I got into a big fight. So Sam says he encounters this bushy-haired stranger who,

He gets knocked out. He comes to, and now he's alone in the room with Marilyn. He checks her pulse, which is where the blood comes from, on his pants, and he quickly determines that she was dead. He goes to little Sam's room, which is right across the hall. Little Sam is undisturbed, and he's asleep, seven years old. Then he hears a noise downstairs.

So the stranger's still there, he says. And he goes down, he runs down the stairs. The stranger tries to escape the house through the front door, which is what faces the lake. They're facing Lake Erie. Sam chases him down to the bank. Here comes the wet clothes explanation. The stranger knocks him out again. So Sam is not doing a good job defending himself, he says. So he is knocked out by the bank. He's wet.

He eventually wakes up. He's laying face down on the lakeshore. He runs back home, as well as he can run after being knocked out twice. He runs back home. He sees Marilyn. Everything's the same. She's dead. He panics. He calls the mayor. Okay.

That was a lot of information. So what do you think about this story? Does this story make sense to you without you really hearing about the crime scene and what police found at the crime scene? Well, you know, I think right now what I'm wondering the most about is where the daybed was downstairs. Would the bushy-haired man have to, after entering into the house,

go past the daybed and go upstairs to where Marilyn was sleeping. Because in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, here's the biggest threat to the offender in the house right there and is asleep. Now's the time to take control of that threat before you're going to spend time with Marilyn upstairs. Or was the daybed hidden from view, let's say in a different bedroom downstairs and the bushy haired man may not have even realized that Sam was in the house.

Experience the glamour and danger of the roaring 20s from the palm of your hand in

In June's Journey, you have the chance to solve a captivating murder mystery and reveal deep-seated family secrets. Use your keen eye and detective skills to guide June Parker through this thrilling hidden object mystery game. June's Journey is a mobile game that follows June Parker, a New York socialite living in London. Play as June Parker and investigate beautifully detailed scenes of the 1920s

while uncovering the mystery of her sister's murder. There are twists, turns, and catchy tunes, all leading you deeper into the thrilling storyline. This is your chance to test your detective skills. And if you play well enough, you could make it to the detective club. There, you'll chat with other players and compete with or against them. June needs your help, but watch out.

You never know which character might be a villain. Shocking family secrets will be revealed, but will you crack this case? Find out as you escape this world and dive into June's world of mystery, murder, and romance. Can you crack the case? Download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android.

Discover your inner detective when you download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android. That's June's Journey. Download the game for free on iOS and Android.

So here are the maps that were drawn. The downstairs is the top map. So it looks to me like if you see my cursor, I think this is the front door hallway coming through. And there's a back porch here. Yeah, so what I can see, the daybed, which is over onto the left side of this sketch, is where I'm assuming Sam was asleep. The front entry, the offender actually has two beds.

two options to get to the staircase after getting through the front door could pass immediately through the kitchen and up the stairs to get up to Marilyn's room or can go further into the house and around the kitchen past Sam asleep on the daybed and then going up the stairs.

So it is possible for this offender to get upstairs to Maryland without passing Sam. Does this seem complicated to you? This seems like a complicated layout because now let me show you the top floor. Here's the top floor. So this is obviously mirroring what was on the bottom floor. And you could see that her bedroom would have been, I think it looks like easily accessible from this staircase that you're talking about that comes from the garage. Is that right? Yeah.

Yes, as soon as the offender gets up to the second floor, Marilyn's bedroom is right across the hallway from where the staircase is. So this is just going across the hallway and Marilyn's bed is the closest to the door. So this is a direct shot to Marilyn coming up the staircase.

So this is telling you that it is very possible for a stranger to come in, and this does not necessarily mean Sam did it. It means somebody who maybe knew the layout of this house would have been able to do this without Sam detecting anybody being there until Marilyn was being killed. I think that's entirely possible for sure. And it's also possible that the offender had no idea that Sam was in the house.

Now, if this is just a random crime, you know, two-story houses typically are constructed with the bedrooms upstairs, but not all the bedrooms. Right. So there is a little bit of guesswork if the stranger had never been inside this house before as to where the victim would be inside the house. Right.

and may have to wander around a little bit in order to find it out. Going upstairs in any house is high risk to an offender. And that's just because that staircase is what we call the funnel of death. You know, in essence, one way up, one way down from that part of the house.

And that's in some ways what happened to the bushy haired man because now Sam wakes up and goes upstairs. Yep. And is now, he has no place to go but through Sam in order to get down the staircase. And I do wonder if this is somebody who knew the layout of this house. It just seems like you would have to know the entries, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I don't know if it's necessarily somebody would have to know the layout. Be helpful. Most certainly in terms of a targeted, a

You know, and of course, I'm going to want to hear about, you know, Marilyn's injuries and the other forensic evidence. But in terms of, you know, my initial thought, which I was suspicious about, is if the offender had to walk right past Sam in order to get to Marilyn while Sam's asleep, Sam's the biggest threat in this house to him. That's the time to take control.

And he didn't. But I'm seeing where, no, in this situation, because of the layout of the house and where Sam was asleep, it is possible for the offender to have gotten upstairs and attacked Marilyn. Part of the interaction between the offender and Marilyn probably is muffled due to the configuration of the house. So...

that concern of mine is much less now. Now, I have something that I think is going to make you a little more on the side of Sam Shepard is innocent here based on his injuries. Let me show you the photo of Sam again. Here are the injuries actually that

doctors said he had, once he got to the hospital and he was treated, fractured vertebrae, a bruise on his spinal cord, and he was in shock, according to them. He was on a huge amount of sedatives, but the police interrogated him multiple times while he was in the hospital because he was the prime suspect.

What do you think about those injuries? I know he doesn't have any bruises on his eyes and a bloody nose or anything, but it sounds like he really did have some sort of a fight with someone. Yeah, you know, the broken vertebrae and the bruise to the spinal cord, I'm assuming the bruise to the spinal cord was in the cervical area associated with the broken vertebrae.

If somebody were, you know, self-inflicting injuries, that would be a very unusual injury for somebody to be able to do to themselves. I haven't seen that in a case. But also, I'm wondering how the offender knocked Sam unconscious, not once, but twice, right?

Was it a blow to the neck? Was it a blow to the head or to the face? And maybe some of those forces transferred, you know, to the neck, of course. You know, sort of like when you watch a boxer get knocked unconscious, you get a blow to the jaw and the snapping of the head causes that temporary loss of consciousness. I'm assuming this offender didn't have boxing gloves on. Yeah. You know, so...

the offender knocking Sam out, the photo of his face, it's unclear to me in terms of how bruised or injured he was. So I'm questioning the loss of consciousness

And I'm also questioning how much Sam is remembering right before he lost consciousness. Because typically, when somebody loses consciousness, they lose a few seconds of memory of what happened before they got knocked out. So typically, people...

say, I last remember this, and then I remembered waking up. They don't remember. I lost consciousness. Yeah, and I don't know how he described it to police. He said he encountered this man. Next thing he knows, he hears somebody downstairs. Next thing he knows, you know, he's running out and knocked out by the bank. So I think Sam is pretty useless as a witness because he's just saying, I don't remember anything, and he's got these extensive injuries. But...

Tell me what you want to hear. As an investigator, what do you want to hear first? Do you want to hear about a potential motive, as in is there anything missing in the house? Or do you want to hear about, specifically about Marilyn, what she looked like, and then ultimately what her injuries were? Well, I think I'm putting myself right now, you know, talking to Sam, and I'm in the house. Mm-hmm.

I need to see the homicide victim. I need to know what's going on here so I can evaluate what Sam is saying. And then we can get into the victimology and see if what I understand of what happened in the homicide is indicative of the type of maybe motive that may be present. Okay.

Okay. So we want to start with Marilyn's injuries. Is that right? Yeah, because right now we know that she is found in her bed and there's extensive amount of blood. Yep. But don't know what kind of injuries, what kind of weapon possibly was used, etc. So yes, I want to start with her injuries. Okay. Here are the injuries. She's found in her twin bed. She's laying on her back.

Her head and her face are covered completely in blood. She has been pulled toward the end of her bed and her legs are spread eagle.

Her pajama top is rolled up to her neck, exposing her breasts, and her bottoms have been pulled down. So I'm going to show you a photo of this. I'm not comfortable showing this on social media. I'm sure if you Google it, you can find it. But, you know, my big question will be, is this someone who has been posed or is this someone who was in the midst of a sexual assault? Yeah.

So this is one angle of Marilyn dead in her bed. Oh, interesting. Now, do you know, is this how they found her or did law enforcement? What I am seeing is that there appears to be a sheet or similar object that is covering her.

It's not from this timeframe I could see where law enforcement just to preserve the victim's dignity would possibly do that. But it becomes highly significant if the offender took time to do that.

I don't think so. I think that this is police preserving her dignity. And I've seen this a million times where, for me, it's been pretty rare to see a crime scene photo where some part has not been covered up that they feel is inappropriate to show. I think in virtually all of my cases before, I would say 1950, 1960, that's been covered up. And in the details that I have, it says very clearly that her pajama bottoms have been pulled completely down.

So to me, that reads as somebody who was interrupted by Sam in the middle of a sexual assault or Sam is really trying to set up something. Sure. Now, I'll talk about her injuries, but let's address the sexual assault. Obviously, you know, her, I'm assuming it's like a pajama top has been pushed up exposing her breasts. Yep. There's something really telling about her positioning on this bed.

Okay. So in this situation, she has been pulled down with her lower legs at the knees, bent over the end of the bed. But there's this huge, it's not really a footboard, but it's the foot posts, if you will. Yeah. So imagine here she is, her legs are spread, her breasts are exposed. Okay.

how is somebody actually accomplishing a sexual assault with her in this position? Right. And the way to pull her down would, you'd have to reach underneath these posts, this horizontal post, and pull her legs down to do that. I've seen sexual assault victims, homicide victims, where they're turned in the bed and their legs are now off the side of the bed. And now an offender can accomplish actually doing a rape,

Here, I'm looking at this going, okay, why is the offender doing this? Was this the easiest way to kind of pull her and position her? Now, I've got some concerns about, okay, this possibly, the sexual aspect could be a staging issue.

Do we have any semen evidence in this case? We do, but I don't know if they knew back then. They took a swab. Okay. Let me tell you what they said in the autopsy real quick. So this is everything they know in 1954. Okay. So it was prepared by a county coroner named Dr. Gerber, and he determined that Marilyn died between 3 a.m. and 4.45 a.m. and classified her death a homicide by assault. Okay.

The doctors said that the deceased came to her death as a result of multiple impacts to her head and her face...

with commutated, is that how you say that? C-O-M-M-I-N-U-T-E-D? Comminuted, yeah. What does that mean? So fractures. So what you have is you have fractures to the skull that from independent blows, but these fractures have joined up. Okay. Fractures of the skull and separation of frontal suture, bilateral subdural hemorrhages, diffused bilateral subarachnoid hemorrhages and contusions of the brain, and

Marilyn had more than 30 injuries. She had been struck dozens of times with an unknown object, and she received at least 15 blows on the front of her head and her teeth. This is very, very violent, obviously. Yes.

Do you have a photo showing further up the bed, like where the pillows would be? Let's see. I have photos of the blood impressions on the pillow. Okay. Is that helpful? That would be. So I've got her pillow. I also have her hand with a separated fingernail. So do you want to see the pillow first? Yes, please. Okay, hang on real quick. See, this is part of the making of the sausage, listeners. Okay.

And this is what Paul and I go through. He says, I say, hang on real quick, Paul. Let me get to it. Okay, this is a blood impression left on the pillow, but there's another shot that I think is a lot more. There's a close-up shot. So this is her pillow. Lots of blood. And the blood stain on Sam's pants is relatively small, you said, right? Yeah.

I have that too. Hang on real quick. Okay. These are not the pants of someone who just killed someone. I mean, but that doesn't mean anything. He could have gotten rid of them. We don't know. Oh, yeah. But it's a little bit of blood. So what I am seeing, you know, is the front of Sam's pants. There appears to be a couple of linear blood stains on his left knee.

and then another couple of blood stains lower down on the inside of his left ankle area, the lower part of the pants leg. But the rest of the pants, from what I can tell, appear to be clean. There may be some faint stains that aren't captured in this photograph.

That tells me that he's not transferring, at least with what he has on his body at the time he's first seen, he's not transferring the large bloodstain that is present on Marilyn's pillow. And let's talk about that pillow, too, because they say—I'm going to move up so you can see it again—

The police believe that they can see in the pattern. Oh, look, here's another shot of the bed. Actually, Paul, sorry, I missed this one. Look at that bloodstain on the bed. It's almost in body shape. It's a body-shaped bloodstain. That's a lot. And do you know, since I can't see it in the photo, was that pillow up by the headboard? I believe so, yeah, and they removed it to take this photo. Okay. So I think the pillow was covering up and soaked through, I suppose, the blood.

So I'm going to walk you through a sequence that this evidence seems to suggest to me with what I've seen so far. Okay. Is that it appears that Marilyn has bleeding injuries when her head is positioned further up by the headboard on top of the pillow.

And then she has been drug down to where now the lower legs are hanging off the end of the bed underneath that horizontal post. The very large blood pool that you described as being in the shape of a body, this suggests to me that Marilyn laid there for a period of time with her head up higher on the bed and then is drug down. All her bleeding injuries are focused up on the head.

Blood is not going to seep down all the way to the foot of the bed underneath her body like that. So this, to me, does tell me that she's laid bleeding for a period of time and then is pulled down and is continuing to bleed. So that's interesting in terms of a sequence.

Is she several blows inflicted on her where she starts to bleed? Does the offender attempt or accomplish a sexual assault at that position and then for whatever reason decides to pull Marilyn down further? Or do we have where Marilyn is killed and

And then her body is positioned to make it look like a sexual assault. Yeah. And I think what you're saying makes sense that it's been there for a long time because the coroner did say she was killed sometime between 3 a.m. and 4.45 a.m. And the police don't get there until like 6.02 a.m. So...

That's so much blood. I mean, it's startling. I do want to ask you this. On this photo that I've already showed you, the police are speculating. Do you see the odd pattern? They are speculating that the odd shape of the pattern of this blood is pretty specific to a kind of a pointy weapon, sort of like a hammer, a claw hammer, something like that. Is that too much speculation based on how this blood is laid out? Because there are sort of weird gaps in the blood.

in the middle of this blood spill? I don't see that at all. I am not seeing anything that I would characterize as a specific pattern. What I am seeing is, is that would think about a bleeding object or a bloody object, and it could be Marilyn's head. Mm-hmm.

laying on top of this pillow. Well, what happens when you have weight added on a pillow? It compresses. The fabric folds up. And then when you open the fabric up, like it obviously is in this case, you have voids that

that just naturally are due to the folds in which the bloody object couldn't come in contact with because it was folded up. So that's what makes the most sense to me. Unless somebody were to draw a pattern that matches, maybe they recovered a weapon and then I would have to evaluate that. But right now, I don't see anything that is standing out. There's a weird...

It's like a zigzag almost. It's very weird. Well, the voids don't stand out. You know, there's voids in this large blood pattern and it's very uniform. You know, where there's blood, it's very uniform. But then there's voids in the middle of it that I do not associate with any type of weapon. I do see a strange, almost a symmetrical shape in the right side, larger mouth.

blood stain that appears to have outlines that are something that could be associated with a man-made object, a tool of some sort. Yeah, and I believe they will recover the weapon later on in an interesting place. Okay. There are so many details in this case. It's overwhelming. There's blood everywhere. There are things missing throughout the house.

You've got a husband who claims to really not remember anything and is giving a very, very vague description of a bushy-haired man who has now knocked him unconscious twice. He doesn't hardly remember even being down on the lakefront. He doesn't understand what happened to his wife. His seven-year-old slept through the whole thing, and he's telling the police while he's being sedated for all of these injuries, he's telling the police, I did not do this,

There is no motive. And after a week or two, the police say there is a motive. Oh, do tell. I'm going to tell you about that next week.

You're going to make me wait? Making all of you wait, not just you, everybody. Everybody has to wait. All right. So come back in one week for the conclusion. And there are so many details that you probably have never heard before about this case. Boy, is it a roller coaster for everyone. I am highly interested to see where this case goes. I'll see you soon. Sounds good. ♪

This has been an Exactly Right production. For our sources and show notes, go to exactlyrightmedia.com slash buriedbones sources. Our senior producer is Alexis Amorosi. Research by Maren McClashen and Kate Winkler-Dawson. Our mixing engineer is Ryo Baum. Our theme song is by Tom Breifogle. Our art

work is by Vanessa Lilac. Executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark, and Danielle Kramer. You can follow Buried Bones on Instagram and Facebook at Buried Bones Pod. Kate's most recent book, All That Is Wicked, a Gilded Age story of murder and the race to decode the criminal mind, is available now. And Paul's best-selling memoir, Unmasked, My Life Solving America's Cold Cases, is also available now. ...