♪♪
Narrator: Up next, an insurance agent's murder
stuns suburban St. Louis.
It was a broad-daylight execution.
It was shocking.
This was a very brazen crime.
Narrator: Years pass.
No one's arrested
until a suspect is identified by new technology.
It's a real game-changer.
Narrator: And the killer soon learns
you can't hide what you can't see.
This trial, I guarantee you he got an education.
♪♪
Narrator: Nestled along the West Bank of the Missouri River,
the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles
looms large in U.S. history.
It marks the spot where, in 1804,
Lewis and Clark began their epic journey
into the still-uncharted American interior.
Hahn: It was a stop for Lewis and Clark,
so they're very proud of that.
There's a statue of Lewis and Clark
down by the riverfront.
Narrator: On the morning of June 8, 2007,
the peacefulness of this Midwestern community
was shattered when a postal worker
doing her normal rounds made a gruesome discovery.
She found insurance agent Bob Eidman
bloody and possibly dead in his office.
She saw the body and then ran out screaming,
as I think any of us would.
♪♪
Narrator: Police arrived to find Bob Eidman dead at the scene.
He'd been shot execution-style.
McCarrick: He was shot once in the face and once in the neck.
The last shot, the shooter was standing over him,
looking down at him, and fired one shot.
It went through and through his head
and buried itself in the floor.
Narrator: This was cold-blooded murder,
but that didn't jibe with the rest of the crime scene,
which was sloppy and haphazard,
what detectives call a disorganized crime.
Bob Eidman's murder was not a particularly careful crime.
There were, on the floor of the office, spent cartridges
and also live rounds, which said to us
that the shooter either had a bad weapon
or he wasn't a good shooter.
Narrator: The murder weapon was later determined
to be a 9mm pistol.
It was not found at the scene.
Other than bullets apparently from that gun,
there was no evidence of the shooter in Bob's office.
For now, detectives were stumped.
It worried a lot of people
because it was something that happened in broad daylight.
♪♪
Narrator: Detectives questioned everyone
at the neighboring businesses.
To their surprise, no onesaw
but someone didhear
A woman with an office directly below Bob's
heard a series of pops
but thought nothing of it at the time.
She thinks, "Oh, Bob, what is -- what's Bob up to?
What's he doing up there?
Is he moving furniture? Did he drop something?"
So she yells up to him, playfully,
"Hey, keep it down, Bob,"
not realizing that he's just been shot dead.
Narrator: This helped detectives
nail down a time for Bob's murder,
shortly before 11:00 A.M.
Detectives got another possible break
from a Mexican grocery store
at the other end of the strip mall.
Groenweghe: They had a very good surveillance system
because it was a warm day, their door was open,
and one of the cameras actually had a view
out into the parking lot.
And we could see a white Ford Focus circle around
shortly before 11:00.
McCarrick: At 10:50 A.M., this white Ford Focus
passes in front of the bodega going toward Bob's office,
and at 10:54, it passes again, going the same direction.
There's no reason to go down that alley once,
let alone twice within four minutes.
Narrator: The hunt was on for a white Ford Focus,
which, in a setback,
turned out to be an unusually popular vehicle.
Police found 1,300 cars of that description
in the St. Louis area.
♪♪
Narrator: Even worse, interstate 70, a major highway,
was right next to the murder site.
The killer had an easy escape route,
and he wouldn't be the first to use it.
In the 1990s, a serial killer dubbed
The I-70 Killer escaped via I-70 after all his murders.
Stepp: The individual responsible for
the I-70 killings would go into a business,
contact usually the sole person in the business,
and would shoot them in the head.
It was right off the highway,
and so we thought it could be anyone.
I mean, thousands of cars go by interstate 70 every day.
Narrator: All told, police say the I-70 Killer
murdered six people, and he hadn't been caught.
Is this a random killing of Bob Eidman,
the start of something more, the start of a larger pattern?
Do we need to be afraid here?
♪♪
Narrator: Any business involves risk.
Bob Eidman's was riskier than most.
A lot of it was done on the spot in cash.
He was dealing with people with high-risk insurance,
people who are having trouble getting insurance other places,
people who had suspended licenses or DWIs.
Narrator: In the initial search,
nothing appeared to be missing from Bob's office.
When the police got there, there was still cash inside
that cash drawer that hadn't been taken.
We thought it was drugs
or something that was more personal.
You know, you usually don't get murdered for no reason at all.
Narrator: Detectives were hoping they might get some information
from Bob's wife, Diane.
The day of the murder, she had been unable to reach her husband
and showed up at the strip mall where Bob worked.
She arrived while the scene was being processed.
Police broke the news to her.
There's no right way to react to the news
that your spouse has been brutally murdered.
It's a shock for any of us.
Narrator: Though nothing appeared to be missing
from Bob's office,
his wife told police to check his back pocket.
She told them that he always kept a wallet
with a lot of cash in it,
several hundred dollars, usually.
Narrator: Bob's wallet was gone.
Police thought it was almost certain his killer
had reached into his back pocket to get it.
Evidence technicians swabbed the pocket,
but they knew that
in the absence of bodily fluids, DNA technology in 2007
couldn't produce a genetic profile
from this piece of evidence.
Krey: I was very skeptical, in fact,
of being able to get something from that pocket.
Narrator: But DNA technology was getting more powerful every day.
Analysts put the DNA from Bob's murder in storage
in the hope that science would catch up to their evidence.
In the meantime,
detectives turned back to Bob's wife, Diane.
When someone is randomly, brutally murdered,
police automatically look at their spouse
as a suspect as a matter of course.
Narrator: Diane said Bob,
despite being in the insurance business himself,
had only a tiny life-insurance policy, about $5,000.
Stepp: That's when we found out that there were, in fact,
three separate life-insurance policies on Bob.
Narrator: And they were worth a lot more than $5,000.
All three life-insurance policies combined were $750,000.
There was only one beneficiary involved,
and that was Bob's wife, Diane Eidman.
Narrator: Was it possible Diane didn't know
how much insurance money she'd get if Bob died?
Could she have lied to police
about her knowledge of the payout?
After all, 3/4 of a million dollars
seemed like a good reason to want Bob dead.
It certainly looked like a motive to us.
Narrator: Diane was alibied for the time of the murder,
but that didn't get her off the hook.
McCarrick: Could she have had somebody do it? Sure.
But if you're going to do that,
you have to communicate with someone
'cause most people don't have a hit man in their Rolodex.
Narrator: Detectives now turn to the Eidmans' phone records
and computer activity,
and when they did, the mystery of Bob Eidman's murder
took a twist few people who knew him ever anticipated.
McCarrick: In searching Bob's computer use,
we found that he was visiting a lot of gay-pornography sites
on the Internet and massage businesses,
gay massage businesses, and that type of thing.
Narrator: What detectives found on Bob's computer
revealed a man with a secret life, a new lover,
and someone with a possible motive for murder.
As it turned out, Bob Eidman had a secret lover in Kansas City
and had for eight months.
♪♪
Narrator: In the initial investigation
into Bob Eidman's murder, police thought
the only person with an apparent reason to kill him
was his wife, Diane.
Stepp: Diane Eidman is a prime suspect
because she does have motive, she had means,
she knew where things were kept in the office,
and she was gonna benefit with a great deal of insurance money.
Narrator: And it appeared that she might have a motive
beyond collecting a $750,000 insurance payment.
A search of Bob's computer showed
he'd been cheating on her.
A few months earlier,
he embarked on a sexual relationship
with a man named Kurt.
He and Bob met in Columbia, Missouri,
which is about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City,
on a number of weekends
and spent the weekend in a motel there.
Narrator: Kurt was interviewed and was alibied
for the time of the murder,
which didn't necessarily eliminate him as a suspect.
But he did have some possibly interesting information
for detectives.
McCarrick: Some weeks before the murder,
Bob had called him and said, "Diane found out about us,
and we've got to stop seeing each other for a while."
Narrator: During numerous interviews with detectives,
Diane never said anything about Bob cheating on her.
McCarrick: Why would she not tell us this?
It could be a motive for her to be responsible for killing Bob.
The fact that he was cheating on his wife with a man,
all of that adds up to a lot of motive.
Narrator: Diane was given a polygraph test.
The results were inconclusive.
McCarrick: Does that mean she did it? No.
If she failed, would that mean she did it?
Not necessarily.
Narrator: In searching all of Diane's communications
in the weeks and months before her husband's murder,
police could find no evidence of her hiring someone to kill Bob.
Show me that communication, show me that wire,
and if you can't, it didn't happen.
I believed Diane Eidman
was probably responsible for this homicide,
but there was no concrete evidence enough to arrest her.
Narrator: The case went cold.
Outside of ballistic evidence from the scene,
which was useless in the absence of a murder weapon,
detectives had very little evidence --
the surveillance video of a white Ford Focus
circling the strip mall shortly before Bob was shot,
which might or might not have something to do with the murder,
and the back pocket of Bob's pants,
which might or might not contain the killer's DNA,
but DNA technology was moving along at an exponential pace.
Touch DNA was revolutionizing crime science.
Groenweghe: In the old days with less sensitive testing,
you would've had to have the defendant or perpetrator's blood
or semen or saliva there, and they wouldn't have found it.
Touch DNA isn't really so much a separate thing
as it is a continuation of DNA.
Narrator: Was it possible that the killer,
simply by touching Bob's back pocket
while stealing the wallet,
had left a genetic signature behind?
Touch DNA has always been around,
but the technology to analyze it has not been.
As DNA kits become more and more sensitive,
now we can actually analyze that touch-DNA sample.
Narrator: In 2010, the DNA swab from Bob's back pocket,
which had been in storage since the murder,
was processed by forensic technicians.
Krey: In this case, the back pocket of the victim was swabbed
with a moistened swab with distilled water.
That swab is then taken and cut for DNA analysis,
and it's extracted, quantified, amplified,
and, ultimately, a DNA profile is produced
on the genetic analyzer.
Narrator: A mixed DNA profile with two sources
was generated from Bob's back pocket.
One source, not surprisingly, was from Bob himself.
The other source, so far unidentified,
was almost certainly from Bob's killer.
There is no reason for someone's DNA to be there,
except if they're the one
who removed that wallet from that pocket.
Narrator: Detectives were hopeful
this profile would turn up a hit in the CODIS database,
which contains the DNA profiles of thousands of known offenders.
It was run against the database, and there was no match.
Narrator: The case went cold yet again.
But most criminals don't stop being criminals,
and in this case,
Bob's killer just couldn't stop breaking the law.
The whole thing is mind-boggling.
♪♪
Narrator: In 2009, St. Louis police arrested
a convicted felon for forging a check.
His name was Paul White.
James: Paul White was a career criminal.
He'd been in and out of prison since he was a teenager.
Narrator: So White's arrest was fairly routine,
but what police did next was part of a new routine
in police jurisdictions all over the country.
If you go back 15, 20 years,
nobody's gonna take your DNA when you get arrested.
Now they do. So White's DNA --
a sample of his DNA -- was taken at the time
he was arrested on a forgery case.
Narrator: And that DNA was entered into the CODIS database,
where computers automatically cross-referenced it
with the DNA of thousands of criminals.
Paul White's DNA matched the DNA from Bob's back pocket.
Stepp: When I get that name from the crime labs,
I couldn't control myself. I was very happy.
This is the lead
that is going to bring the individual to justice.
Narrator: But did that prove Paul White was Bob's killer?
Not necessarily.
The two men had done business together.
Groenweghe: Paul White's wife had her car insured through him,
and he had gone in there and made a cash payment.
So he knew there would've been cash there.
Narrator: But Paul white insisted
he was not in Bob's office the day of the murder.
The DNA was pointing straight at Paul White,
but a good defense lawyer might convince a jury
it was there from his previous visit,
even if it was months earlier.
If you have DNA in isolation, the defense can always argue,
"Well, maybe there was contamination,
maybe there was secondary transfer."
Narrator: Detectives dug into Paul White's background
and got a surprise.
One month before Bob Eidman's murder,
he'd been involved in yet another routine arrest.
Paul White was arrested for outstanding traffic tickets.
He and his companion, a man named Cleo Hines,
were both arrested as they were driving a Ford Focus.
Narrator: The vehicle was white and had no license plates,
which fit the description of the Ford Focus
seen on surveillance video
circling around Bob Eidman's office just before his murder.
That is a very big game-changer.
Narrator: By this time, more than two years had passed
since Bob Eidman's murder,
and Paul white was confident DNA could not tie him to the crime.
In the tapes of his interview, you can see that.
When they tell him, "We have your DNA in his pockets,"
well, he leaned back in his chair,
put his arms behind his head, and smiled
and laughed and said -- his exact words were,
"There is no way on God's Green Earth
you have my DNA in those pockets."
He was thinking what most people were thinking at that time,
that you have to have a fluid for there to be DNA.
He had no idea what the concept of touch DNA was.
Narrator: Cleo Hines, Paul White's accomplice,
understood more quickly and came clean.
Prosecutors learned that Paul White recently lost
more than $1,000 gambling,
and since he'd been in Bob Eidman's office before,
knew there should be lots of cash there.
Bob knew him and could identify him,
so the only way to get the money
and not get caught was to kill Bob.
Prosecutors believe Paul White shot Bob
as soon as he and Cleo Hines entered the office.
But there was a problem.
Bob's money drawer was locked.
In fact, it was broken and wouldn't open,
something White hadn't counted on.
Desperate, he rifled Bob's back pocket and grabbed his wallet,
not realizing the touch DNA he left behind
would ultimately identify him.
How much money was Bob Eidman's life worth?
$300.
Stepp: They took the money to two separate casinos in the area
and lost the money within hours.
How cold-blooded do you have to be to take that blood money
and go to the casino and gamble with it?
All murders are senseless,
but this one just seemed to be in a category by itself.
Narrator: Before the DNA match was made,
Bob Eidman's wife, Diane, remained the number-one suspect.
That match not only identified Bob's killers,
it proved her innocence.
Krey: I'm happy to be able to solve a cold case using DNA.
I'm also very happy
when we get a case that exonerates an individual.
Narrator: In August of 2012, Paul White was found guilty
of first-degree murder and got life with no parole.
Cleo Hines, convicted of second-degree murder
and robbery, also got life in prison,
all because they were convinced evidence they couldn't see
couldn't possibly land them in jail.
No one was more surprised by the touch-DNA results
than Paul White was.
James: The fact that just the slightest brush
on the inside of his victim's pocket
could later convict him, it's incredible.
McCarrick: The victim's still dead. You can't fix that.
But justice, I think,
is something that we care about as a people.
And when you get that DNA hit, it looks like we're gonna get
as close as we can come here to justice.
It makes the job worthwhile.