(ominous music)
- [narrator] a young woman assaulted and brutally murdered.
- Whoever killed this lady was angry.
- [narrator] a known serial killer becomes a prime suspect.
- Henry lee lucas admitted to 600 homicides.
- [jonathan] they're thinking, "we finally have our guy."
- [narrator] but decades later, a new suspect emerges.
- He had a lot of hatred and anger towards women.
- [narrator] investigators searching for answers-
- [narrator] in the interrogation room.
(brooding music) (clock ticking)
- [narrator] every suspect accused of a crime
Has the right to remain silent.
Many agree to be interrogated anyway,
But they can stop the interview at any moment,
Making it a race against time.
Justice hangs in the balance.
(ominous music)
(phone ringing)
- A call was made by two friends
And ultimately they could hear the dispatcher,
But the dispatcher could not hear them.
(busy signal toning)
They went nextdoor to use the neighbor's phone
To communicate with the emergency dispatcher
That their good friend is dead.
- When the police entered the residence,
There was no sign of a disturbance.
There did not seem to be any forced entry into the house.
There was no evidence that the front door had been forced,
No pry marks on the doorjamb, there were no windows broken.
But in the bedroom, there was a lot of evidence
Of an incredible amount of violence,
And that's where they located the victim, kathleen doyle.
She was 25 years of age.
She had her hands tied behind her back.
She had an electrical cord wrapped around her neck,
Had extensive bruising to her face and head
That was consistent with some sort of a blunt force trauma.
She had sustained a single knife wound
To the front of her chest and also her back
And it was apparent that a sexual assault had occurred.
- There was seminal fluid on the bedspread.
She also had a circular burn mark on her cheek
Which was about the diameter of maybe a cigar.
They knew right then
That whoever killed this lady was angry.
It was a crime of passion.
(gentle music)
- Kathleen grew up in a military family.
She was married to a naval lieutenant.
Stephen doyle was a pilot.
They had been married for nine months,
Five of which her husband had been away at sea.
This was really hard time to spend
And particularly for a newlywed.
This was a smart, thoughtful woman.
Her father described her as sort of regal
And someone who if you met her, you'd never forget her.
- She was a college graduate out of the new England area,
A journalism major,
And she was characterized by friends and family
As the type of person that never met a stranger.
So, she could pretty much talk to anybody.
(uneasy music)
- I was astonished kathleen doyle was murdered.
It wasn't a place where you'd expect
Something like this could happen.
Her husband, stephen doyle,
Was a world away in the indian ocean,
So it must have been extremely difficult for him.
He had to feel completely helpless.
(pensive music)
- From the police standpoint,
It did not appear like this was a burglary
Where the person who committed the offense
Was doing it for the purpose of taking property
Because there were all sorts of personal belongings
In the house that had value
And nothing seemed to have been taken.
But this is also 1980, so we don't have dna then,
We don't have a lot of the modern forensic tools.
And so, the police did what was the standard
Bread-and-butter forensic tool,
Which was they look for fingerprints.
They looked throughout the house,
But there were no unidentified latent prints.
(uneasy music)
- When the call came in,
The emergency dispatcher could not hear them.
They weren't sure what the problem was,
But the detectives had the wherewithal
To unscrew the mouthpiece on the phone
And that's when they discovered that the receiver was missing.
- That was obviously a very odd factual idiosyncrasy.
That gave them some insight into whoever did this
Obviously took steps to try to thwart anyone
From calling the police or trying to obtain help.
(slow tense music)
- They had interviewed every ex-boyfriend that they knew of,
Interview after interview after interview,
And ruling out persons x, y, and z.
- Kathleen was known to be just such a nice person,
Someone without enemies.
And none of the normal lines
That the police might investigate,
Is there someone who's interested in her romantically
Outside of her marriage, none of that applied.
- After about seven months,
They had vetted everybody that they knew of
And they were more or less at a dead end.
- There is great fear in the community at that point.
People were really scared.
And I think the fear has to come from the fact
That there was no suspect,
That there was no sense who did this.
(uneasy music)
- Norfolk investigators were alerted
To this guy by the name of henry lee lucas.
And henry lee lucas was, at that time,
Being housed in the williamson county jail in texas
For a number of unsolved homicides
Across the united states.
(uneasy music)
- I think by the time it's done with,
Counting me and the other person, it'll be way over 500.
- [philip] lucas admitted to committing 500 or 600 homicides
All over the united states.
Ottis toole admitted to a lesser number of homicides,
But also extensive amount.
There's an infamous picture that the texas rangers put out.
There's all these pushpins in the map of homicide cases
That lucas has taken credit for.
There's a cluster of four little pins in virginia.
- That led norfolk investigators
To the williamson county jail to interview henry lee lucas
On the unsolved homicide of kathleen doyle.
(uneasy music)
(clock ticking)
- Chesapeake boulevard coincidentally
Is not too far from kathleen's house, so they're thinking,
We might need to show him a picture of the house,
Just to see if he recognizes this
And see if it looks familiar.
(suspenseful music)
- You gotta keep in mind,
This is four years that has gone by with no leads.
They're thinking, "we finally have our guy in this killing."
(uneasy music)
- And they're thinking, okay, he's given us some details
Of the case that we have.
(uneasy music)
- They're thinking, okay, he's given us details
Of things that we know to be true
From kathleen doyle's crime scene.
(pensive music)
- When he would look at the pictures
That were given to him, he would take his time.
So, in the detective's mind
Is maybe that was for the purpose
Of him relishing his crimes.
- The norfolk police department
Obtained arrest warrants for henry lee lucas and ottis toole
For the offense of murder for killing kathleen doyle.
- And they were now to the point
Where they could provide some answers to the family
And bring the persons responsible for this crime
To justice.
(uneasy music)
- [reporter] now, lucas says he didn't do it.
Lucas now claims all of his other murder confessions
Were also wrong.
- There were cases being attributed to lucas and toole
That were geographically in different parts of the country
At the same time, so there would not be any physical way
That they could be committed by the same individuals.
(uneasy music)
On September 10th, 1980,
There was evidence that lucas had sold scrap metal
To a salvage site in florida.
Was highly unlikely that they had been
Up in norfolk, virginia,
The night of September 9th committing this homicide.
(uneasy music)
(pensive music)
(dates clicking)
- The first thing I did was I took a look at a breakthrough
With the dna technology, notably genetic genealogy.
- People were now investigating their ancestry.
They were not only looking at records
But they were providing dna samples.
There were a number of very public locations
Where people were uploading their dna profile,
And that gave birth to the idea of,
Hey, can we use this tool in the kathleen doyle case
With respect to the semen that was present
On the bedspread?
(pensive music)
The lab said, "we have analyzed
Known contributed samples across the country
And we can suggest to you
A number of potential kinship matches,"
In other words, potential relatives.
And you're talking about cousins once, twice removed,
And the report gave approximately 31
Potential kinship references.
That doesn't mean that they had anything to do
With the case, but they genetically have markers
Potentially related to your unknown suspect's dna.
- A lotta the names on the list,
If you just type it into google, whatever, dead-end roads.
But if you type the name dennis lee bowman,
Serious offenses pop up
Throughout the state of michigan.
Attempted murder, abduction, attempted rape.
We were 39, almost 40 years into an unsolved homicide case
That we now had a name,
And now we needed to put a face to the name dennis lee bowman.
(pensive music)
- The excitement that ran through me,
Just can't describe the words that I felt at that timeframe.
But I knew, (chuckles) I knew my job wasn't over.
I knew my job was just beginning.
Now I gotta see what I can do
About placing him in norfolk in September of 1980.
- What detective smith
Working with the michigan state police
Were able to determine
Was in the spring of 1980 in michigan,
Dennis bowman had forced a teenage girl off the road,
She was on a bicycle,
Apparently to commit some sort of assault on her.
She managed to flee
(siren wailing)
And he ended up being arrested.
- That hearing was in September of 1980,
But his attorney said,
"your honor, my client is not able to be here today.
My client is away on his two-week military drill."
- And in checking with the navy,
It was apparent that in September of 1980,
Dennis bowman was in norfolk, virginia,
For two weeks by himself.
In this timeframe, kathleen doyle was killed.
(brooding music)
(pensive music)
- The police suspected bowman of being involved
In a number of crimes throughout the state of michigan.
Attempted murder, abduction, attempted rape,
Breaking and entering,
And items of women's clothing being taken, like lingerie.
One of the judges had made note
That dennis lee bowman poses a future danger to women.
(pensive music)
- She had purportedly made complaints to school officials
That her father, dennis, had improperly made advances on her
And there was issues in the home.
She made those complaints and then very shortly afterwards,
She disappeared.
- Under mysterious, suspicious-type circumstances,
His adopted daughter went missing,
So that was another red flag.
(pensive music)
Michigan police knew from dealing with dennis from day one
That he was very arrogant, he was very calculated,
He was very methodical.
He had been described to me
As being one that wants to be in charge,
One that wants to control the narrative.
So, he was put in the interview room
And told that he was being charged
With the homicide of a navy fighter pilot's wife.
And dennis bowman said,
"you're pulling it outta your (bleep) and I want a lawyer."
And at that point, it was over.
(pensive music)
(dates clicking)
(clock ticking)
It was really a rapport-building process
And I had an opportunity to just learn about his childhood
And figure out really who he was.
- I let him talk.
I don't pressure him and I don't make him feel threatened
So that he would be comfortable
If he decided he wanted to talk to me about the case.
(uneasy music)
- Things like that kinda gave me an insight
As to what he is all about
To have this aggression towards women the way that he did.
- Just from me listening to him,
He really felt comfortable talking to me.
I didn't know it at the time,
But he was on the verge of telling me
His deepest, darkest secrets.
(uneasy music)
(pensive music)
The next morning, I wake up at 7:30
To see I've got two missed phone calls
From the contact at the city jail
And they basically said,
"look, man, this guy's been asking for you since 5:30."
(pensive music)
I knew what my approach was
And I knew I wasn't gonna make him feel threatened.
I knew that he wanted to be in control,
He wanted to control the narrative.
(pensive music)
- He said, "let's cut out the middle man, my attorney.
Let's cut him out."
He says, "let's go straight to the source.
That's you."
So, at that point, I said, you know what,
I'll take what I can get outta this guy.
The strategy that I prepared was repeating back to him
What I think I understand about him.
I said, "I feel like your aggression
From being mistreated down through the years
Has led to your anger and has fueled your rage."
- So, as he's going through this and he's telling me,
I realize he's leaving out key details:
The ties, the bindings, the other stab.
But nonetheless, I'm taking what I can get from him
And, again, not coming across threatening,
That very soft approach,
Just allowing him to tell me his version of events.
- Did he genuinely black out and not remember these events?
It was my job to see if I can pull out
Some of these other details.
(pensive music)
I wanted him to draw a diagram of the house
To see if that maybe would jog some things in his memory
In the event that he did legitimately black out.
(clock ticking)
- He's putting himself inside the house
And he's describing every single detail to a t that we had.
(uneasy music)
(heavy breathing)
- His voice just completely took a different tone
And a different demeanor.
(pensive music)
(tense music)
- Part of me was, is this the typical dennis bowman
To where he's playing this cat-and-mouse game
To see what kind of story he can tell me?
Or is this some internal force that he genuinely deals with
And has dealt with off and on his entire life?
(ominous music)
- Dennis had so many key details before and after.
I never believed that he legitimately blacked out
And did not remember having sex with her.
I just still can't wrap my head, my hands around the fact
That he just didn't remember
Doing all these other things to her.
I had to take kind of a harsher, more aggressive approach.
I was starting to call him out on some of his lies.
(uneasy music)
- Did she have 9, 10, 11 stab wounds?
No, but that was kinda my way
To see if I could try to switch it up on him
To see if he would admit to having sex with her.
- I don't think he was gonna ever take full ownership
Of what he did that day,
And that's when he kinda reverted to this childlike state
To where he wouldn't look at me,
He didn't want anything to do with me
And just kept saying, "I didn't do that."
(bottle cap clinking)
(dennis inhaling sharply)
(dennis sobbing)
- It was mission accomplished.
I think we got more than we ever thought we would get.
(dates clicking)
(ominous music)
- Dennis bowman falls in the category
Of the most dangerous people that walk the streets.
What this case has done
Is reveal dennis bowman for who he is.
It's taken the mask off him.
(uneasy music)
(brenda crying)
- Dennis bowman wanted control of every scenario in his life.
And by burying her on his property,
He had control of her for the last 30 years.
(sullen music)
- Dennis bowman is not the overt robber who you see coming.
He is the type of evil that lives within everyday life
And he wears a mask and a disguise
That hides him from being recognized as what he is.
He's one of the most dangerous type of criminals
You're going to encounter.
We know dennis bowman is basically
The chest of undiscovered criminal behavior.
The reality is we're never going to know all of his victims.
(somber music)
- The thing about this case was the amazing police work,
The better part of 40 years
Trying to find justice for kathleen doyle.
The case is solved because people didn't give up.
- This case was unique in the fact
That it opened up other crimes,
Including the discovery of his adopted daughter.
Had it not been for kathleen doyle case,
She woulda still been buried 30 yards off of his back porch.
Those are kinda the highlights of being involved in the case,
Being able to bring some peace to the family,
That we finally have the person that killed your daughter
And your loved one, your friend,
Behind bars for the rest of his natural life.