Forensic Files Episode

In the Forensic Files episode, "Bump in the Night", forty- seven year old Bill Lowes, a man who was living alone at the time of his murder, was bludgeoned to death by his step son, Bryan Crews. Crews had used an axe handle to commit the murder while his step-father sleeping in bed, and then left the scene covered in blood with his friend Mike Hale, who had been waiting outside. The weapon was soon thrown onto the top of an abandoned building in an attempt to hide evidence (at first, this worked, but the police ended up finding the axe handle after getting a few... tips from a man they were interrogating). Bill's body, on the other hand, was not hidden from the world. It was kept at the scene under the bed sheets, sticking out like a sore thumb, and a shoe print which had been pressed into the mud outside the victim's house remained with it. Since Crews' step-father was fully deaf in one ear, and partially deaf in the other, the murder was quite easy to follow through with. There was no long, tiresome fighting match between the victim and his aggressor due to this deafness; Lowes just slept through it all, oblivious towards the situation, unable to wake up and realize that someone was beating him, succumbing to death without any chance of a few last moments to fight. Blood splattered everywhere as the poor man was beaten- it splattered on the walls, on the floor, and even on the ceiling, the disgusting gore filling in the gaps of the timeframe which could have been the struggle. One might have thought that a grenade full of sticky, canned cherry juice went off in that bedroom, or that a few man children in all camouflage played a lovely match of all red paintball. (The police were even appalled when they saw how much blood was at the scene, especially the amount that was on the ceiling, and later stated that this splatter was bigger in this case than in any other).

After the murder was committed, individuals who worked with the victim realized that something was terribly wrong due to his many days long absence. Joe Lowes went as an advocate of all who worried to investigate the situation, since knew that his brother never missed work, and wanted to talk to Lowes' ex- wife about this strange disappearance. Engulfed in fright and curiosity, the victim's brother soon traveled to the home and found a scene that was both unexpected and unfathomable. Instead of finding the ex-wife, Joe came across his brother's dead, beaten body, still lying in grim and unjustified silence under the bed sheets, now taking eternal rest, his innocent blood upon the walls and floor and ceiling now completely dried. Nothing else was wrong with this scene- on the floor was a pair of Lowes' pants, which still contained a full wallet, indicating that this was just a get in and get out murder. The police were then called, all arriving to find a man whom they had known so well to be a rather trustworthy and truthful person with no criminal record.... stone cold dead. Officers who inspected the body found wounds behind the ear that had been positioned slightly towards the back, and concluded that the murder weapon had to be a long and linear object. Others who inspected the house itself found no foreign fingerprints, or the murder weapon due to its disposure. That lone shoe print which had been preserved in the mud outside was also found, and crime technicians poured a plaster into it and picked up on the patterns left by the tread. The plaster was then bagged up and the investigators kept the print as evidence. The police now had most of the tangible evidence they could find at that time, the axe handle and various other items remaining undiscovered until later in the case. It was, naturally, the time to figure out whom to interrogate and consider suspects. At first, the police looked into the victim's work situation to see if there were any co-workers who had some 'beef' with him, or if the victim was having relations with a female co-worker, but nothing came up. This eliminated one of the most common causes of murders and opened doors for a more heartbreaking conclusion. Everyone who was close to Lowes knew that he had a habit of leaving doors unlocked and that he was half deaf, a factor that screamed: this has to be an inside job. Someone who truly knew Lowes had to be the killer, because a close relative or contact would know where all of the parts of the house were and knew which doors were more than likely open. The person also would know about the victim's deafness. "The guy has three friggin' ex-wives," one of the investigators must have said. "Let's start there. Maybe one of them would have a clear motive for killing this man."

So, they did. Officers found that the victim was on good speaking terms with ex- wives one and two, but number three... was sitting in relationship terms of "pretty iffy" with the victim. You may be wondering why this last relationship was the way it was and why it could be described as snot on a stick. Here's the reason: even though Lowes was known for generally being a great guy who helped others out in times of need, the type who would be an amazing step-dad, he had a past of heavy drinking spells during his last marriage. The victim tended to abuse his third wife, who would be drunk at the time as well, during this timeframe and a lot of the times Bryan Crews witnessed their physical fights. This factor was a big red flag for the police. But it was not the only flag which provided the scenarios that fed and cared for its bratty child, motives, with the proper supplies. At the time of the murder, Wanda Knupps, the third wife, had been going through financial issues and was still the beneficiary of her ex-husband's life insurance...... Hey, wait, pop quiz: If Bill kicked the bucket, guess who was plopped into a pile of money bags? Scrooge McDuck, if you guessed Ms. Knupps, you have actually been paying attention! But, even with that, Wanda claimed that she had nothing to do with the murder, and at the time, had no idea it had actually happened. The drunken physical fights and life insurance benefits could clearly say otherwise, but a valid alibi which was jam packed full of witnesses trumped the assumptions that sprang out from the depths of murky, gluey relationship waters. During the night of the murder, Wanda was at a local bar with her new boyfriend. Honestly, at that time she was just as ignorant towards the murder as the sleeping, deaf Bill was. The police now lost a suspect. And that's all fine and dandy, but, what about Bryan Crews? At first, Bryan, our own little Hash Slinging Slasher, had an alibi and it was valid one, too. Crews not only said that he had a good relationship with his father, but claimed during the night of the murder, he was on a camping trip with his friend Mike Hale. Happily, the sneaky foe handed over the supply receipts to prove it. Mike Hale even backed that story up, saying that he and Crews went on a fishing trip. "Crap," An investigator said, reading the receipts and feeling false defeat. "Nobody has a motive. None of the wives wanted to kill him, and the son was clearly with his friend.... None of the guy's co-workers wanted to go all Mortal Kombat on him..... How could this have happened if nobody wanted the man dead?" There was then a stalemate for a while until the day of rebirth when the tread on Bryan's tennis shoes was seen by the ones who thought they already saw all, knew all and wore the T-shirt too many times.

This was a beacon of evil which stood hand in hand with a beacon of hope; fresh evidence was now showing its face to the world. The hunted stripped off its cover in the den of a fox and came out wearing bright orange, sticking out in the snow covered field. Crews was asked to show his shoe, and the police were quite sure that it matched the print. Both were later compared in a lab, their tread patterns getting observed intently, and soon the results came back. "So, Bryan, my boy," the investigator said after the shoe was compared to the print and a definite match was made. "why are your shoes matching the print?" Crews then spat out an explanation, claiming that the shoe print had been made a few days earlier when he went to get some of his mother's things from the house. The police then wanted to know if his alibi was valid, and found out that Hale had served time in the bin for robbery, which started to ruin everything. Still, even with that, the alibi stayed consistent at first, but things really started to get chopped up and thrown into the trash when Hale started to admit to what truly happened during the night of the murder. He told the police flat out what had happened, not skipping a few dots on his I's and crosses on his T's.
The true story was simple. Bryan had Hale wait outside as he went inside his step- father's house late at night. Crews committed the murder by bashing Lowes' head in with a random axe handle, becoming splattered in blood. He then came outside and said that Lowes would never hurt his mother again. Dazed and confused, Hale followed his friend out of the area and watched the axe handle get thrown onto the top of a vacant building. The police were informed about where the axe handle was located and found it, still covered in blood and hair from the victim. The evidence was brought back and dusted for fingerprints, and none were found. But, the DNA samples which came from the hair and blood were compared to Lowes' DNA through Gel Electrophoresis, and the two samples were a match.

This evidence did not fully prove that Crews did it, but Bryan inevitably could not escape his fate with this factor. In an attempt to twist around the blaming pointer finger, he claimed that Hale committed the crime when this was all matched and identified, letting a wad of crap hit the fan for the final incriminating blow. Crews admitted to walking into the house, which was obviously true, and he switched the aggressor and the victim around before Hale came into the picture. This messed up version of the story displayed a scene where an extremely drunk Bill came at his stepson with the axe handle in the kitchen. The weapon was grabbed from his hand, and then according to the story, Bryan hit his stepfather over the head with it. The drunken man then passed out and was taken to his bedroom. Crews then left the house with Hale, who later came back to the scene and killed Bill. To check to see if this story was true, the police acquired the clothing of both suspects. The clothing of the step son had blood splattered upon his black hoodie and pants which matched the victim's blood samples. The case was now rapped up, and our killer was sent to prison with charges of homicide. He later threatened to kill Hale if freedom was granted during an interview with the Forensic Files film crew.