i suppose that's what i get for being a dummy on "the ridiculist." hey, that does it for us. thanks for watching see you >> she liked to pose and model and be on-stage. and she had a beautiful voice. >> after high school heather

planned to pursue her dreams but put them on hold for a year as a favor to her mother. >> i had just gone through a divorce. and she promised to stay with me for a year until i got my legs. and when that year was up she made her plans and she moved. >> her destination was myrtle beach, south carolina where she had some friends. >> she wanted to be in the entertainment industry. i knew she loved singing. and i think that's one of the reasons she moved down to the myrtle beach area, because their area has a lot of entertainment. >> heather rented an apartment in this house near the beach and took a job as a waitress. but heather found it difficult to get work as a sing irand she told her mother she was discouraged. >> she wanted me to come down. she was feeling homesick and things were not going as well as she wanted them to go down there. >> it would be the last time she heard her daughter's voice. a week later friends found her daughter's body in her apartment. she had been beaten, stabbed and

strangled to death with an electrical cord. >> the crime was one of the most brutal crimes that i've seen as a prosecutor. >> next to heather's body investigators found broken pieces of plastic. >> there was a small black plastic pieces, particles found. some on her body, some scattered around the room and laying next to her body which we could not identify. >> there were no signs of forced entry, but the motive appeared to be robbery. heather's wallet, her 35 millimeter camera, television and automobile were missing. >> we didn't understand at that time how he got in the house or anything else. so yeah, we were very concerned about it. and we wanted to try to find him or her before another crime could take place. >> police issued a be on the

lookout call for heather's car, a ten year old chevrolet monza with pennsylvania license plates. >> we have a system called ncic, national crime information center. and we can enter stolen vehicles, items, articles. pretty much anything and it will go out nationwide. >> at the autopsy, the medical examiner photographed and measured the wounds on heather's body. there were 40 wounds in all. >> i will do diagrams, photographs and acetate tracings, lay a sheet of acetate over the body, trace the injuries onto the acetate. those are then kept as evidence. >> from the amount of decomposition, the doctor indicated she had been dead for about a week. >> there were several stab wounds that were inflicted to her body after she died. there were some injuries that probably happened during the final few moments. >> it was obvious that it was at

least three different methods of murder there. because she had a wire that, around her neck. >> the medical examiner also found a bloody shoe impression on heather's shirt. and what looked like knife wounds on her neck, both were indications the killer tried to subdue her. a rape test kit found no biological evidence of sexual assault. >> one of the things that you try to do as a forensic pathologist is to try to tell the story as best you can of what happened to an individual. in a case like this where there is a savage attack on a young girl, you really want to try to answer those questions. >> in the search for the killer, investigators found a significant clue at the crime scene. the killer put a pillow under heather's head. but there was no blood on the pillow. >> it looked to me like it had

been placed there, not a part of the scene. >> and it looked as if the killer knew her. [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some financial folks who will talk to them about preparing early for retirement and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

at the crime scene,

investigators found several claws to the identity of heather stigliano's killer. the evidence showed the killer tried to clean up her apartment afterwards. >> there was several places there were blood found, but it was obvious that somebody had tried to wipe up a lot of the blood, a lot of smears and stuff like that. >> analysts applied a chemical called aimmediate owe black to the bathroom and kitchen floor. >> it was determined that this chemical would react to the dried blood left at the crime scene. evidence such as footwear impressions, those that were partially visible and some that you couldn't see at all. >> seconds after it was applied, multiple shoe impressions appeared. from a size 11 athletic shoe. it was the same shoe impression found on heather's shirt. >> you know it belongs to the bad guy. when you get evidence like that,

it's been a good day. so you feel good inside. >> in a search for suspects, investigators spoke with heather's friends, co-workers and acquaint tans and there were quite a few. >> she was very friendly. she loved to be with her friends. she wanted to be part of anything that had energy. >> police discovered that heather had an exboyfriend, jack norton, who was a pilot stationed at nearby pope air force base. >> heather was having some problems and wanted to get back up with him. we didn't know if they had gotten back up and some domestic situation going on, argument, struggle, something like that might have happened. >> investigators asked military officials where norton was stationed on the week of heather's murder. >> found out that he wasn't around during the time that she would have died. >> norton had been in saudi arabia that week and was eliminated as a suspect. >> next, family members told investigators that she had had a

problem with a man at a halloween party several days before her murder. she claimed that a captain called robert dolan had sexually assaulted her at the party. >> well, she had drank a little more than she should have. she did tell me that she thought she had been raped by one of the husbands of one of the guests there. in her, while she was passed out. >> well, i think he had around 17 years in the air force. and i think three kids. and that would be a motive, this was going to ruin his career. there's no doubt about it. >> captain dolan's wife carol, also became a suspect. >> we felt that carol had gotten word that heather was going to the police about this, about being sexually assaulted by her husband. and of course, that just gave us more, you know, reason to suspect carol of either committing this homicide or her letting her husband robert know

and him committing the homicide or them together. >> heather never did report this incident to police. when questioned, captain dolan and his wife cooperated fully with the investigation and provided their finger prints for analysis. >> i compared the known ink prints to the lay tent prints taken from the crime scene, and none of the ink standards were identified latent prints of the crime scene. >> we couldn't say he didn't do it, but there was nothing indicating that he did do it. >> then investigators identified a fourth suspect, chris harkins was heather's friend who stayed in her apartment when he was in myrtle beach on business. >> after interviewing chris, it was found that they were just friends, that there was no sexual contact or anything like that between them. >> and harkins had an alibi. he was in lexington, south carolina, 160 miles away, the

week of heather's murder. then investigators got an unexpected call from an antique dealer 26 miles away in south carolina. he and his wife read about the murder in the newspaper and had some information they thought might help. >> they told us of a gentleman who had come down there. he looked like he had been in some type of a scrap or a fight. and he was trying to sell a camera. >> the cameras was the same make and model as the one missing from heather's apartment. >> just real suspicious acting the whole time. he even got a little aggravated when they told him they didn't want it. and he had a look that scared them. >> he described the man as white, mid-30s with dark hair. and he had the presence of mind to write down his license plate number on his coffee cup.

>> it was registered to heather stigliano, who is our victim. ?

an antique dealer gave police a detailed description of the man driving heather stigliano's car. from that description, a police artist created this composite

sketch, which was distributed to news outlets throughout the country. as a result, employees of a local construction company in myrtle beach told police that they recognized him. >> they said, well, we had a subject named james whipple that worked here but all of a sudden was just gone. never called in, never give us a notice. he's been gone for about a week now, which was kind of connecting to some of the timeline. >> james whipple was 38 years old and had a police record in four different states. >> he had several burglaries, glandular sennies, unauthorized use of vehicles, a dui or two with resisting arrest. >> six days later police found whipple in melbourne, florida, driving heather stigliano's car. >> i was on top of the world. in one day we came up with two

bits of information, a suspect and a car. >> but what connection, if any, did whipple have to heather stigliano? investigators learned that whipple knew heather's friend chris harkins because they had worked together in the past. >> but that was the only connection that whipple had had with heather at the time. they, they had briefly met right then. and, you know, he left with chris. there was no other connection between heather and whipple. >> inside heather's car was a virtual treasure trove of evidence. >> found a lot more than i expected to find. went through a methodical process of working from the outside in on the vehicle. >> under the front seat investigators found a bent serrated knife, a broken clothes iron, a pair of men's athletic shoes and bloody clothing.

they sent the knife to forensic pathologist dr. jamie downs. >> with the serrated knife, i look at the separation. tines of the serrated points, the little points stuck out and noted that those were at repeated intervals, very consistent repeated intervals. >> dr. downs then compared the size of the serrations to the knife marks on heather's skin. and they were the same. a group of abrasions on the side of her neck no bigger than a half an inch was matched back to a knife in the possession of the suspect in the case. >> dr. downs also compared the clothes iron found in whipple's possession to heather's wounds and concluded the iron had also been used in the crime. next, steve derek wanted to see if the black plastic pieces from the crime scene came from this

iron. >> so that point became a puzzle. after everything was photographically documented, started gluing the plastic pieces back together. >> after some trial and error, derek discovered the pieces fit perfectly. >> the pieces from the crime scene and the iron created a link to whipple be being at the crime scene. >> investigators also analyzed the athletic shoes found in whipple's possession. they were size 11, the same size as the shoe impressions found in blood at the crime scene. steve derek used standard red fingerprint powder to dust the right shoe. then made an impression on a transparency.

the size and tread pattern were the same. more importantly, the wear patterns known as accidental characteristics were virtually identical. >> the right shoe that had been taken from whipple was the shoe to the exclusion of all others. >> derek also concluded this was the shoe which made the bloody impression on heather's shirt. >> the outsole design of whipple's shoes matched this bloody impression on the tee shirt. >> and tests showed that clothing in the car contained heather's blood. his very first interview with police james whipple confessed. >> i did it because of dam crack cocaine. you'll get your money, you'll get your drugs one way or another. >> he said i killed her, and i deserve the death penalty for doing what i did to this young

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james whipple told police his addiction to crack cocaine had taken over his life and that the need for money to support his habit drove him to murder. >> victims it family and friends can't get on with their lives until justice is served.

>> his family indicated that he had had some real problems with drugs and that he had an anger problem. that he had lost his wife, his marriage, his kids and everything, because of the drugs. and they said it was something that he could not control at all. >> whipple knew heather stigliano, and knew she worked as a waitress and would have cash in her apartment. >> he knew that she worked at a restaurant, had good tip money, usually on most nights. >> prosecutors believe whipple went to heather's apartment for one reason and one reason only. money. he asked heather if his friend chris was there, which was probably a ruse to see if she was alone. heather said she had his telephone number and allowed him inside. desperate for money and high on

drugs, whipple attacked. he struck her with the clothes iron, which broke the plastic housing. then strangled her to death. whipple took her money and whatever household items he thought he could sell. he also stole her car. the next day whipple said i returned to heather's apartment to clean up. he wiped his fingerprints and tried to remove as much blood as he could. but forensic tests found the shoe impressions he thought he had cleaned. before leaving, whipple placed the pillow under heather's head. a sign he knew her. he also took the clothes iron and knife, later found in his possession. a short time later he tried to sell heather's camera to an antique dealer who notified

authorities. >> we told the jury jim whipple was guilty in terms of committing the offense. he had confessed not only to police, and the judge was going to allow those confessions in, because all of them were done properly, but he had talked to journalists. he had talked to detention officers. he had written letters, telling everybody he'd committed this terrible crime. >> i just want to say i'm sorry. not that it's going to help. i'd also like to say that i believe in capital punish. that's the only thing that i deserve. >> i never had a murder suspect, you know, confess like that and ask for the death penalty and say it so many times. >> james whipple was convicted of first degree murder, but didn't get the death penalty. instead, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

>> this, in my mind, is the second most horrific case that i've ever been involved in, in terms of the trauma to the victim, the torture that the victim endured, the level of violence used to commit the murder. >> i deserve the punishment i get. i feel horrible for what i've done. i wish i could bring her back and trade places with her. i can't. >> the forensic analysis not only identified the perpetrator, but documented the extent of his brutality. >> forensic science is amazing what they can, or the evidence that they can find from a piece of hair, you know, little dna or what have you, but no, it doesn't surprise me in the least. >> that really, to me, is impressive. that's what forensics is, is answering questions that haven't even been thought of yet.

>> anytime i can bring a case to a positive conclusion and provide a service to one of my fellow citizens that i've done my job, i feel good. a serial killer was loose and investigator his no leads until an alert investigator saw something no one else had seen. a possible fingerprint on the victim's skin. the problem was how to collect it. texas city, texas is one of the largest oil refinery sites in america. the oil business is labor intensive which poses its own unique set of problems. >> we have a large population of contract workers that come in from out of state and all over the country and come in to work