future in front of her. she came from a good family and had a good social network. had everything in the world to live for. and in one instance, this cold-blooded killer takes her life up next. >> this was not like normal plaster. >> who was the victim? and who wanted him dead? >> i have to somehow artistically interpret what as changed from the fire. >> just after midnight one christmas eve, motorists along route 83 near baltimore reported

a brush fire just off the southbound lane. a volunteer firefighter was first on the scene. >> climbed down the embankment which was a steep embankment and walked his way toward the fire. when he got there at first he thought it was a mannequin. but as he got closer, he realized it was a human being. >> after the fire was extinction wished, the victim was unable to be identified other than to say he was a black male. >> there was no wallet, there was nothing on his person to immediately identify who this body was. >> the scent of accelerant was unmistakable. >> we had found a can that was severely burned next to the body that we believe was used to include an accelerant to help aid the fire. around the body, further up the hill, we found a lighter that appeared to have been freshly dropped at the scene. >> underneath the body was a partially melted sheet of plastic tarp.

>> it was a two person job. that one person carrying a dead human body down that embankment over a guardrail in the distance that it had to go, especially with the icy conditions, no way one person could have done it. it had to have been a two-person job. >> there's every indication that we had what we call a dump scene where they dump the body. >> the medical examiner discovered the victim had been shot three times in the head. the bullets exited the man's skull. since no soot or debris were found in the victim's lungs, the medical examiner knew the man was dead before the fire started. >> it was clear that the hands were duct taped. the feet were duct taped. that this person was being

burned beyond recognition. >> so investigators took the unusual step of trying to generate a composite sketch from what little remained. >> we knew and recognized that until we can identify this victim, we're not going to be able to really get our wheels moving in the investigation. >> fortunately, the skull was in tact. so measurements such as the brow lines, height of the cheekbones, the length and width of the jaw survived. >> the victim had received three gunshot wounds to the head. so the teeth, for the most part were gone. and there was significant burning on the one side of the face, charring on the other side of the face. and then a swelling from the intense heat of the fire.

>> a small part of the victim's cornrow hairstyle remained in tact, which helped detective lang create a more realistic likeness. within two days, detective lang finished his work. >> a little bit of science, a little bit of art. >> luckily for investigators, if the fire had burned just a little longer, it wouldn't have been possible to get this image. >> another 15 minutes of fire, and it would have been a very different case. >> the image was released to media outlets throughout the region. three days after the crime, a woman from harrisburg, pennsylvania called saying the drawing resembled her boyfriend, 26 year old wesley person. >> she commented that the composite did not depict an earring that was in his left ear. that was a feature i intentionally left out of the composite. >> investigators were already familiar with wesley person. >> i dealt with wesley person about six years before this. i was the prosecutor of wesley for a drug trafficking case. >> person's prints were on file from that arrest and were

compared to partial prints that survived the fire. >> most of his fingers had been burned away, with the exception of two his fingers that were partially protected by the garment that had been pulled over his body and used to bind him up. >> the prints matched wesley person. investigators now knew the identity of their victim. but to expose his killers, they had to find the actual murder scene.

there was no mystery as to how wesley person was murdered. he was shot three times in the head execution style. then his body was set on fire along a highway in maryland. >> they had no witnesses. all they had, essentially, was these charred remains right off the side of the road. that was really about it. >> investigators learned that wesley's cousin was one of the last to see him. the two went christmas shopping together. and he said that wesley was carrying a large amount of cash. >> i can't say how much it was, because i don't know, but he pulled out a nice wad. and when he was peeling, he was looking to see if he had a 20, but he didn't.

all he had was 50s and 1 hundreds. >> wesley's cousin said when they were finished shopping, wesley left with friends whom he didn't know. he said there seemed to be some tension among them. >> they go to the back of the car, talking. and when they're talking back there, it's an intense conversation. >> it wasn't an argument. but you can see that he was talking like he was either frustrated or angry, but it wasn't loud. >> the three men drove off. and the next day wesley person was dead. police questioned wesley's family and learned that the men matching the description were wesley's long time friends justin glove and lawrence morrell. both men were in their early 20s, and like wesley, had minor

brushes with the law, but had never served time and had no violent offenses. >> my understanding they had known each other going back to when person lived in new york. >> when questioned by police, both men denied any involvement in wesley's murder. they said they dropped wesley off at his house, and that was the last time they saw him. >> shopping bags of recent purchases from that morning wesley had were found in the house. we feel certain that wesley person did make it back to the house. >> police obtained a search warrant and checked every room. >> we luminoled that housetop to bottom. we could find nothing. absolutely nothing in that house that gave us any indication he was shot and killed there. >> police also checked lawrence morrell's car, the one wesley person got into after christmas

shopping. >> we checked the trunk and the interior of the car for any evidence, for a shooting scene, any evidence of trace blood or anything. couldn't find anything in the car. >> then investigators found a potential clue. at wesley person's autopsy, they found some material inside the plastic tarp next to his body. >> the medical examiner finds that in the small of the victim's back was a great deal of construction debris that came out of the fire unscathed. >> it consisted of small bits of painted drywall and some chunks of plaster. >> they were about the size of a thumbnail. now this plaster was not like normal plaster. >> what made it abnormal were

these thread-like strands embedded in every piece. >> i was saying, hmm, i wonder what that is. is this something that's important or, you know, what is this? it was something i'd never seen before, so it was my own curious nature that led me to pull it out of the sample and look for it in other samples. >> trace analyst, cassandra burk extracted these threads and viewed them at 40 times magnification. >> and as soon as i looked at them under the microscope, i could tell they were animal hairs. >> prior to the 1940s, animal hairs were commonly used as a binding and strengthening agent in plaster. this meant the murder site was probably in a house built before 1940. unfortunately, there were thousands of them. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare,

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on the day wesley person went missing, his cousin told police wesley had been carrying a large amount of cash and left the shopping mall with his friends justin glove and lawrence morel. but police wondered, why did wesley person have so much cash, even though he was unemployed? a background check revealed wesley was being investigated for bank fraud by a local credit union.

as were his friends, justin glover and lawrence morrell. >> they were involved in a bank scheme. and essentially what the bank scheme involved was using falsified records to obtain loans. and they would take the lone mono and pocket it. >> the alleged scam utilized a front person, usually a young woman looking to buy a used car. after getting a lone from the credit union, she wouldn't buy the car. instead, she'd split the money with wesley person and his partners. when the loan wasn't repaid shall the credit union couldn't repossess the car for nonpayment because no car was purchased. the scam ruined the woman's credit union, but wesley and his partners walked away unscathed. >> a lot of people in the banking community were giving out loans without a lot of

background investigation. >> during a two-year period, wesley person and his partners embezzled about $120,000. was it possible that a falling out among the three scam artists was the motive for murder? >> disrespect always plays a big part in a lot of the murders i've seen in this community. if these guys were pure business men, they wouldn't have killed him. >> a background check of wesley's friends revealed an interesting coincidence. lawrence morrell was involved in the construction business. he'd buy distressed residential properties in harrisburg, pennsylvania, fix them up, then sell them for a profit. >> the victim was wrapped in plastic, construction plastic, consistent with someone who's rehabbing a house. >> this also might explain the unusual plaster found with wesley's body. could one of morrell's construction projects be the

actual murder site? >> we found five properties listing him as the owner in harrisburg, pennsylvania. when we began looking at these properties, we were able to determine that three of those properties were vacant at the time of the murder. >> the property that needed the most work was on south 13th street in downtown harrisburg. records showed it had been built in the 1930s, around the same time builders used animal hair plaster like the kind found with wesley person's body. >> we're looking for slugs, bullet holes in the walls. we were unsuccessful. >> investigators sprayed luminol in the basement of lawrence morrell's construction property on south 13th street and ran into an unexpected problem. >> as we're looking at that, crime lab techs are explaining to me that in harrisburg, their

soil's eastern rich and iron in itself will give false positives in a luminol test. >> but in the basement, investigators found a pile of debris swept into a corner. they gathered everything and sent it to the forensic lab. under a microscope, scientists found pieces of drywall with the same blue and pink paint layers as the drywall found underneath wesley's body. >> what are the odds that both you and i went to home depot and bought the same paints all the time and painted our walls the same colors year after year after year? >> but were both samples the same paint? analysts put both samples under a scanning electron microscope. >> you're using the microscope and all of the features of the microscope to be able to see what's included in that chemical

composition of the paint. >> the chemical structures in both samples were identical. scientists also found animal hair plaster. but this wasn't just any animal hair. the animal hair in the plaster found underneath wesley's body had something in common with the animal hair in the plaster from the renovated house. >> i was able to say that these were animal hairs that were from the same animal. they knew that they had the right residence. they knew that they had the right people. >> but the ultimate proof came from a piece of duct work from the basement floor. testing showed it contained a tiny speck of human blood. and dna testing left no doubt who the blood had come from. >> it ended up being the blood of wesley person. we had found our crime scene. we had the victim's blood there.

>> investigators felt they knew who planned this attack. >> lawrence morrell is the smart one here. and he's the one with the brains to be able to put this thing together. >> but could they place justin glove and lawrence morrell at the scene? bulldog: it's true! i am a bundle of talent!

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both lawrence morrell and justin glove denied any involvement in wesley person's murder. they both claimed they had alibis for that night. so investigators checked the men's cell phone records. >> glover's phone is trackable, because he is constantly either receiving calls, or he's making calls. and from those cell phone calls, we're able to see what tower, the closest tower that cell phone is going to hit off of. >> glover said he was with his girlfriend. >> he made a series of telephone calls to his girlfriend from the cellular telephone which is not consistent with him being with her the whole night. >> the records show that glover was in the area where the burning body was found. >> and a check of lawrence morrell's cell phone records revealed he was in the area as

well. >> at 4:30 in the morning his cell phone is used right near the capitol building. >> morrell was checking his voice mail. oddly, so was someone else. at the exact same place and exact same time. >> it shows, when you look at the cell phone records that they were together. >> ten weeks after wesley person was killed, justin glove and lawrence morrell were arrested and charged with his murder. prosecutors believe wesley person cashed a check for a fraudulent bank loan without telling his partners, and in doing so signed his own death warrant. >> wesley person never paid them the money that they were owed. justin glover and lawrence morrell were supposed to receive at least a thousand dollars each from each of these loans. >> police believe lawrence and morrell found out and wanted revenge.

they picked him up in harrisburg and took him home so they could get the money they believed he'd stolen from them. then they forced wesley back into their car and drove him to the house that morrell was renovating. the evidence shows this is where they shot person three times in the head. his blood spattered onto a piece of ductwork on the basement floor. the two men cleaned up the scene. but didn't see the blood on the ductwork. they wrapped the body in construction plastic, unaware that bits of animal hair plaster were wrapped with it. plaster that tied the body to the house. after driving 65 miles to the

outskirts of baltimore, they hauled the body down an embankment, doused it with fuel and set it on fire. but the fire didn't consume wesley's entire body. enough remained to create this likeness. and the animal hair plaster and construction plastic ultimately led police to the murder scene. >> without that pile of debris, without that piece of ductwork, wesley person's case would be unsolved today. >> justin glover and lawrence morrell were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. >> first thing i think of when i think of this case is

exceptional forensic investigation. hands down the best forensic work i've ever seen in any case i've ever been involved in. this is one case that probably encompasses about every genre of forensic science that's out there. >> this is probably the most interesting case i've had yet. >> you would think their friendship would trump money, but it appears as if in this case money trumped friendship in this case. up next -- a college co-ed vanishes without a trace. >> the television was still on. it was almost as if her activities had been interrupted. >> it's just really scary to think about that it happened here. >> her fellow students prayed for her safe return. police feared her abductor might be among them. >> everybody was a suspect, but we had no direction to go. >> eventually, the trail led to a barn fire hundreds of miles away, a senseless murder with no motive.