the most important cases i've worked in my career, based on the type of person jenna was. she was a young person that had her life ahead of her. and it's just a tragic event that it has to happen to someone like her. up next. they meet in cyberspace. >> he was fishing for women on the internet. >> rebecca had sent suggestive pictures of herself. >> they made plans to meet face to face. >> they were getting all hot and heavy with each other. >> day later they were all dead. >> they all appeared to be execution-style murders. . >> the killer disappears into thin air but not without a trace. >> every crime that happens these days probably has a

digital component. on average, 911 dispatchers in tulsa, oklahoma, receive about 3,000 emergency calls a night. one night they got a call about a fire that sounded routine. >> i can see flames but i can't really see smoke. the back of the house is lit up. >> what's your name? >> my name's kenneth. >> where are you calling from? >> my cell phone. i'm on my way home from my friends house. >> 911 operator told kenneth to stay on the line as firemen raced to the scene. then something strange happened. >> it appeared that there was some sort of interact with somebody that maybe was walking up to him. >> is there fire in there? okay. okay. >> hello. hello. >> when firemen arrived at the scene, they put out the blaze. and in a car parked in front of the home slumped over the steering wheel was the man who called 911.

he'd been shot to death. he was identified as 24-year-old kenneth maxwell, a truck driver who lived just a mile away. friends said he was going home from a party when he drove by. >> that's just horrific. no one ever thinks the good samaritan is going to be a victim. >> inside the house, firefighters found two bodies, a man in the kitchen shot in the head at point blank range. >> his body is right there and he's covered up with a rug. >> and a woman in a back bedroom. she's naked and shot several times in the head through a pillow like someone was trying to muffle that sound. >> the victims were identified

as the homeowners, 51-year-old fred barney and his 42-year-old wife rebecca. >> we were not able to find any kind of connection between kenneth maxwell and the barneys. >> but investigators learned that rebecca and fred barney had an unusual relationship. after six years of marriage, they were getting a divorce. they had no children, and the divorce was amicable, so they decided to continue to live together and sleep in separate bedrooms until the divorce was final. >> so they didn't have an intimate relationship anymore, but they were still good friends. >> in the dining room, rebecca's clothing was folded in two neat piles. >> anybody that takes their glasses off and puts them on their clothing in the dining room, i'm thinking there's something really went bad here. this is not a voluntary thing. somebody is forcing rebecca to do this. >> that's when you realize this is not going to be your average murder.

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arson experts determined the fire in fred and rebecca barney's house was no accident. >> stove pulled out, gas line

cut. it has all the appearances of somebody trying to conceal what had just taken place in that home. >> but the killer hadn't counted on someone driving by and reporting the fire. that call cost kenneth maxwell his life but saved a lot of evidence. >> bless his heart. he saved the investigation. he got 911 help there, the fire department put out the fire, and there was still plenty of evidence for us to analyze and work off of. >> kenneth maxwell's 911 call also prevented fire damage to the bodies. from the evidence at the scene, it appeared the killer caught fred barney completely off guard. he had been shot once in the back of the head. >> fred was wearing pajamas. it appeared that fred had been making a sandwich in the kitchen.

there was no real sign of a struggle. >> rebecca's body was found in the bedroom. she had been shot numerous times, leading investigators to conclude she'd been the primary target. >> he puts that pillow over her face and he shoots her, and i think it's significant that he shot her more than once. for he shoots him one and shoots her three times because he is pissed. >> ballistic tests reveal all three murder victims, kenneth maxwell and fred and rebecca barney were all killed with a .22 caliber weapon, the same .22 caliber weapon. the lack of forced entry indicated that fred and/or rebecca knew the killer. at first glance it appeared that

nothing had been stolen. the victims' money and credit cards were untouched, but in a back bedroom something was missing. >> the computer tower itself was gone, so that alarmed me right off the bat. >> why would a killer steal only the computer? >> to me that clearly showed very quickly that there's a computer angle on this crime. there's an internet angle on this crime. >> on the night of the murders, investigators discovered fred and rebecca were seen together in a bar called arnie's, a regular hangout of theirs. witnesses say they were with a man no one at the bar had seen before. >> they described him as a really tall guy. he was well over 6'4", 6'5". >> she's introducing him that night that this is my new internet boyfriend. >> witnesses say fred looked tired and disinterested. >> it seemed pretty apparent to the patrons in the bar that fred wasn't very enamored with the date rebecca was bringing. >> rebecca didn't introduce the

acquaintance by name, but she did introduce him nevertheless. >> rebecca introduced the man that she was with as this is my ten-inch cowboy is how she referred to him out at the bar. >> patrons and staff told investigators that fred, rebecca, and the cowboy left arnie's together at closing time. the bar was only five minutes from the barneys' house. >> arnie's closes around 2:00. the fire is being called in at 3:11. so a lot happened between the time they left the bar at arnie's and that hour before the murders happened. >> investigators knew nothing about the so-called cowboy. they had no name, no idea where he was from. but something found at the crime scene quickly filled in a lot of those gaps. at rebecca barney's autopsy, "

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at rebecca barney's autopsy, the medical examiner determined she had been sexually assaulted. but collecting a biological sample wouldn't be easy. mississippi barney was on her menstrual cycle. and so there was so much of her

dna that it was literally overwhelming the other contributing dna that we were finding. >> fortunately a quick-thinking paramedic at the scene had swabbed parts of rebecca body while others were trying to save her life. >> this is pretty heads-up. i know this is a crime, she was found nude, what if there's dna. it turns out, yes, there was saliva on both rebecca's neck and on her breasts. >> but when the dna profile was put in the national dna day pa base of known offenders, investigators encountered another setback. >> they did not get enough markers to work to compare to that database. >> investigators were fairly certain the dna belonged to the man seem with rebecca and fred in the bar just an hour before their deaths, but who was this man? the computer had been stolen from fred and rebecca's home,

but investigators did find several e-mails rebecca had printed. one was from a man with an unusual screen name. >> he had a screen name. i believe it was cowboyforyou67. >> the communication was very sexualized. >> the printout showed that rebecca and cowboyforyou67 had exchanged sexual pictures over the internet. hers were more modest than his. >> he attached a picture of his penis with a ruler right next to it. >> you could tell rebecca was trying real hard. she was lonely. >> investigators were fairly certain these e-mails were from the man with rebecca and fred at the bar on the night of their murders. >> this is my ten-inch cowboy is how i think she referred to him at the bar. certainly a material witness to perhaps the last hour or hours of the lives of fred and rebecca barney. >> the cowboy had also provided this picture, but since he was wearing sunglasses, there was no way to identify him. investigators turned to the tulsa police cyber crimes unit. >> i'd venture to say every crime that occurs these days probably has a digital component. there's going to be some type of communication utilizing the internet or some type of cell search. >> a court-authorized search revealed someone using the screen name cowboyforyou67 met someone new online just three days before the murders, wildivy. >> they find out who wild ivy is. it's becky. >> cowboyforyou67 was identified as james comput >> he was div >> h t >> t w mess. ou >> they find out who wild ivy is. it's becky. >> cowboyforyou67 was identified as james kidwell, a 31-year-old computer science guy. from gore, about ten miles from the murder side. >> he was divorced, money issues, and living at home. >> he had been questioned but never been charged in a domestic

wearing sunglasses, there was no way to identify him. investigators turned to the tulsa police cyber crimes unit. >> i'd venture to say every crime that occurs these days probably has a digital component. there's going to be some type of communication utilizing the internet or some type of cell search. >> a court-authorized search revealed someone using the screen name cowboyforyou67 met someone new online just three days before the murders, wildivy. >> they find out who wild ivy is. it's becky. >> cowboyforyou67 was identified as james kidwell, a 31-year-old

computer science guy. from gore, about ten miles from the murder side. >> he was divorced, money issues, and living at home. >> he had been questioned but never been charged in a domestic violence incident. >> he had a warrant in relation to slashing tires of an ex-girlfriend. that's a red flag in a domestic situation. >> when police notified law enforcement in gore, oklahoma, that they planned to arrest james kidwell, they got a pleasant surprise. >> on that particular day when we were headed to gore to serve our warrant, the gore pd actual pulled kidwell over on some unrelated charges. >> police couldn't help but notice that kidwell's car was a mess. >> he's just got junk pouring out of it. it's like he almost lives out of that car. it was probably pretty obvious to rebecca pretty quick, all right, maybe he's well endowed, but he's not the kind of guy i want to have a relationship with.

>> when kidwell was arrested, police found a loaded rifle in his car, a weapons violation. >> he was asked if he knew rebecca barney and he told us he didn't know anyone by that name. >> his computer would tell investigators the truth.

when james kidwell was arrested for the murders of kenneth maxwell and fred and rebecca barney, he was with a young woman he met online less than 12 hours after the crime. when questioned, she told police she immediately regretted dating him. she said he always carried a loaded weapon. >> she was absolutely scared. just kind of invaded this young lady's life. she definitely felt threatened by it. >> kidwell lived with his mother. inside police didn't find the murder weapon or the computer stolen from the barneys' home, but the hard drive on kidwell's computer showed numerous contacts with many women. but he'd only deleted one series of files, the ones addressed to

wildivy2003, rebecca barney's screen name. >> just one folder, for some reason. he felt the need to delete that. to me it indicates a need to hide something. >> the evidence shows kidwell met rebecca online just three days before the murder, and during that time exchanged more than 70 e-mails. the day before the murders, rebecca gave kidwell her telephone number. after the murders, all communications stopped. >> jimmy did not send any messages to her after the shooting. >> totally inconsistent behavior with the behavior three days before the homicide. >> and despite claims he didn't know who rebecca was, kidwell's computer showed he had a keen interest in her murder.

>> someone using that computer for several days after the crime was looking up news stories to see what the latest news was on the crime. >> kidwell was confronted with this cyber evidence. >> mr. kidwell begins to change his story. >> kidwell then admitted knowing rebecca barney and admitted he was hoping for a sexual encounter but said when fred barney accompanied them to the bar, it was clear to him the date was going nowhere. >> he told us that he was only there probably five to ten minutes before he left heading back to gore, oklahoma. >> ballistic testing revealed that kidwell's .22 caliber rifle was not the murder weapon, but records showed that kid well also owned a .22 caliber handgun, which police were unable to find. in kid well's dryer, investigators found two shirts. although they'd been washed, they still contained rust-colored stains. despite being washed and dried,

analysts were able to obtain dna from the stains and generate a profile. >> they could not exclude rebecca barney from being a contributor to that profile and only one in 12,000 individuals in the general population would match that profile. >> but was kidwell's dna at the crime scene? the profile from saliva on rebecca's body was very weak, so analysts returned to the dna from rebecca's rape kit. because she was menstruating, the dna was predominantly female, but there were minute amounts of male dna too. this time analysts used a process called ystr, which zeros in on one part of the sample, the "y" chromosome which only is found in males. it matched james kidwell's. investigators are convinced on the night of the murders,

james kidwell was primed for a torrid sexual encounter. >> you're not driving 75 miles just to say hi. >> you're not driving 75 miles just to say hi. >> as a precaution, rebecca asked her estranged husband to accompany her on her first meeting with kidwell. he did so reluctantly since he just returned from a business trip. the evidence shows when they returned to the barneys' house, fred wept to his room and changed into his pajamas. prosecutors believe that rebecca refused kidwell's advances either because she didn't like him, because of her having her menstrual period, or both. regardless of the reason,

kidwell got angry and left. but not before getting a .22 caliber handgun from his car. by this time, i thinking kidwell was gone, fred was in the kitchen making a sandwich. kid well shot him at point blank range he then forced rebecca to take off her clothes. assaulted her in the bedroom. then killed her. to cover up the crime, he pulled the stove from the wall, cut the gas line, and started the fire. he left with the barney's computer thinking he was removing all the evidence. kenneth maxwell drove by on his way home from the party, saw the flames, and called 911. >> i see flames but i can't

really see smoke. i mean the back of the house is lit up. is that fire in there? >> when kidwell saw this, he shot maxwell too. police never recovered the barneys' computer or the murder weapon, but kidwell left plenty of electronic and biological evidence behind. >> the thing that sticks out about this case to me more than anything is kenneth maxwell and the sacrifice he made for being a good citizen. >> in november of 2004, james kidwell was tried and convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

>> i think just being detailed and paying attention to detail in my opinion is what you have to do in each and every case to make sure that you don't miss anything. >> nothing you put on a computer is going to disappear unless it's at the bottom of the lake or somehow destroyed in the fire. it's going to follow you even if you think you have destroyed it. up next, a woman is murdered in broad daylight. >> this is the monster jumping out of the bushes and grabbing you and killing you. >> cell phone records and search dogs provided some leads. >> they were able to track a scent trail to a residential area that was close to the canal trail. >> but if not for some crafty police work and the chance encounter, the entire investigation could have gone up in smoke. >> we have an individual that's still out, walking about, who can do this again. >> i don't know how much scarier it can get. during her lunch break in