he got a cool $150,000. >> without that forensic evidence, chris would be a free man today, and there would be no justice for dorothy. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com investigators thought this shredded computer disk held information about a murder. the most sophisticated technology wasn't enough to put it back together. so what did they do? they made forensic history. ♪ it's hard to comprehend that in the philippines there are 7,000 islands. residents say you can hide in these islands and never be found. but living there had its challenges.

>> they have mosquitoes the size of dogs. you see speeders as big as your hand. you see weird stuff, stuff that you've never seen before. >> josh snodgrass grew up in the philippines. his father joe is a u.s. military officer at the base near manila. his mother julie was from mississippi and had trouble adjusting to life overseas. >> the nicest woman you could have ever met. there wasn't a bad bone in her body. >> julie, as warm as she was to the american community, she wasn't crazy about the philippines. there were some people, probably not surprising, that didn't like the philippines. >> on february 25th, 1991, joe snodgrass called police to report his wife missing. he said they had an argument. >> he said, i thought she was going to go cool off. this sort of thing has happened before where she storms out. >> military records show that

julie left the military base around 10:30 p.m. but this time, she never came back. at 4:00 a.m. the next morning, a cab driver found julie seated in her truck on a deserted dirt road, two miles from the base. she had been stabbed repeatedly. julie was still strapped in her seat belt, and her driver's side door was ajar. >> at that point, it kind of told us that maybe she tried to get out and couldn't. >> there was a great deal of blood inside the car, except on the passenger seat. >> that led us to believe that obviously somebody was in the vehicle with her and stabbing her and likely had a lot of blood all over him or her. >> a search of foreign hairs and

fibers did reveal a potential clue. >> the only thing that we found that was not consistent with julie or any other hair from the family were some dark hair which would have been consistent with filipinos. >> in a field nearby, police found a folding knife covered with julie's blood. there were also fibers from her clothing. unfortunately, there were no fingerprints. >> why was this truck sitting in the middle of the night on a dirt road in a restricted area where no service member would go and certainly no wife would go? >> julie snodgrass was just 33 years old. josh recalls his father's reaction when he heard the news. >> what i remember is seeing him shaking, shaking, shaking, something my dad never did, but i can only equate it to someone with advanced parkinson's, you know, just shaking out of control.

>> joe snodgrass never left the military base that night, so he was not considered a suspect. but who wanted to harm his wife? i thought you said you were gonna test drive this buick first. i am test driving it. for 24 hours. where's the salesperson? at the dealership. nice buick! i guess that test-drive last night went well. actually, i'm still on it. you know, we're test-driving this buick for 24 hours, right?. yeah. so what are you doing? test-washing it. okay, well let me know when you're done, i'm gonna take it test-shopping. introducing the buick 24-hours of happiness test-drive. it's on your terms and a better way to take a test drive. how's it progressing with the prisoner? he'll tell us everything he knows very shortly, sir. as you were...

where were we? 13 serving 14! service! if your boss stops by, you act like you're working. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. after we are all inside for a while, it gets pretty stuffy. when dad opens up the window, what's the first thing he does? the tobin stance. but when we open up the windows, you can see the dust floating around. there's dog hair. pollen. more work. (doorbell) whoa! what's this? swiffer sweeper! swiffer dusters! removes up to 70% of dust and allergens. stays on there like glue. can't do that with the other broom. wow, i love it. the tobin stance! that is totally what it is! when you're not confident you have complete visibility into your business, it can quickly become the only thing you think about. that's where at&t can help.

at&t's innovative solutions connect machines and people... to keep your internet of things in-sync, in real-time. leaving you free to focus on what matters most.

the murder of 33-year-old julie snodgrass, the wife of a u.s. serviceman, shocked everyone who knew her. she was extremely well liked, and she had no known enemies. >> i remember then feeling this was a crime of passion. someone wanted julie dead and wanted her dead in the worst way. >> her body was flown to mississippi for burial. >> the funeral was intense. the wakes were intense. of course, there was no open casket. i was wishing there would because i wanted to see my mom again. she was gone. i never got to see her again. >> in a search for suspects, investigators didn't have to look far. many filipinos objected to the presence of the u.s. military. and julie's purse and valuables were missing from her car so robbery was also a motive.

>> unemployment in the filipino community was 60%. if any filipino had a job, either on base or somewhere else, they were often supporting 10 or 15 people who didn't have a job. >> but investigators were more intrigued by rumors of problems in the couple's marriage. >> his wife and he had been separated. they'd gotten back together. they got divorced. remarried. there was a lot of turmoil there. >> as word of julie's murder spread, local informants told investigators that they might want to question the family's filipino housekeeper. >> her first name was lucy. very attractive, much younger than joe. i would say early 20s, possibly. >> my impression is that it was common knowledge that there was a very close, maybe relationship, beyond the housekeeping relationship. >> lucy had been the

snodgrasses' housekeeper for more than a year and was practically a member of the family, but her demeanor raised eyebrows. >> she also wanted to be my mom. to some degree, that's the way i felt the whole time. she would say, i'm your mom. i said, you're not my mom. well, i'm going to be your mom. no, you're not. i've got a mom. you're not going to be my mom. and stuff like that. >> during questioning, lucy said she knew nothing about the murder, and she denied rumors that she was having an affair with julie's husband, but julie's son knew this was a lie. >> the only reason why i knew something was going on was because i opened the door in the bedroom one day and saw dad doing something he shouldn't have been doing, you know. >> she passes a polygraph, you know, and so, boy, the case is in the toilet, right? well -- >> so military investigators changed tactics. they interviewed lucy once

again, this time using local law enforcement. >> i think she was more comfortable talking to filipino investigators than to american investigators. and she started changing her story. >> in a remarkable turnaround, lucy now admitted taking part in julie's murder. >> she described how joe came to her, explained to her that he wanted his wife dead, that he couldn't live with his wife anymore, and wanted her out of the way. >> lucy said she hired her two uncles to carry out the murder, and they, in turn, hired a third man to help them. >> and so the story she told subsequently was devastating. but, see, that's not the end of everything because, hold it, when was she lying? was she lying the first time or the second time? >> when confronted with lucy's

confession, joe snodgrass angrily denied any involvement in the murder of his wife and called his former housekeeper a liar. to prove it, he permitted investigators to search his house. >> they found these insurance policies under a mattress. hmm, and they said, under the mattress? he said, i really didn't want you to find those. a little suspicious looking. i didn't want you to find that. >> the policies revealed something troubling. joe had recently increased the amount of his wife's life insurance from $200,000 to over $400,000. and on joe's desk at work, investigators found even more potential evidence. >> they came up with a bunch of floppy disks, those big 5 1/4 inch disks that we used to use. >> just as the investigation was starting to take shape, joe's colleagues made a catastrophic

blunder, one that threatened the entire case. >> it's a crazy story and something that you cannot imagine happening. >> the emotion was just incredible. it was a gut-wrenching, a sickening feeling. dave'and starting each day game, with a delicious bowl of heart healthy kellogg's raisin bran. how's your cereal? sweet! tastes like winning. how would you know what winning tastes like? invest in your heart health, with kellogg's raisin bran. no crying today... can a a subconscious. mind? a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive?

the uncertainties i don't wantof hep c.with or wonder... ...whether i should seek treatment. i am ready. because today there's harvoni. a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. harvoni is proven to cure up to 99% of patients... ...who've had no prior treatment. it's the one and only cure that's... ...one pill, once a day for 12 weeks. certain patients... ...can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. with harvoni, there's no interferon and there are no complex regimens. tell your doctor if you have other liver or kidney problems, or other medical conditions. and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. harvoni should not be taken with any medicines containing amiodarone, rifampin, or st. john's wort. it also should not be taken with any other medicine that contains sovaldi. side effects may include tiredness and headache. i am ready to put hep c behind me. i am ready to be cured. are you ready?

ask your hep c specialist if harvoni is right for you. i'm supposed to tell you how it feels when you book the perfect family vacation on hotels.com. but i think he's kinda nailing it. (music) hotels.com. they don't need me right now.

my name is jamir dixon and i'm a locafor pg&e.rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg&e. my truck is something new... it's an 811 truck. when you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you don't hit them when you're digging. 811 is a free service. i'm passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. they're the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then i'll drive it every day of the week. together, we're building a better california.

investigators found two floppy disks on joe snodgrass' desk which they thought might hold evidence of his complicity in his wife's murder plot. but before they checked the disks, investigators wanted to make sure they actually belonged to joe snodgrass and weren't someone else's. so they asked him to come to the interrogation room to identify them. >> joe snodgrass was in a cooperative posture. he's a law enforcement official. and so if someone is investigating, well, naturally, you try to cooperate so you can get him off the suspect list. >> as snodgrass investigated the discs, investigators were distracted. he pulled out a pair of scissors and shredded the discs. >> they tried to get the scissors away from him.

there are pieces of this disk on the floor. >> i'll tell you, a couple of things go through your mind at this point. the first thing is, how in the world did this man get scissors into the interview room? and second of all, how did he get the disks and do this? >> apparently, snodgrass new investigators had his floppy disks, and he came to the interrogation prepared. >> we knew that whatever was on that disk was absolutely -- should i say -- death to joe. >> joe snodgrass was immediately taken into military custody. >> called us up and said they are arresting me for the murder of your mother. and he said, i promise, i did not kill your mother. and i said, okay, i believe you.

>> investigators were desperate to repair not only the disks but the damage to their reputations as well. so they collected the pieces and sent them to the u.s. military's brand-new computer forensics laboratory. >> they said you're not going to believe what happened. we were interviewing this guy. he reaches into a box with a pair of pinking shears and he starts cutting up this diskette. they're in the mail to you. i'm like, okay. wow. i'm not a magician. what are we going to do? >> to their dismay, they couldn't find a single instance of someone successfully reassembling a damaged floppy disk. >> we were calling everybody we could think of in all our contacts. we went to the private sector. so we pulled out all the stops. >> one federal agency offered to try but said it would take months, possibly a year, to figure out how to do it.

it would cost close to $1 million, and there were no guarantees. >> after everybody gave up, we were driving around the beltway after we picked up our diskettes from this one government agency who failed. my deputy said, give me a shot. i said what are you going to do? i'm going to try to scotch tape them back together. that's not going to work. >> his inspiration was the post-it note. the adhesive on the back is strong enough to hold items together, but it is easily removed, leaving no residue behind. first, technicians used heat to smooth out the rumpled pieces. unfortunately, not all of the pieces could be sufficiently repaired. so they needed to find a way to replace the damaged pieces to make a complete disk. >> so what we did is then take that original piece of evidence, put it onto that disk and cut out a template of where it would

fit into. remove that piece from the new disk, drop the evidence into place. and then actually tape it on the backside so that it was now became a part of a whole. >> to hold the pieces together, they used a clear tape with adhesive like the post-it notes, holding one side together so they could read the other. using a test disk, the technicians placed it inside the drive and turned on the computer. the result was a disaster. >> we ended up actually slinging the head across the room in our office because during one of our tests, the disc broke the head off of the disk drive, flung it across the room. >> the problem was the thickness of the tape. they needed to find a thinner tape with the same adhesive properties.

and their research led to a brand of scotch tape called 811. >> doesn't leave a residue. it's very easy to apply. it's very easy to take off without damaging anything. >> so they used it to piece together the damaged floppy disks. to their enormous relief, it was a success. >> it took some initiative, and it worked. there were lots of cheers. it was pretty cool. it was pretty rewarding that we developed a technique that was working and we actually were getting data. >> what some said would cost close to $1 million had only cost $131. >> and that included $50 for the first disk drive that we destroyed. >> but was there any information on the disks that would implicate sergeant joe snodgrass in his wife's murder?

a new sea chance to tryew look. something different. this summer, challenge your preconceptions and experience a cadillac for yourself. ♪ the 2015 cadillac srx. lease this from around $339 per month, or purchase with 0% apr financing.

staying in rhythm... it's how i try to live... how i stay active. so i need nutrition... that won't weigh me down. for the nutrition you want without the calories you don't... introducing boost® 100 calories. each delicious snack size drink gives you... 25 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. so it's big in nutrition and small in calories. i'm not about to swim in the slow lane. get a coupon for a free sample at boost.com watch as these magnificent creatures take flight, soaring away from home towards the promise of a better existence. but these birds are suffering. because this better place turned out to have a less reliable cell phone network, and the videos on their little bird phones kept buffering. birds hate that. so they came back home. because they get $300 from switching back to verizon, and so can you! verizon. come home to a better network.

thanks to the efforts of the u.s. military's computer forensics lab, investigators were finally able to read what was on the floppy disks, the ones sergeant snodgrass had tried so hard to destroy. on one, for all to see, was a

portion of a letter joe snodgrass had written to his housekeeper lucy asking her to hire some hit men to kill his wife. >> at least ten times a day, i say a prayer that you will have luck down there finding someone. i talked to josh and jamie, and they are starting to get real tired of her also. we went to the haunted trail last night. it was not the same without you. if you need anything else, i'll try to send it to you. i have to go back to work now. i love and miss you. joe. >> this tied joe snodgrass to his wife's murder. >> i think the computer fragments were the catalyst, and the catalyst in the sense that it made sense with the housekeeper's story. it corroborated her story. it added credibility to her story and the story of her uncle who gave full statements.

>> and how much money did joe pay to have his wife killed? >> what's the cost of a life? i'll tell you, 150 bucks u.s., plus 1,000 pesos for transportation. next to nothing. >> the information taken off the disk was critical. it was crucial. it put the nail right in the middle of the coffin. >> when confronted with the information from the disks, sergeant snodgrass pled guilty to soliciting his wife's murder. >> he said it was borne of marital turmoil, but he did not admit to -- it's a little mercenary to say, well, i took out $200,000 on my wife and i wanted to kill her and get that to live on easy street. he would not sign up for that. >> according to the forensic evidence, at joe's request, lucy hired her two uncles and another man to kill his wife. since he worked for the office of special investigations he asked his wife julie to help him with one of his cases. he asked her to drive off base

and make a payment to an informant. julie did what her husband asked. but when she got to the off-base destination, she realized she had been set up, and she knew who was behind it. >> while she was being stabbed to death, julie snodgrass cried out, in english, i hate you, joe. i hate you, joe. >> the circumstances even more vile than if he had taken a knife himself and killed her. you know, the manipulation that took place, the planning that took place. >> apparently, lucy believed that joe would marry her and take her to the united states when his tour of duty was over. they would have lived comfortably on the $400,000 from julie's life insurance. sergeant joe snodgrass was sentenced to life in a military

prison without parole. lucy was convicted by a philippine court and sentenced to only one year in prison. her two uncles served similar sentences. the third man involved in the murder has never been found. >> this was the first case where digital evidence and the term forensics were put in the same sentence. computer crime investigation was not a forensics discipline until we put these diskettes back together. >> our cyber guys broke ground. they blazed a new path, a new trail in the field of forensics. they really did. >> this case not only made forensic history, it changed security protocols around the world. no longer was cutting a disk in two enough. >> the implications of our technique was that for $131, you

know, and not a whole lot of brain cells, we can retrieve that data. anybody can do this. and now everybody has to change their protocol and how to safeguard classified information. it looked like a routine traffic accident, until a patrolman with no forensic training suspected something worse. but he couldn't prove it, until a bent steering wheel, a security camera and a physics calculation showed what really led to a young woman's death. ♪ highway patrolman tony snyder was heading home after finishing his night shift when he got a call about a traffic accident on route 95, just outside of princeton, minnesota. >>