dr. nyce went to cover up this crime. in my opinion, without the forensic evidence, would not have been possible to even charge dr. nyce with the case, with the murder of his wife. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com it took a russian immigrant just seven years to rise from a janitor to one of the most successful stockbrokers in the united states. then, he disappeared. a dog hair, a piece of plastic, and a speck of orange paint were all that remained in a crime motivated by jealousy and greed. ♪ in the 1970s and '80s, people living in the former soviet union faced a life of hardship and despair. some, like 23-year-old michael prozumenshikov, wanted more.

>> he was leading a life of deprivation, of long lines for food, you know, of crowded buses. michael actually grew up in an apartment with seven other families living in the same unit. >> with little to lose, michael and his family emigrated to the united states. at first, michael took a job as a janitor. he worked hard, perfected his english and waited for the right opportunity. >> he grasped at the american dream in all of its incarnations. he wanted to have material wealth. he wanted to have recognition for being successful at a career. this was a guy who was really driven, who had goals and who really set out to try to accomplish them. >> eventually, michael earned a license as a stockbroker, passed a test for securities dealers and got an entry-level position in a minneapolis firm. when he started out, he asked his fellow russian immigrants for business and they responded generously. within seven years, michael was

earning well over $1 million annually and he liked to make sure everyone knew it. >> to tell you the truth, a lot of people didn't like him, because he was making such approach like, i am, you know, big shot, whatever, and i drive mercedes. big deal. i drive a mercedes, too, but who cares? >> on january 28, 1991, michael told his wife he'd be working late, but he never came home. >> i said, michael didn't come home last night. my wife turned to me right away and she said, "i bet he's dead." >> police found michael's car in the parking lot of lake minnetonka, just a few blocks from his office. >> a police officer actually saw the mercedes parked there around midnight that evening also, which is unusual. it's an isolated beach, very cold january evening. and here's this mercedes sitting there at the beach.

>> michael's briefcase was on the front seat. there was no blood in the car or any sign of violence. investigators found what appeared to be blood on the frozen surface of the lake a few hundred yards away. but tests on the stain were inconclusive. two days passed. then, a workman at a city compost pile saw a flock of crows hovering around some discarded christmas trees. >> and i looked in there and it was quite obvious it was a section of a human leg, all the way up to the hip, and i just thought, well, this must have been a pretty big guy. >> investigators also found a human torso. >> the head and the hands were missing, so it looked like someone was trying to get rid of anything that could be identified as far as identifying the body. >> but they did find the end of a fingertip. when police ran the fingerprint,

they discovered it matched the fingerprint of michael prozumenshikov's brokerage license. law enforcement theorized that michael may have been targeted because he was a russian immigrant. so they urged caution. >> then the fbi called me and said, please do not come to the funeral. and i said, well, why? well, the word is that you're a friend of his. whoever did this could shoot you at the funeral. so, don't come to the funeral. and i thought, wow. >> investigators took this unusual step because they had no idea why michael was murdered. but they did know he had plenty of enemies. this allergy season,

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in the search for michael prozumenshikov's killer, investigators didn't have to look far for suspects. although michael made a lot of money for himself as a stockbroker, not all of his clients liked the way he did it. zena shirl says she gave michael $20,000, but told him to invest only in stocks that she chose.

>> i came to him and i said, this is the deal, you do not touch it. this is whatever you do what i tell you to do. he said, yes. >> almost immediately, zina realized michael was buying and selling stocks in her account without her permission. >> i had a bill from the company that i owe them almost like $8,000 or $10,000 for commission buying and selling. so, i went to his company, and i said, mike, look, this is wrong. >> in the brokerage business, that's called churning the account, buying and selling stocks in a customer's portfolio for the sole purpose of generating commissions. other clients alleged that michael promised returns of 18% a year in order to get their business, a practice that's illegal in many states. >> michael, he crossed a lot of bridges. he -- i mean, a lot of illegal things was done.

>> investigators also learned that michael didn't always pick good stocks. for example, he bought shares in texas air for many of his clients at $48 per share. in a matter of weeks, it fell to $15. >> i would say most of the people we had talked to that had lost money were really not that upset that michael had disappeared or that he had been murdered. we even had several people that said they wished they could have done it. >> on the night michael was reported missing, his wife said he called her around 8:30. he said he was with a client and was working late. she also said michael asked her for his supervisor's home telephone number. >> in phone calls to his wife that night, he spoke russian, which she considered unusual. michael did not like to speak

russian in front of american clients. he considered it rude. >> he would only speak russian in front of some other russian. she just assumed that whoever he was with was some other russian. >> later, michael called his boss at home with an unusual request. >> he was asking for money, $200,000, that he said he needed to raise for a client that night. this, of course, put everyone on their guard, because to get a call from a broker at night seeking $200,000 is highly unusual. >> michael said his client was leaving town early the next day and needed the money immediately. naturally, michael's boss said no. >> he just said, it's not that we're unwilling to come up with the $200,000, but we certainly aren't going to be able to come up with it tonight. >> and michael's boss said that he made a strange reference to a boat. >> what he said was, didn't you

tell me that your father gave you $200,000 to buy a boat, to help you buy a boat? well, his supervisor hadn't told him anything like that. and his supervisor later concluded, and later told the police, that he suspected that michael was trying to send an alarm of some kind by reminding him of a conversation that had never happened. >> the medical examiner believes that michael was killed later that night. >> it's difficult to be precise, but because he wasn't completely frozen, i didn't think he had been out there longer. >> police found michael's torso, his legs and a piece of his finger. on the tarp with the torso, investigators found a single black hair. >> it was very fine and had kind of a crimped appearance to it. it's not indicative of a human hair. >> microscopic examination revealed it was a dog hair.

the medulla, or central core of animal hairs, can help identify the breed. in this case, analysts determined the hair was from a bernese mountain dog, tricolored and usually very large. the only other evidence at the scene was on the gate that led to the garbage dump. it looked as if a car had hit it to force it open. >> there was some brownish paint transfers on the gate at the compost site from the gate being pushed open by a car. >> and there was a small, plastic fragment that looked like a piece of the car's bumper. a witness told police that he saw michael's black mercedes benz in the lake parking lot next to a small brown vehicle similar in color to the piece of bumper found at the compost site. >> he also stated that the car possibly could have been a mazda 626.

it looked consistent with a mazda 626. >> this narrowed the list of suspects considerably. they were looking for someone driving a brown mazda who had a bernese mountain dog and was one of michael's clients.

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while investigating the murder of stock broker michael prozumenshikov, investigators learned he had many disgruntled customers. he also had been soliciting investors to build a resort in reno, nevada, to be managed by a company called omni financial. >> quite a bit of money that investors put into this scheme. and it ended up that actually the address for omni financial was in the middle of a desert. it was an old, deserted, shabby motel, vacant. >> the investment was a scam, and this created even more unhappy customers. >> authorities believe that money was probably the motive for michael prozumenshikov's murder. >> news of michael prozumenshikov's murder generated a number of potential leads, including one from employees of a local car wash. they said they had an odd encounter with a customer the morning after michael's body was

found. >> a customer requested we get some hunting blood out of his trunk, which got us thinking a little bit. >> they said it was a brown mazda, and they gave police the license number, pnn-393. the car was registered to zachary persitz, a 39-year-old russian emigre who worked as a dam inspector for the state of minnesota. he was a friend of michael's. >> when he first met michael, he was more established than michael was. and then michael got into the brokerage business and michael's earnings eclipsed those of zachary. they met in this country. they didn't know each other in the old country. their wives were friends. >> persitz was married, had two children, and was well known and respected within the russian immigrant community. >> this guy was the greatest guy in the world. he wouldn't hurt a flea. if you'd interview them, they'd say he was a great neighbor, kept to himself, never bothered

anybody. >> but persitz and michael were more than just friends. michael was persitz's financial adviser. their relationship was rocky at best. investigators discovered persitz gave michael $150,000 to invest but there were more losses than profits. at some point, persitz discovered his stock portfolio was worth less than $30,000. >> for the most part, they weren't investments that were suitable for a guy that invested every nickel he had with michael. >> when questioned by police, persitz denied any involvement in michael's murder and he willingly took a lie detector test arranged by his lawyer. >> i called a polygrapher and had zachary tell them that he hadn't done it and he passed. >> and forensic testing could not determine the origin of the blood in persitz's trunk.

at the time, dna testing wasn't as sophisticated as it is today. >> back then, the dna testing procedures that we used required dna to be what's called high molecular weight. we needed dna that hadn't gone through any degradation processes at all. >> but investigators did find some suspicious damage to persitz's car. the car had damage to the front right end. the paint was scraped and the bumper was broken. the scratches on the bumper had what appeared to be tiny specs of orange paint, which were removed with a small probe. >> we're talking microscopic-sized chips of paint. >> the paint sample was compared to the paint from the broken gate using a process called a solubility analysis. >> it's a series or reagents or solvents that may cause it to dissolve or swell, do something,

color change. and if they are similar, that means the paints could have had a common source. >> the test showed that the paint on persitz's bumper could have come from the gate, but the sample was too small to be conclusive. but the piece of broken bumper found near the gate was of more value. the forensic analysis revealed it could only have come from one source. >> it was just a perfect match. they were unevenly cracked, so the odds of coming from some other source were so amazing that they just had said this had to have come from zachary's car. >> and investigators learned that persitz owned a dog with long black hair, which proved to be microscopically similar to the single dog hair found with michael's body. finally, investigators sprayed

the inside of persitz's car with luminol. it revealed evidence of a gunshot. >> it looked like stars. there were hundreds of spots on the roof of the headliner of the car, which would have been consistent with the high-velocity mist if someone gets shot in the head. >> this indicated that michael was sitting in the driver's seat of persitz's car when he was killed. [ gunshot ] investigators found a receipt in persitz's office for a pair of handcuffs that could have been used in the abduction. zachary persitz was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. even his lawyer acknowledged the strength of the prosecution's case. >> trying this case was like being a human punching bag. you're not at all concerned? about what now? oh, i don't know. the apocalypse? we're fine. i bundled renter's with my car insurance through progressive for just six bucks more a month.

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prosecutors believed that zachary persitz was enraged by the way his friend, michael prozumenshikov, handled his money. he watched his $150,000 dwindle to less than $30,000. >> he came upon hard times. he was not going to be able to pay the tuition for private school. he was not going to be able to make his mortgage payments.

and that's where the dynamics of zachary persitz began to change. he was unable to stand the pressure of seeing all of his dreams vanish. >> at the same time, zachary persitz saw that michael was living quite well on the commissions generated from all of the stock transactions. >> zachary's wife oftentimes would compare their lifestyle to michael's lifestyle, saying things like, michael has a big house. why don't we have a big house? michael has a mercedes. why don't we have a mercedes? and on and on. >> prosecutors believed persitz wanted revenge. the evidence suggests persitz set up a meeting with michael after work. they met in the parking lot at lake minnetonka. once there, persitz threatened michael with a gun and demanded his money back with interest.

so, michael called his boss at home, asking him for $200,000, but his boss refused. persitz handcuffed michael to the steering wheel of his car and ordered michael to drive to a deserted location. and then killed him. [ gunshot ] persitz put michael's body in the trunk and drove to the compost site about 60 miles away. persitz broke through the gate with the car's bumper, leaving a small piece behind. after dismembering michael's body, persitz wrapped the torso in a tarp. unbeknownst to him, a single black hair from his pet dog was

on the tarp. the rest of michael's body and the gun have never been recovered. >> he thought he could pull off this homicide and not get caught, 'cause he had it all planned out, and he didn't realize how tough it is to hide trace evidence, forensic evidence. it's always going to be there. >> zachary persitz pled not guilty by reason of insanity. the jury, however, rejected that, and found him guilty of first-degree murder. he was sentenced to life in prison. for michael prozumenshikov, the american dream had turned into a tragedy, but the trail of evidence left no doubt who was responsible. >> the forensic evidence was the case. the investigators did an overwhelming and professional job.

>> the old expression is if you think you know how to commit the perfect crime, there are 50 ways to [ bleep ] it up, and you're a genius if you can figure out 25 of them. an ex-convict was suspected of a brutal double homicide because his driver's license was found at the scene. in the past, this might have been enough for a conviction. but a dish of ice cream pointed investigators in a different direction. ♪ on the day before thanksgiving in 2003, a st. petersburg, florida, shop owner noticed a jeep near his store. >> it had blood and had all kinds of things inside of it. it had a purse inside of it. the seatbelt was hanging out. and just a lot of things you