be their cruelty and the things they chose to do to him. i'd rather remember the loving times we had together. and they're not going to take that away from me. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music] hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." evidence doesn't lie. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline."ox: d it actually tells a story. craig melvin (voiceover): you're there at the crime scene. anna cox: you can almost recreate the crime. craig melvin (voiceover): right there on the wall, a mystery scrawled in blood-- three cryptic letters.

what would you make of this? is that a word? is that a person? the clues pointed so many different directions that it was a total mystery. craig melvin (voiceover): the case, the murder of a former model and flight attendant. roc herpich: when she got dolled up, oh my god-- gorgeous. craig melvin (voiceover): did she write these letters? was this a hint to who killed her? dennis murphy: you've got this message saying this is my killer. just like you would see in a movie. craig melvin (voiceover): and the ending, that was just like a movie, too. i can't believe what people do to each other. [theme music] hello, and welcome to "dateline." roc, in this case those three letters would tell a story all their own. when karen pannell was found murdered in her south florida home, the letters scrawled in blood above her body seem like a beacon that could lead detective to her killer.

but what exactly did they mean? and what other crucial clues were hiding in plain sight? it would take a dogged forensic specialist with a keen eye to unravel the mystery. here's dennis murphy with "written in blood." dennis murphy (voiceover): if year-round sun and water is your thing, florida's west coast should be high on your check-out list of places to live. it was for pretty karen pannell. once the one-time model and flight attendant got sand in her shoes, she never looked back. catherine mallet: she loved the beach-- diving, boating, wildlife. dennis murphy (voiceover): good friend catherine mallet worked the counter at american airlines in tampa with karen. if you were a frazzled passenger-- and who isn't these days? karen was the antidote, exactly the right agent to bump into to get you on your way. catherine mallet: karen was very pretty. she was smart, smiled all the time, funny.

dennis murphy (voiceover): but when they always capable and reliable karen didn't show up for her saturday morning shift on october 11, 2003, clearly something was wrong. her boyfriend, tim permenter, had tried calling her at home. when she wasn't at work or answering her calls, i began to get worried. but it was a couple of hours before i really got panicky about it. dennis murphy (voiceover): the boyfriend drove over to karen's condo in the quiet town of oldsmar. the front door was unlocked, a bad sign. he said he stepped inside and looked to the right to the kitchen. timothy permenter: i saw her body. and i knew immediately. there was no doubt in my mind she was dead. i picked up the phone, and i called 911. dennis murphy (voiceover): karen pannell, sprawled on her back, bloody, a murder victim in her own home. michael holbrook, then a pinellas county homicide detective, would lead the investigation.

michael holbrook: when the first deputies arrive on scene, tim permenter is in the front yard. he's hysterical. he actually threw up in the front yard that he was so upset over finding his girlfriend. dennis murphy (voiceover): deputies gave tim, the shaken boyfriend, a chance to collect himself in the back seat of an air conditioned patrol car. that's where he placed a call to karen's friend catherine with the unimaginable news. he says, catherine, it's tim. i'm at karen's apartment. she's laying on the floor. there's blood everywhere, and she's been stabbed. stabbed? stabbed. it's a horrible way-- it's really a horrible way to die. dennis murphy (voiceover): karen, the baby of the family with five older brothers, suddenly gone. she'd been especially close to her oldest brother mike. mike pannell: my brother called me-- i was at the airport-- and said, you better sit down. and he said, karen's been murdered.

any theories about what had happened? mike pannell: i don't know. i was trying to figure out the why and relying on the police to do what they needed to do. dennis murphy (voiceover): and what they had to do was plenty. they processed the crime scene, filmed every inch of karen's home, knocked on doors, tried to figure out just who their victim was. detectives holbrook and larry nalven began with the man who had made that 911 call. michael holbrook: the first thing, as a lead investigator, we'll do is talk to the people closest to her. in this case, we had timothy permenter finding his girlfriend. we took mr. permenter back to the office and talked to him extensively. dennis murphy (voiceover): tim, a car salesman, gave the detectives a rundown of where he'd been in the hours leading up to the terrible discovery. he said he'd popped in briefly on karen the night before to drop off a gift, a photo calendar of kittens that he knew was cat-lover girlfriend

would find irresistible. tim said he left around 7:30, and that was the last time he saw karen alive. dennis murphy: wouldn't it have been your routine to spend the night? not on friday night, no-- because she had to work the next day. she had to go into work early. dennis murphy (voiceover): after saying goodbye to karen, he said he ended up spending the night with friends about an hour to the north. dennis murphy: is he saying anything at this point to the detective like he can't do it? or i know boyfriends are often figures of suspicion. i want to talk to a lawyer. is any of that stuff coming out of him? no. he's being more than cooperative. dennis murphy (voiceover): while tim says he was off with his friend, there appeared to have been a frenzied struggle at karen's house. forensic specialist anna cox assessed the bloody aftermath. she put up a heck of a struggle. and what are you looking at? she had defensive wounds, the way her body was contorted, and i just remember thinking she put up a heck of a struggle. she really fought for her life. do you suck at your breath and say, oh my goodness? or have you seen everything at this point? oh, i can't believe what people do to each other.

and it was terrible. it's terrible. dennis murphy (voiceover): around back, cox, the crime scene tech, found the security bolt on a sliding glass door had been dislodged, and there were other signs of tampering. anna cox: there was a cable box that was open. so then you start to think to yourself, was somebody trying to cut the wires? there was a knocked over birdbath. so there was evidence outside that, at first, you need to just think to yourself, i think that this might be a burglary. dennis murphy (voiceover): and karen's overturned purse on the stovetop supported the break-in theory. anna cox took an inventory of everything at the crime scene-- a pizza box, a garden glove, a grocery receipt, all routine findings so far. but it's what authorities spotted next on the wall just above the body that would turn this case into something out of the movies-- a three letter message in blood. and you didn't have to squint to make it out, either-- roc.

on the victim, karen's right-hand index finger was clearly stained with blood. roc-- what was the murdered woman trying to tell the cops? all these theories were running through my mind. what does that mean? is that a word? is that a person? is that a thing? the clues pointed so many different directions that it was a total mystery. dennis murphy (voiceover): there is a concept in the law known as a dying declaration. would those three letters scrawled in karen's own blood lead to the apprehension of her killer? craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, investigators dig into that three letter mystery. who or what was roc? when "dateline" continues. alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. say hello to your fairy godmother alice, and long-lasting gain scent beads.

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dennis murphy (voiceover): the camera helps deliver the ultimate clean. always liked karen pannell. she was both hard to miss and hard to forget, just ask her boyfriend, tim permenter, who was smitten right away when he met her at the vw dealership where he worked. dennis murphy: what'd you think of her? oh, she was gorgeous. she was beautiful. you were pinching yourself. you thought you were the luckiest guy around. timothy permenter: i thought she was the one. i thought she was a person that i could settle down with. dennis murphy (voiceover): settling down hadn't been part of karen's growing up. she and her five brothers had been raised as military brats and moved bases a lot. now that family was gathering from far flung parts

of the country for her funeral, shocked and in mourning for the lost sister who'd long been their glue. all the boys kind of got involved in our own stuff. but then there was karen. she was really what connected all of us to the family unit. what does that tell us about her? she was a lot more important to us than we knew. i think she was always more interested in family as a whole than she was in herself. dennis murphy (voiceover): brother mike wasn't alone in thinking his kid sister could have been a sky's-the-limit person. mike pannell: she could have been anything she wanted-- a scientist, or a doctor, or whatever. well, her friends loved her. yeah, she was hard not to love. dennis murphy (voiceover): even harder to forget what a cruel fate she'd suffered at the hands of a killer unknown. mike pannell: during the viewing, there were visible stab wounds on her hand. so we kind of pulled the flowers down a little further.

dennis murphy (voiceover): a few days after the murder, her many friends at the airport said their goodbyes. catherine mallet: there's a chapel in the main terminal in tampa at the airport. there was so many people there from all different airlines, the security people. it was incredible. dennis murphy (voiceover): meanwhile, the pinellas county sheriff's department investigation was moving quickly on several fronts. first, they validated boyfriend tim's story. he said after visiting karen early that evening, he spent the night with a friend named george solomon in moon lake about an hour to the north. michael holbrook: that he did, in fact, go up to where george solomon was staying with his girlfriend in pasco county. and this was confirmed through interviews with george as well as george's girlfriend. george gave us a timeline that was consistent with what permenter gave us. dennis murphy (voiceover): tim's story about the night of the murder checked out. he even voluntarily came clean on something right from the start.

he had a record. he'd done time. dennis murphy: now, early on in your life, tim, you get involved in trouble. what was going on with you? i was running an escort service and got stupid. started it up small, basically, running an ad out of a newspaper, getting a small office. and it just expanded from there. it ballooned. what kind of money were you pulling down per week? i was grossing about $6,000 to $7,000 a day. - a day? - yes, sir. - and you're how old? - at that time? 20. and that's the trap. why am i even going to school when i'm making this kind of money? why go straight, huh? yes, sir. and it ended up in a gunfight. yes, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): tim says he was worried he'd be painted as a bad guy right away because of his sordid past, so he promised to cooperate in every way possible. the cops took him up on it. timothy permenter: i allowed them to photograph me, removed all my clothing. i allowed them to go to my home, take anything that they wanted.

and there was nothing about his clothing, his car, his person that led us to believe that he was involved in any other way than he said he was. that he came over to see her, and found her, and was devastated. dennis murphy: tim permenter's alibi had checked out, and police also dismissed any clues pointing to a home invasion. after all, karen had been stabbed 16 times and attacked so ferocious it could only be a crime of passion. now the detectives were desperate to figure out what their biggest clue of all meant-- those three letters written in blood, roc. so this is a pretty creepy scene. i mean, you've got this scrawled in blood message saying this is my killer. i'm now dead, but you find this guy. that's what it's suggesting, isn't it? absolutely that's what it's suggesting. i mean, just like you would see in a movie. dennis murphy (voiceover): detectives soon discovered how those letters on the wall, roc, were in fact connected to the victim lying beneath them. roc, it turned out, was a person,

the name of a man who had spelled trouble for karen in the past. roc was an ex-boyfriend who karen pannell had problems with previously. dennis murphy (voiceover): and whoever and wherever this roc was, he'd just become the prime target of the investigation into her murder. anna cox: ok, well, there it is. that's what she meant to write was roc, and then they have to follow that lead. and off they go. to find roc? to find roc. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, mission accomplished. find it? they do. but what would they find next? roc herpich: i'm looking at murder. somebody's talking to me about being murdered. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [coughing] copd is an ugly reality. do you have his medical history? i watch as his world just keeps getting smaller. but then, trelegy helped us see things a little differently. with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps airways open for a full 24 hours

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i have one, too. i'd be so lost without mine. we are talking about mentors, right? yes. a mentor can guide you. support you. and unlock your potential. being a mentor can be just as life-changing. you can create opportunities. and inspire the next generation. helping someone find their path can transform your own.

so find a mentor. or become one. wait, can i do both? you know what? let me ask my mentor. of course, you can. bring someone along on your journey. and see where it takes you. dennis murphy (voiceover): a stomach-churning crime scene with an, at first glance, cryptic message written in blood-- roc. but it wasn't a big mystery for long. roc was the unusual, but proper, spelling of karen pannell's ex-boyfriend, roc herpich. dennis murphy: so tell me about the former boyfriend known as roc-- roc, the letters scrawled in blood. who is he? roc was an ex-boyfriend. he'd had a little bit of legal problems, a little bit of a substance abuse problem. dennis murphy (voiceover): roc had a personality as big and as loud as the pipes on the harleys he loved to cruise. he worked at an auto body shop handling insurance claims. when he met karen, she was on a downward spiral.

after being married for five years, she'd recently gotten a divorce. and a doctor had just given her some awful news. she had multiple sclerosis, 38 years old. dennis murphy: to be a young, divorced woman with this awful diagnosis, what do you think that did to her? that's a lot to put on your shoulders. right. i think that really affected her self-esteem. frankly, i think it may have had an impact on the kind of men that she was attracted to. dennis murphy (voiceover): karen came to rely on roc to take her to doctor's appointments and give her injections. but when she took the step of asking him to move in, her friends and family thought she was asking for trouble. dennis murphy: is your worry, is this the way ahead for my sister? i think that-- to be on the back of this guy's bike. yeah, i think that's true. and is it my place to say, well, you need to go find somebody that is going to offer you a better future? you can't dictate terms to your kid sister, huh? no.

you can only fix yourself. dennis murphy (voiceover): and as it turned out, roc wasn't a fix for karen, either. their relationship soon took an ugly turn. they seemed to get along for a while, and she was happy. and he turned into not a very nice guy. he was a little creepy. was he tough on her? there was some unexplained bruises. and i used to tell her, what are you doing? he did not deserve her. but she wouldn't listen. dennis murphy (voiceover): the fights got worse, and police were called three separate times to intervene. one time, roc allegedly broke down the front door. it was the last straw. karen filed a domestic battery complaint, and roc moved out. tim permenter says that, even a year later, roc was still harassing karen about a roll-top desk he'd left behind. she was starting to get scared of him towards the end. this issue he had was, i got a valuable piece of furniture. i want it back. right. but karen said that was a ruse. he's trying to worm his way back in. is that the way she saw it?

that's the way she portrayed it to me. dennis murphy (voiceover): detectives holbrook and nalven knew they had to confront this roc, so they tracked him down and paid a surprise visit. he wasn't happy to see them. roc herpich: i'm in the garage at my home in north fork, florida. black unmarked shows up. then i'm like, well, everybody knows what that is. i'm thinking, now what the heck's that? dennis murphy (voiceover): detective holbrook identified himself and said they needed to talk to roc about his friend, karen. roc herpich: we sit down on the porch, and he goes, well, she's dead. of course, this just doesn't even register. so i just said, you just need to tell me what's going on. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the detective wanted roc to do the talking. he asked about his troubled relationship with karen. roc indicated that he was using drugs, and that karen liked to drink. and that they fought often. dennis murphy (voiceover): but roc said he savored the good times with karen, too. roc herpich: when she got dolled up, oh my god, gorgeous--

i mean, picture perfect, wasn't anything out of place. were there some sparks there, roc? could you feel something going on? yeah, there was. she was all that. she was just all by herself, and she was just ready to go. she looked hungry for attention, and she was alone. and it was perfect. it was a perfect setup. what do you think she saw in you? what was working from her side? probably the bad boy kind of thing. i wasn't your conventional, straight-laced kind of guy. dennis murphy (voiceover): roc was open with the detectives, even came across as a good guy, but conceded there had been screaming matches with karen and a few rip-roaring fights, but said she was the instigator. she'd get violent. she'd get physically violent. just stuff, things would happen. but nobody ever got arrested. but they'd come out, and they would address the issue. dennis murphy: as roc tells it, she gave as good as she got. mm-hm. that he dodged a few pieces of thrown crockery. mike pannell: mm-hm. she was ready to stand up for herself at the drop of a hat.

she was a tough girl. dennis murphy (voiceover): roc remembers karen playing hardball about that roll-top desk of his, too, not liking her attitude. i did call her on several occasions about my roll-top desk. well, the desk. that stupid desk, and it was bugging me. i mean, it was a nice piece of furniture, and i really wanted to get it back. and she pretty much said, you left. you're not getting it. dennis murphy (voiceover): he never did get it. that roll-top was still in karen's condo in oldsmar on the night she was stabbed to death. now detective holbrook pointedly wanted to know if roc had been there, too. he says, where were you on such and such a day? and i'm like, well, first of all, i'll have to look at the calendar because i don't know where i was that day. but i guarantee you i wasn't in oldsmar. so we go from there to discussing where i was, who

i'd been with, where i live. so you're getting a serious grilling. right. he ends up telling me that we found your name in blood on the wall. roc. yeah. so obviously, i'm a suspect, and i acknowledge that. i mean, i'm looking at murder. i'm getting-- somebody's talking to me about a murder. dennis murphy (voiceover): roc waived his right to a lawyer and agreed to give fingerprints and swabbings. it looked as though police had strangely found yet another cooperative boyfriend of their victim. roc herpich: and i said, if you're looking for fingerprints, they're all over that home because i lived there for a year. so you're going to find them. did you lose your patience with them? nope. say, that's it for today, fellas. i did lose my patience when they cut the end of my finger off taking a fingernail. you take the end of my finger off, now we're done. now i'm done. dennis murphy (voiceover): roc's cooperation had an edge to it. was he really trying to cover his tracks? detectives were determined to find out.

and they put that bloody clue under the microscope. were those three little letters really what they seem? craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, the csi of roc. anna cox: i remember thinking, wow, i wonder if that's what wrote these letters. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. my name is brayden. i was five years old when i came to st. jude. i'll try and shorten down the story. so i've been having these headaches that wouldn't go away. my mom, she was just crying. what they said, your son has brain cancer. it was your worst fear coming to life. watching your child grow up is the dream of every parent. you can join the battle to save the lives of kids like brayden, by supporting st. jude children's research hospital .

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florida investigators were taking a close look at her ex-boyfriend, roc herpich, whose name was found scrawled in blood at the crime scene. roc admitted to having a stormy relationship with karen but insisted he didn't kill her. was there more to the bloody clue than met the eye? forensic specialist anna cox was trying to unlock what her naked eyes could not see. and when she did, her discovery would send the investigation in a completely new direction. here again is dennis murphy with "written in blood." dennis murphy (voiceover): the handwriting was on the wall, and forensic specialist anna cox was intent on breaking down the key piece of evidence implicating karen pannell's ex-boyfriend roc herpich-- those three letters in blood, roc. dennis murphy: you would spend hours looking at these letters. i did. we ended up removing-- dennis murphy: you actually cut the sheetrock out of the place and took it into your lab.

yes. i have to look at those letters, at everything about them. dennis murphy (voiceover): using a high-powered microscope, anna did an analysis of the specks of blood that stained the wall as karen was stabbed 16 times. that flung spatter served as a gruesome canvas for the letters roc then written over it. when the letters roc were written on top of it, it just skimmed right over it and didn't disrupt it at all. dennis murphy (voiceover): here was her central observation. since the specks of blood weren't smeared, that meant roc must have been written after they dried. but how long after? anna cox: i have a special machine that i use to make some spatter. dennis murphy (voiceover): in her lab, she used animal blood to test how long it took for spatter to dry on a similar surface. so once i came back and was able to apply spatter to some sections of some cardboard, then i was able to get some blood and to start writing the word roc. i must have written this word a million times over different areas of spatter. dennis murphy (voiceover): in the lab,

it took at least 20 minutes of drying time before the forensic specialist could write without smearing the spatter. she concluded there must have been about that much time between the attack on karen and the word roc being written on the wall. next, she looked for fingerprints in the letters themselves. sounds impossible, right? if she's writing and applying pressure to the wall, you would think that there would be some type of transfer of ridge detail. dennis murphy (voiceover): ridge detail, we all have it-- unique, tell-tale patterns on every human finger and hand. but anna wasn't finding that here. rather, she detected an unusual hint of a pattern, something almost like polka dots. and i thought back to myself, the garden glove on the counter that was missing its match, missing its pair. dennis murphy (voiceover): a garden glove was found in karen's kitchen, just one glove. the mate was never located. it had a distinctive dot pattern.

on the interior side where the palm and the fingers were, it's like that rubber. and it's got those little-- nubbly surface? --nubbly things that stick up for gripping purposes. so when you're gardening, it doesn't slip. and i remember thinking, wow, i wonder if that's what wrote these letters. dennis murphy (voiceover): cox bought similar gloves at a hardware store. and after several more days of testing was satisfied that her hunch was correct. anna cox had come up with two important findings. the message in blood has likely been written with a gloved hand, and it had been scrawled at least 20 minutes after the onset of the attack on karen. she reported her results to the detectives who, by then, had learned another pertinent fact about their victim. karen was exclusively left-handed, and karen's left hand did not have blood smeared on it. dennis murphy (voiceover): not only that, when the autopsy report came in, it suggested karen couldn't have written anything with either hand.

dennis murphy: from what the medical examiner was seeing on his table, was this a victim who was going to be able to dip in her own blood and write roc on the wall? no, absolutely not. over 90% of her spinal cord had been damaged by the knife wounds. dennis murphy: she was incapacitated. incapacitated. it wasn't her. she didn't write that. dennis murphy (voiceover): the evidence was overwhelming. karen pannell did not write the letters roc in blood. it was a huge turning point in the case and the best news possible for the ex-boyfriend, roc herpich. they confirmed 100% that she could not have done that. she couldn't have done it. she would have been physically incapable of doing that. and it surely wasn't me. i mean, why would you write your own name on the wall? dennis murphy (voiceover): police agreed. implicating yourself in a murder just made no sense. roc got more good news after police checked out his alibi that he was home on the night of the murder. i got his cell phone records, and the cell

towers he's hitting off around the same time that we know karen was killed, he's in north port, florida. and that's a good hour, hour and a half away. and you went over all these alleged beefs that he might have had with her. absolutely. they were boyfriend-girlfriend. yep. and he had moved on. dennis murphy (voiceover): detectives nalven and holbrook were ready to move on, too. they officially cleared roc. it was a major development. karen's ex said suddenly gone from being a prime person of interest to a victim himself, victim of the real killer who tried to frame him for the crime and was still out there somewhere. dennis murphy: who ever killed her did know that somebody named roc-- somebody knows my name. dennis murphy: --is part of the story here. that's right. but if you think about this, it's not even a smart thing to do. dennis murphy (voiceover): roc was right. the pool of suspects had suddenly narrowed to a small handful of karen's intimates who knew about him and also knew the unusual way he spelled his name, roc.

detectives holbrook and nalven were about to take a hard look at all of them. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. you could walk right by and think it has no importance at all. it ended up being crucial in this case. craig melvin (voiceover): could a box of pizza help solve this puzzle? when "dateline" continues. can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you? support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember, remember neuriva. ...we're done! [crowd laughs] worried about leaking when you wanna be laughing? it's time to upgrade. only always discreet has a unique drytech layer to keep you drier than depend. so you can laugh harder, and stay drier. we've got you, always. always discreet.

dennis murphy (voiceover): police we've got you, always. had reached a startling conclusion, karen pannell did not write the name roc on the wall,

her killer had. but those three letters were still a gift to police because investigators figured he had to know both karen and roc. detectives started questioning the other men in karen's life. michael holbrook: karen had nicknames for her boyfriends-- car guy, that was tim permenter, another one that she referred to as dr. pilot. dennis murphy (voiceover): dr. pilot, a british airways captain, had recently been sending karen romantic texts, but he was aboard a flight over the middle east when karen was killed. so he was ruled out, as were most of karen's known male friends. all could prove they were nowhere near her house in oldsmar that night-- every boyfriend except car guy, tim permenter, the one who reported finding karen's body. dennis murphy (voiceover): tim was inconsolable during that 911 call and later would tell detectives he'd lost the love of his life, the woman he

was hoping to marry. but the people who knew karen best started telling police a very different story. i'm not sure why she stayed in that relationship or she even began a relationship like that. dennis murphy (voiceover): the relationship began with tim trying to sell karen a new car. but police learned he also sold her a bill of goods about himself, saying he'd been a navy seal involved in top secret missions, never mentioning the sordid truth about his criminal past. karen told me that he explained his scars as he got injured on a mission. super commando stuff, huh? well, i think that would have been his impression of himself. dennis murphy: so why you lying to her? you're giving her a crock? there's really no excuse for it, i mean, other than-- if you're an inmate or you're a convicted felon, no matter how good you do, no matter what you do, there's always going to be that specter hanging over you. dennis murphy (voiceover): it was several months into the relationship before tim finally revealed his ugly secret.

he was a felon who had spent more than a decade behind bars, not a navy seal, but a violent, one-time pimp, the self-described escort king. i said, been waiting for the right time to tell you this, and she was flabbergasted. i think that she-- she became frightened of me. so why didn't you just shake hands and call it quits? because i loved her. dennis murphy (voiceover): karen's friends and brothers say she told them she was afraid. and when she tried to pull away from tim, brother mike says those fears were quickly borne out. dennis murphy: did you ever hear evidence that she was no tim, brother mike says those fears were quickly borne out. dennis murphy: did you ever hear evidence that she was not being treated well? yes. and she called me and said that tim had choked her,

and i felt like, after that conversation, that i had convinced her to file a police report. dennis murphy (voiceover): but no report was filed. still, karen's coworkers could tell something was terribly wrong. she had bruising on her neck. and in fact, one of her friends at work remembered her missing a day or two. and then when she did come in, she wore a turtleneck. you know, with the summer months here in florida, you don't wear a turtleneck neck then. dennis murphy (voiceover): while detectives holbrook and nalven chased down every lead, the crime lab made another big discovery. unlike the melodramatic and bogus message in blood, this evidence was something forensic tech anna cox almost passed right over-- a pizza box on karen's kitchen counter. you could walk right by and think it has no importance at all. it ended up being crucial in this case. dennis murphy (voiceover): cox was able to lift a clean fingerprint from the box. it was tim permenter's, and it blew a hole in his minute by minute account of the night karen was killed. anna cox: he had initially stated that he wasn't there

when the pizza was delivered. he told the officers in the initial interview, i was out of there at 7:30. well, his fingerprints were on that box. and you had a receipt saying it was delivered at 8:48. yes. so he has now put himself right there at the scene and right there in the last crucial hours of her life. it's a poor set of facts. for him. dennis murphy (voiceover): and then tim's timeline, his alibi, took another hit. he'd first said he was home when he called his friend george just after 9:30. detective nalven found evidence proving otherwise. larry nalven: once we get the phone records back and the cell tower site locations back, we are putting him at her house. so the tower is catching him out on a lie? absolutely. his 911 phone call in the morning, it hits off the same tower that he was hitting off when he called george at 9:36 the night before, which is directly north of karen pannell's house. dennis murphy (voiceover): nalven and holbrook

could think of only one reason for tim to lie about those times. it was that karen's car guy was the killer. they brought him to headquarters again. this time, for an official and much more aggressive interrogation. and he gave the same timeline as he gave previously. we went through it again with him, and he held true to what he told us. and at that point, we started attacking his story. dennis murphy (voiceover): tim had a simple explanation for the timeline problems. he was confused. when the pizza arrived, i was still there. 8:48 delivered. and it was right after the pizza arrived. i would say i was there for maybe another 10, maybe 15 minutes. why do you tell cops 7:30? i'm horrible at times and days. and the problem was is that making a mistake

became a i'm-hiding-something. cops call your mistake a lie. of course. dennis murphy (voiceover): tim had been tripped up by his own statements. and detective holbrook says his suspect knew the charade was over. he put his face in his hands, and he literally covered his face for two or three minutes. tim ultimately looked up at us, and the car salesman guy that we knew as tim permenter had completely left the room. what did you see in his eyes? what did you see in his face? the first thing i thought was that satan just walked into the room. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. i knew i was innocent. craig melvin (voiceover): was he? juries really like to see forensics. right. dennis murphy: dna, the blood samples, and they didn't have it. that was the biggest concern for me.

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xfinity internet customers, ask how to get a free 5g phone and a second unlimited line free for a year. dennis murphy (voiceover): detectives were now convinced that tim permenter, the boyfriend who pledged to help solve karen pannell's murder, was really the killer. but tim says police had nothing on him and were only targeting him because of his criminal record.

dennis murphy (voiceover): detectives arrested tim and sent him to the county jail. bill loughery was the state prosecutor who got the case. dennis murphy: what about your accused, timothy permenter, who's he? i think timothy permenter is a psychopath, just someone who had, i think, gotten lucky to be with karen. now once you got past the superficial aspect of him and realized what he really was like, she wanted out of that relationship. and that, ultimately, led to her death. dennis murphy (voiceover): prosecutor loughery says permenter thought he could outsmart the cops by acting the bereaved boyfriend, playing it to the hilt at the crime scene. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the prosecutor says permenter got thrown off his tear-stained script when he called karen's best friend soon after making that 911 call. he says, catherine, it's tim. i'm at karen's apartment. she's laying on the floor. there's blood everywhere, and she's been stabbed. dennis murphy: stabbed?

- stabbed. - not, she's dead. i don't know what's happened. - not she's dead. she's been stabbed. and he tells her on the phone, according to catherine, that she's been stabbed. ok, well, she has been stabbed. we didn't know that at that point in time. so he knew something he shouldn't have known, something crucial. he knew something he shouldn't have known because he's the one who stabbed her. dennis murphy (voiceover): prosecutor loughery sized up his case-- a rejected lover with a violent history, a man the evidence showed was at the scene of the crime and had lied about it. he charged permenter with first-degree murder and decided to seek the death penalty. then, just then, just weeks before the trial was scheduled to start, tim's friend, george solomon, his sleep-over alibi witness recanted his story. he tells me this whole new story that permenter had admitted that he killed karen that night. blurted out a confession. when he got up there. so that's a holy-cow moment for you. it is. dennis murphy (voiceover): death penalty cases can sometimes take a torturous path in reaching a courtroom.

this one had taken four long years. and despite building a strong circumstantial case, prosecutors did not have a murder weapon or other physical evidence linking tim permenter to the stabbing. dudley clapp was tim's defense attorney. you have a complete lack of physical evidence-- no bloody fingerprints, no bloody footprints out the door. dennis murphy (voiceover): but prosecutor loughery was confident about the evidence he did have. frankly, i think circumstantial cases are sometimes the best because they don't lie. the circumstances don't lie. people lie. dennis murphy (voiceover): and that's the case loughery made to the jury. the circumstances showed tim permenter was the only one with the motive and the opportunity to kill karen. and everything he did afterwards was fabricated to cover up his horrendous crime. bill loughery: the issues in this case were the murder of karen by the only person that really could have done it. and that person lied about all these things.

and, you know, there's no reason for a person to lie about the death of their loved one if that's really true. dennis murphy (voiceover): defense attorney clapp countered with common sense, arguing that karen's killer must have been just drenched in blood after such a frenzied attack. and there was no forensic evidence to show that his client was that person. dudley clapp: in order to buy the state's case, you have to make assumption upon assumption, upon assumption. that's not what our system is about. how did i do it? how on earth did not one single drop of blood get on my clothing, anything like that? or in your car, which was ripped apart. right. and that's my reaction i agreed to let them look. get what you want because i knew i was innocent. dennis murphy (voiceover): the defense also tore into the credibility of the state's star witness, george solomon, saying it was ridiculous to think tim would

get an invitation to spend the night with him after blurting out a murder confession. hey, i killed somebody just now or whatever. oh, really? oh, ok, well, come on, let's go see my wife and kids. no way. dennis murphy (voiceover): a confident tim permenter decided to speak directly to the jury. he took the stand in his own defense. the attitude was, look, you've got to get up here and talk to these people. dennis murphy: how do you remember him on the stand? i think he was calm. i think he answered the questions as best he could, very simply, i think very completely. we felt that we had made a showing that the state had not met the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. dennis murphy (voiceover): mike pannell had waited four long years to get justice for his sister. but now, he wasn't sure what the jury would do. mike pannell: there were times that i felt the evidence was very circumstantial.

in this day and age, we know that juries really like to see forensics. right. the dna, the blood samples, and they didn't have it. that was the biggest concern for me. dennis murphy (voiceover): but it took the jury just four hours to find tim permenter guilty of first degree murder. he was spared the death penalty by the judge, who ordered him to serve a life sentence with no chance for parole. - how are you doing today? - i'm fine. dennis murphy (voiceover): i spoke to permenter at florida's liberty correctional institution. the convicted murderer says he's the victim of a justice system that was tilted against him from the start. did you murder karen? no. because this would be a great time to relieve her family of a lot of remorse and just fess to it. and i understand that, but i did not kill karen. i did not, and i'll probably spend the rest of my life here. and when i'm 80, if i'm still alive, i did not kill karen. i'll pay for it.

and i am paying for it, but i didn't do it. dennis murphy (voiceover): the detectives who cracked the case say they might have believed him if only he hadn't tried so hard to fake his alibi, starting with those three letters written in blood. dennis murphy: so this hollywood touch, as i think of it, roc did it, the dying declaration, it bit him. it bit him hard, very hard. he outsmarted himself. interviewer: after the and ttrial, rock herpickrison. was free to ride his harley, but he told us it's still ate him up that a man he never met tried to frame him for murder. if you could sit down and talk to him just the way we're sitting here, what would you-- what would you say to him? i am restrained, correct? i couldn't get to him, right? should we tie you to the chair in this scenario? yeah, well, i would not be a good communicator in that conversation mode with him sitting there. i couldn't do it. interviewer: mike parnell, couldn't do it either.

he'd rather not think about tim permenter and the last moments of his precious baby sister's life. i'm not interested in remembering karen associated with that crime. it's been a long ordeal for you? mmm hmm. i want to remember karen as a brilliant beautiful young woman she was. interviewer: maybe the smiling person, someone who loved her friends, loved the beach, and died too young. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music playing] ♪ this sunday, departing. fbi director, chris ray, announces he will resign next month, clearing a