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♪

♪

♪

She's not gonna go...

gentle into that good night, she's gonna fight.

Things got out of hand.

There's blood on the phone...

on the 9, the 1.

The shell casing was a .32 caliber.

Numerous white envelopes contained cash.

Fingernail scrapings can be used for DNA analysis.

Anybody in the world could be the perpetrator.

He thought a lot of himself.

Ain't no two ways about it.

♪

I knew we needed the smoking gun,

but if we can't have that,

we need as much evidence as possible.

[Gunshot]

♪

When homicide investigators

collect evidence from a crime scene,

they hold the pieces of a puzzle.

Only by connecting those pieces back together

can they catch the killer.

♪

♪

Glenville is a town about

two hours west of Philadelphia.

Very rural, very small.

It consists of a store, a gas station,

a post office, and a bar.

♪

It's very quiet.

There's trees and forest all around it,

so it's a very isolated area.

It's a heavily Christian residential community.

♪

JEFFREY: It's a Wednesday mid-afternoon,

the Southwestern Regional Police Department

received a 9-1-1 hang-up.

JEFFREY: When somebody dials 9-1-1

and either can't speak on the phone

or they immediately hang up,

it goes into the dispatch centre and gives an address.

So, we know the call

came from a residence on Trone Road.

♪

DOUGLAS: Patrol officer arrived at the scene.

[Knocking]

The door was open.

The officer enters...

♪

He looks to his right and he sees the body

of the female victim, balled up on the floor

with a large pool of blood around her head.

♪

He calls for backup immediately.

♪

[Sirens]

JEFFREY: The address that we responded to was

a quarter mile off of Trone Road.

It's horse farms and large estates.

DOUGLAS: It's out in the middle of nowhere.

If you don't know that the house exists,

you wouldn't know it's there.

[Sirens]

JEFFREY: I arrive and enter the residence.

♪

DOUGLAS: As you walked in, on the floor right below

the telephone, was the body of the victim.

When examining the victim,

there was blood about her head.

There was some blood on her clothing.

♪

We found a .32 caliber shell casing nearby the body,

but there wasn't a weapon

laying around anywhere.

JEFFREY: So, at this point, you don't know

if this is a homicide or a suicide.

We turned the body over.

There was no gun underneath her.

♪

And finding no weapon,

we determined that it wasn't a suicide.

This was a homicide.

♪

Forensic team arrives.

We very carefully process the whole scene

without moving the body.

DOUGLAS: Based on locating her driver's license

in her purse, we were able to identify her

as Monica Schmeyer.

Monica Schmeyer was a 55-year-old

dedicated mother of two.

She poured hard work into raising her kids,

both successful and now out on their own.

DOUGLAS: We noticed that her right eyebrow had

a large bruise on it, and she had a large

laceration or cut on her cheek,

and a lot of blood from her nose and mouth.

JEFFREY: The marks on Monica's face indicated

that they were there because of a struggle.

There was one mark in particular,

it was my theory that it resembled the

front sight of a handgun.

CHRISTIAN: Given that the victim was fully clothed

when discovered at the crime scene is

indicative that no sexual contact had taken place.

The recovery of a spent cartridge case

from the crime scene, which is a .32,

is indicative of a small semi-automatic pistol

that would fit fairly comfortably in the hand

of either a man or a woman.

DOUGLAS: A shell casing can provide a lot of

physical evidence for investigators,

one of which being a fingerprint.

[Camera shutter clicking]

The likelihood of finding a usable fingerprint on such

a small shell casing as the size of a .32 is slim,

but there's still a chance.

The fact that investigators are able to recover

a spent shell casing confirms early on

that the weapon used was a semi-automatic pistol.

Every round fired releases a projectile down the barrel

and ejects the shell casing.

Based on the rifling characteristics,

investigators are able to determine that one of three

manufacturers had produced the firearm in question-

KelTec, Dixon, or Colt.

These are very common brands in Pennsylvania in 2010.

DOUGLAS: And then there was blood droplets on the floor

that led across the room to the phone.

It could be blood from her attacker or from her.

That leads us to believe that Monica was injured

during a struggle or some kind of other issue.

She was bleeding. She ran to the phone...

where then we found her body.

JEFFREY: The telephone on the bookcase,

the receiver was off the hook,

and we found blood on keys

nine and one.

DOUGLAS: Next to the phone,

we found a Rolodex and a calendar.

It provides us information about who she knows,

who she contacts regularly,

and their contact information.

♪

During the search of the residence,

we found numerous white envelopes

that contained cash.

These white envelopes were all labeled for the

utility bills- the gas, electric bill, water bill.

♪

♪

CHRISTIAN: We can get a variety of different types

of information off of an envelope.

They are suitable for fingerprint analysis.

We can possibly recover DNA.

MICHAEL: Cash-filled white envelopes left at the scene,

apparently untouched...

this raises a host of new questions.

If this was a robbery,

why are these items left behind?

Were some of them taken, were most of them taken?

Or did the offender not even know that they were there?

If robbery was not the motive,

investigators need to broaden their theory

in terms of who else may have been incentivized

to commit this murder.

♪

JEFFREY: We send Monica's fingernails

to the lab for DNA analysis.

♪

CHRISTIAN: At the coroner's office,

they're going to look for things like hairs and fibres

that are on that body that could be

from a foreign individual.

The victim might have DNA under their fingernails

if they were able to scratch that individual.

And those fingernail scrapings can then be

used for DNA analysis

and to potentially find a perpetrator.

♪

♪

DOUGLAS: We check the perimeter of the property.

Is there anything to indicate someone had

come to the house, surreptitiously.

Were there broken trees, branches, a trail?

We also checked other doors, windows, screens,

and everything appeared to be undisturbed.

We didn't find anything around the perimeter

of the house.

JEFFREY: At that point, we're putting together

a theory of what may have happened.

DOUGLAS: Based on the evidence from the scene,

she knew her killer.

Maybe somebody stopped by the house,

knock on the door. "I'm lost."

It was all a big mystery.

♪

We have no forced entry at the home.

This person gained entry to the house.

They overcame her...

Pistol whipped her,

caused an injury to her left cheek,

and also some abrasions.

There's active bleeding.

Based on the blood droplets that we found on the floor,

at some point, she ran for the phone...

dials 9-1-1...

[Gunshot]

And he shoots her.

Anybody in the world could be the perpetrator

at this point in time.

RESHMI: Investigators have gathered evidence,

and now they have to put these pieces together to tell

the story of what happened to Monica Schmeyer.

Crime scene evidence is all the more valuable

once more is known about the victim,

but at this point, investigators know

very little about Monica Schmeyer.

♪

DOUGLAS: We don't know who the players are,

who she's involved with. Is she married?

Are there marital problems?

Is there a boyfriend? Is she into drugs?

We don't know anything about her.

♪

♪

JEFFREY: At that point, we reach out to next of kin.

DOUGLAS: Monica Schmeyer has two daughters and a brother.

We hadn't been able to reach either of the daughters.

Her brother lived nearby.

He was able to provide us with some information

on her background.

We learned from Monica's brother that

Monica grew up in New Jersey in

a strict Catholic household.

She's very devout, but she's also divorced.

JEFFREY: Monica went to church every day.

DOUGLAS: She doesn't have a lot of friends.

She doesn't associate with a lot of people.

Doesn't work.

She's a very unlikely homicide victim.

♪

Monica Schmeyer's ex-husband, John,

is an ophthalmologist in the York County area.

RESHMI: In 2002, John filed for divorce,

but Monica was a devout Catholic,

and initially refused to accept the split.

This caused a lot of tension between her and John.

Tensions that may be suppressed during a marriage,

can often fester and boil over,

even after a divorce is final.

Is it possible John settled their differences

by killing Monica?

♪

JEFFREY: After he left Monica,

John gave her the house, most of their savings.

Monica lived off the alimony.

DOUGLAS: There's some prior minor domestic

related incidents, when John and Monica

were going through their divorce.

We definitely wanted to talk to John sooner

rather than later, just because there's

forensic evidence we could obtain from him.

Whether that's gunshot residue or the firearm,

in and of itself, the longer we wait,

the less likely it is we're going to find that evidence.

JEFFREY: We went to John Schmeyer's apartment to

make notification of the death of his ex-wife.

DOUGLAS: It was a little bit after midnight,

so it would have been April 1st of 2010,

and when he answered the door,

he was in a bit of disbelief.

♪

JEFFREY: John's reaction to the death of his ex-wife

was a little surprising.

♪

He was shocked, he did appear to cry,

but we didn't see any tears.

DOUGLAS: It was almost like it was staged.

And he would stop crying and look up,

and he would look around at all of us,

and then he would put his head back down and cry.

And it was very alarming.

Did he have something to do with Monica's murder?

JEFFREY: We were looking at each other, like...

that's highly suspicious.

♪ [Suspenseful] ♪

We're putting Monica's estranged husband

John Schmeyer on the top of the suspect list.

But, we need evidence.

The smoking gun, for lack of a better phrase.

So, we dive into John.

We wanted to know what he knew about the

numerous white envelopes that contained cash

found at the crime scene.

He explained that he paid Monica $1,700 a month

in cash for alimony.

She in turn would then put monies into envelopes

for the gas bill, and the water bill,

and all these different bills.

Then provide those envelopes to John,

who in turn, would take the cash back

and then he would write checks out

to pay for all the utilities or her expenses.

She didn't have a bank account.

She didn't trust banks,

and she was very dependent upon him.

He wanted to move on in his life.

He was just in a new relationship.

But she just wouldn't let him go.

♪

JEFFREY: John didn't like the financial arrangements

mostly because it left him living in

a very cheap apartment.

He didn't have the money to do

what he wanted to do for himself.

And he thought a lot of himself.

Ain't no two ways about it.

We were starting to get an idea that there was

possibly a motive on John's part

in the homicide of his ex-wife.

DOUGLAS: We knew that the weapon that was used

was a .32 caliber pistol.

So, we inquired with him about firearms

that he may own or have access to.

John related that he doesn't own one,

nor would he ever own one, which we verified

through the Pennsylvania State Police.

♪

He let us do gunshot residue tests on his hands.

JEFFREY: He gave us his clothing,

which we checked for gunshot residue.

♪

A gunshot residue test,

or a GSR test, is one of several

what we call presumptive field tests.

In the case of gunshot residue,

when a firearm is fired,

a certain set of chemicals and microscopic parts

are expelled from the weapon,

and will land on nearby skin and

clothing typically of the shooter.

Them asking John to surrender his clothes

for the test as well as to undergo that

presumptive test right there in his house,

what they're looking for is evidence that

he recently fired any type of weapon.

If the GSR test comes back positive,

investigators know right away

that he's been lying to them,

and he's just moved at that point from

person of interest to prime suspect.

♪

JEFFREY: John was very cooperative.

DOUGLAS: Even though he had to pay Monica in cash,

and he did everything for her still in their divorce...

he insisted that he wouldn't be involved in

any kind of matter involving her death.

We asked him where he was that afternoon,

at the time of the homicide,

and he said that he was with a woman by the name of

Sarah Powell at Panera Bread.

He is an avid day trader,

and she wanted to make some money so

he was explaining to her how to do this.

I exited the apartment, and made a phone call

to Sarah Powell to confirm his alibi.

And I left a message for her to contact me.

♪

The next day, we searched John's car,

looking for a firearm or any kind of

other relevant evidence, but there was nothing

associated with the homicide.

JEFFREY: The autopsy results come in,

and it confirms that Monica died from

a single gunshot wound to the head.

It was a .32 caliber bullet.

DOUGLAS: The bullet traversed from the left side

of her skull to the right front,

from the left occipital back here,

to the right front and would have been

an instantaneous death.

♪

So, Monica had made the phone call

prior to her being shot...

and was unable to articulate anything to

the 9-1-1 operator...

because she was dead.

♪

The victim had long fingernails.

If she was able to scratch her assailant

while trying to defend herself,

those fingernail scrapings

can then be used for DNA analysis.

So investigators are hopeful that there may be

some biological material under Monica's nails to

potentially identify her perpetrator.

♪

DOUGLAS: At that point in time,

John Schmeyer's friend, Sarah Powell,

got back to me.

Sarah related that John and her had been at

the Panera Bread at the time and place that John

had said to us, to discuss this day trading.

Sarah Powell substantiated his alibi.

We didn't know whether to believe John Schmeyer.

JEFFREY: To verify their story,

we pull the surveillance footage from the restaurant,

and it shows John and Sarah at that restaurant

on March 31st at the time of the homicide.

Their alibi checks out.

DOUGLAS: We received gunshot residue results

for John Schmeyer as well.

But the results were negative,

so no GSR was located on the samples

that we collected.

The video evidence further confirmed that

John didn't pull the trigger.

Now, that's not to say, okay, he wasn't there

and he's made sure that he's on tape

somewhere at the time of the homicide.

But, is John involved somehow in that homicide,

whether he paid someone,

talked someone into doing it or whatever?

So we look closer at John's whereabouts

at the time of the homicide.

In our interview with John Schmeyer,

he said himself and Sarah left Panera Bread

and went to the local Hooters restaurant

where they had a meeting of the OSS,

the Orange Shorts Society.

It's a group of professional businessmen.

They get together once a week,

and they talk money, they talk stocks,

but they also get to look at the waitresses.

We pull the surveillance video from Hooters,

and were able to confirm that

John was there with Sarah.

And also, the cell phone records confirm

John and Sarah's whereabouts.

So as far as where he's at on the suspect scale,

he's falling lower and lower on that...

which is then causing us to focus our investigation

more into other directions.

♪

CHRISTIAN: At this point in time,

the results of the forensic analysis of

the spent cartridge case came back.

We were not able to identify any usable prints.

We also test the white envelopes

for fingerprint analysis.

When we have an envelope that's recovered

from the scene, we use a chemical that is

used to enhance or visualize

fingerprints from paper.

Then that team is going to then transfer that

envelope over to the DNA laboratory.

JEFFREY: We were hoping for a profile of the killer.

We were disappointed.

We go back and we question Sarah.

RESHMI: Given Sarah's close friendship with John and

his friends, investigators want to find out

what she may know about his personal life.

DOUGLAS: When we spoke with Sarah Powell,

and I'd asked her, you know,

who all was present at Hooters,

she said John was there, she was there,

this person, that person,

the same people that John had listed.

But she also related that her fiancé Tim

wasn't there, but he usually is.

And I said, "Well, you know, do you or Tim

own any firearms?'" at which point she says,

"No, I don't, I don't own any guns."

Sarah said John would complain about Monica...

about how he has to take care of her,

and how he has to pay alimony for her,

and how he has to pay her in cash.

♪

Investigators were following up.

They went out to Hooters.

They began questioning members of the staff there

about this group, and what do they discuss,

do they hear anything?

Have they been privy to any conversations?

What we learned was that John apparently had a

quasi-relationship with one of the hostesses or

waitresses there that involved buying gifts for her.

We also learned that this waitress' ex-boyfriend was

a convicted drug dealer in York County,

and may have been involved in trying to get

illegal prescriptions and narcotics.

RESHMI: Some prescription medications like opioids

or benzos are highly addictive.

And once an addict is hooked,

they need more.

They'll resort to anything to get a fix,

and that includes stealing money,

acts of violence...

Sometimes even murder.

JEFFREY: Did the girlfriend and the ex-boyfriend

try to rob Monica of all her cash and...

and end up killing her in the struggle?

DOUGLAS: Is John involved somehow

in that homicide?

Maybe he paid someone to kill Monica Schmeyer.

[Gunshot]

The pool of suspects just got a little bigger.

Investigators consider whether the evidence

gathered so far adds up to a conspiracy

ordered by Monica's ex-husband, John.

So they dig deeper into connections he has with

his waitress girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend,

the convicted drug dealer.

♪

SFX: [Camera shutter clicking]

We asked narcotics investigators to look at the

waitress's convicted drug dealer ex-boyfriend.

More or less as an angle of,

can we prove that John Schmeyer

was involved with this ex-boyfriend,

as a way to...

evoke a confession about Monica's death.

It was never substantiated that

he had a relationship with the ex-boyfriend.

It was only ever alleged.

We couldn't find a connection there.

There was no nexus to this.

We had nothing.

♪

JEFFREY: John was still cooperative with us.

And he took a polygraph.

♪

Polygraph tests can be used to determine whether

a person is a viable suspect or not.

If they fail the test, then...

you know you have more work to do.

A polygraph is not in itself a definitive answer

to an investigation.

It's very effective, however, in allowing

investigators to clear people of interest,

and then move on in their inquiries.

It tests for two things: the commission of a crime,

and the knowledge of a crime having been committed.

It's very difficult to defeat these instruments.

DOUGLAS: The examiner asked him

several specific questions: "Did you kill your wife?"

John says, "Oh, no."

"Were you involved in the death of your wife?"

And he said, "No."

But I could tell you John started to feel the sweat.

When you're asked that question: "Did you shoot

the gun that killed Monica Schmeyer?"

and you say no, but in your mind,

you know you did, it's a very

difficult question to answer deceptively,

especially with the way the polygraph works.

♪

But again, maybe John was, you know,

upset with her and he's thinking, oh, you know,

I thought about it once.

However, John Schmeyer's polygraph was inconclusive.

It wasn't anything that would help us.

JEFFREY: We can't prove that John Schmeyer is

responsible for the death of his ex-wife.

And finding no weapon at the crime scene,

we have work to do.

We're still hoping for a profile of the killer from

the blood evidence from the crime scene...

and the DNA tests on the fingernail clippings.

DOUGLAS: Monica's brother and her daughters

related to us that Monica had the type of personality

that she's gonna fight.

[Gunshot]

She's not gonna go gentle into that good night.

Is all the blood we found at the scene Monica's,

or could it be a mixture?

Could it be the suspect? We don't know because

we don't know what injuries may have been

inflicted upon the person that attacked her.

♪

CHRISTIAN: The results of the DNA testing

from the blood samples come back.

♪

It's a single source DNA profile.

Matches her.

The predominant source of the blood underneath

Monica's fingernails was from her own blood.

There was a disproportionate quantity

of her DNA to differentiate.

We don't find any foreign DNA at this point.

But there's a different strategy for the

male DNA testing called YSTRs.

The YSTRs would allow us to disregard any female DNA

in that sample, and only focus on

the results of any male component.

A YSTR test tests male DNA only from

the Y chromosome, which is male specific.

The results come back with a single source

male DNA profile.

DOUGLAS: The samples that we took from under

her fingernails were not only from Monica,

but Monica and someone else.

We know the killer has a male profile.

And, John Schmeyer is still our only suspect.

That's all we know.

♪

So, as far as who could be the perpetrator,

we don't have any new suspects.

So we canvass the neighborhood

surrounding the Schmeyer residence.

Now, when I say neighbourhood,

I'm not talking residential community.

This is rural southwestern Pennsylvania.

Your neighbor is quarter mile away.

But we were able to locate two witnesses.

The first neighbor related that on the date of

the murder, in the afternoon...

March 31st...

He was outside,

and saw a gentleman walking down the road,

which he felt was unusual

based on their location.

You don't see people walking down the road.

This neighbor described him as

a white male in his thirties.

Balding, medium build.

About 20 minutes later,

he saw this same man walking away

from the Schmeyer residence with what

he described as a white envelope in his hand.

The second neighbor noticed the same guy

walking along the shoulder of the road.

And he also said,

as he looked past this person,

there was a grey or silver van parked about

halfway up the hill on Smoketown Road.

♪

So now we're looking for surveillance video.

Where Smoketown Road comes up

there's a T intersection.

If you make a right, you go to Maryland.

If you make a left, you go into the

little town of Jefferson Borough,

where there is a bank,

and that bank has an outside camera.

We secured search warrants to obtain the bank footage

for that day to see if we could find a gray van.

Unfortunately, after reviewing hours

and hours of video, we found numerous

gray vans, so we were unable to substantiate

what van it was or which way it was because

we don't even know whether the van made a left

or made a right at that T intersection.

So we were kind of at a standstill.

But in our neighbourhood canvass,

we learned that Monica

had a handyman that she used for odd jobs

and would help her out around the house,

maybe fix something, or cut her grass, you know,

all those different things that she needed.

JEFFREY: Monica's handyman spent a lot of time out

on the property and did a lot of things for her,

including moving her daughter to college.

As far as I know, he did it free of charge.

Makes you think there was

some sort of relationship there.

DOUGLAS: He is someone that knows her,

may have had a conflict with her,

unbeknownst to anyone else.

JEFFERY: So now we're wondering...

could the handyman be connected to

the murder of Monica Schmeyer?

n of interest because he's familiar with the property.

He knows the house.

Probably knew about those envelopes.

He did a lot of things for her free of charge.

And he knew about Monica's situation in general.

We couldn't figure out why he was

doing this stuff for nothing.

Monica's handyman, Ethan Sawyer,

knew her routine.

He had access to the house.

He knew what was in the house,

including presumably these envelopes full of cash.

If he had expressed an interest in pursuing

something with her and she rebuffed him,

could that have led to an argument?

Could the argument have escalated to violence?

♪

[Gunshot]

We were able to locate the handyman,

Mr. Ethan Sawyer.

He was interviewed and related to us that he,

in fact, did do stuff with Monica all the time...

And that at times he didn't even

accept payment from her.

♪

However, they were not romantically involved.

♪

In addition, he brought his logbook to show

where he had been working that day.

It put him at a gated community in Adams County,

which is approximately 40 miles away from

the Schmeyer residence.

Investigators went out to the location in Adams County,

and were able to confirm his whereabouts with the video

and the security log.

♪

JEFFREY: While Sawyer was being interviewed by the

other detectives, I drove up to his property and

checked it out to see if I could find a silver van.

♪

I searched thoroughly.

I found no silver vans on that property.

DOUGLAS: In addition, we also had the handyman

submit to a polygraph examination,

which he passed.

We were able to eliminate the handyman,

Ethan Sawyer, from our suspect pool.

Your mind starts thinking about, okay,

who hated Monica Schmeyer?

We were going through her Rolodex.

We looked at everybody she knew.

But again, we cleared everybody.

There was no new persons of interest.

♪

At this point, we sent out a teletype to the whole

East Coast looking for similar investigations

involving a home invasion robbery where a

.32 caliber pistol's involved.

Crickets. So we have nothing.

♪

It's very frustrating.

JEFFREY: So, we reviewed the evidence.

♪

DOUGLAS: We're thinking that there's got to be

something we're missing,

and go through everything again.

♪

And I had a notepad.

As I'm walking around a crime scene,

I would make notes.

And I'm flipping through my notepad,

and I flip the page

and it's Sarah Powell's interview,

and I see Tim Jacoby, her fiancé,

at the top of the paper.

And I said, "Oh, my god,

I never really looked into this guy."

When we spoke with Sarah Powell that day,

Sarah related that her fiancé wasn't there

at their Hooters meeting the day of the murder.

JEFFREY: Sarah tells us her fiancé Timothy

was at work that day.

Timothy Jacoby works for a large industry

in Lancaster County.

He's an engineer for that company.

DOUGLAS: He appears to have an alibi.

But again, I pull up

Tim Jacoby's driver's license photo.

And it's like, oh my God...

He's the right height. He's the right build.

He's the right race.

JEFFERY: He looks like the person that

the neighbors spotted.

DOUGLAS: And he knows John Schmeyer.

JEFFREY: Could Timothy Jacoby be somehow

connected to the murder of Monica Schmeyer?

DOUGLAS: When we looked into Tim Jacoby's background,

he actually attended the Air Force Academy,

and was disciplined and removed.

♪

I run a criminal history on him.

He got convicted of a robbery of a jewelry store

that occurred several years ago,

and it's like, oh my God, I think I found our guy.

Tim Jacoby's dishonorable discharge

and robbery charge are a far cry from murder.

And, as far as anyone knows,

Tim didn't know Monica.

So maybe it's possible John Schmeyer really did

hire someone like Tim to kill his ex-wife.

DOUGLAS: At this point, it's now, okay,

we have a connection 'cause Monica Schmeyer

doesn't know Tim Jacoby, but John does.

♪

know that John Schmeyer wanted out of his marriage

to Monica and didn't pass his polygraph test.

But they also know that John didn't shoot her himself.

So the big question is: Could John have

paid one of his friends to do it?

Either Sarah Powell, or her ex-con fiancé,

Tim Jacoby?

DOUGLAS: We deep dive into John.

Everything he was involved in.

Every person he talked to.

Got all his tax records, bank records,

any kind of investments, trying to look for any

kind of withdrawals or suspicious activity.

And then, look at Tim Jacoby's finances

and Sarah Powell's finances.

We got all these different agencies involved

to try and help make that connection,

which we were never able to do.

'Cause there wasn't any kind of suspicious activity.

♪

John Schmeyer didn't have anything to do with

the homicide of Monica Schmeyer.

♪

John possibly related his

frustration with Monica,

and the cash, and all the steps he had to go through

to his friends at Hooters,

which then planted the seed in the mind of someone like

Tim Jacoby, who looked at Monica Schmeyer

and said, "She doesn't know me.

She lives by herself.

She might not even be home when I get there."

And then he decided, "I'm gonna get away with this,"

to either commit a burglary or a robbery.

Tim Jacoby was our prime suspect.

At this point, we need

specific evidence connected to...

Timothy Jacoby and

the murder of Monica Schmeyer.

We need the murder weapon.

♪

Sarah told us that Timothy Jacoby

works for a large industry nearby.

DOUGLAS: What we found out was he has access to

a silver work van.

♪

We located the calendar that's used to

sign out the silver van,

hoping to see Tim Jacoby's initials

on March 31st.

We go flipping through January, February, April.

March is missing.

Is it just merely a coincidence that

that month is missing?

I went back to the surveillance video that

I had from the bank, and I was able to find a van

that matches the color, make, and model

of the van from Tim's employer

coming into Jefferson Borough on the date of the murder,

from a direction that would lead you to believe

it was coming from where Tim resides,

going past the bank then,

so I have it on the bank video,

and then 20 some minutes later,

it's coming back through,

same make, same model, the color.

So now, looking at the surveillance video,

we have a vehicle that matches the description of

what our neighbor saw.

And then I run him for firearms owned.

Tim Jacoby owns a .32 ACP KelTec,

which could be the one discharged

at the homicide scene.

We were blown away.

♪

JEFFREY: This gave us some information to procure a

search warrant for Timothy Jacoby's residence.

DOUGLAS: Investigators are turning this place inside out.

We had a dog there looking for firearms and bullets.

We did not locate the .32 caliber we were looking for.

However, one of our investigators was able to

locate a .32 caliber barrel in a drawer

in a desk in his shed.

That barrel had been damaged, intentionally.

Somebody had tried to drill out the rifling,

the inside of the barrel,

which is where a lot of the markings on the bullet

would have come from.

Tools had been applied to the interior of the barrel

in order to contaminate the rifling.

This would be the equivalent of a suspect burning off

their fingerprints or scarring themselves to try to

avoid their prints being matched to a crime scene.

If he's not responsible for the murder,

why take this additional step in destroying the evidence?

CHRISTIAN: When we see a barrel that's been

tampered with, we know someone is

trying to hide something that they've done.

They're trying to make that item not comparable

to evidence recovered from the crime scene.

DOUGLAS: However, during our search

we did locate a .40 caliber handgun that was

in his shed that was reported stolen

out of Florida several years prior.

It's not the type of weapon

that fits what we're looking for.

But being that Tim is a convicted felon and

a person not to possess,

he was taken into custody for that possession of

that firearm, as well as a parole violation.

RESHMI: With Jacoby in custody,

investigators submit for a warrant to retrieve

a DNA sample from him to compare to that

male DNA found under Monica's fingernails.

While they wait for a judge's approval,

investigators continue to search for that murder weapon.

♪

DOUGLAS: And again, I speak with Sarah Powell

who's Tim's fiancée.

She was aware of Tim's criminal history.

However, she again believed that...

he had gotten rid of the firearms,

as per the court order.

DOUGLAS: I asked her if Tim owned a small black gun,

one that would fit in let's say the palm of my hand.

And she said, "Yes, I've seen him

shoot something like that at his father's place,

on the farm, on this platform."

[Gunshots]

JEFFREY: And now we execute a search warrant

for his parents' property.

DOUGLAS: And I saw this platform that Sarah

had described in the back of the farm.

The boards were nailed down in such a way that there

was a gap between this board and this board.

And that gap was about like a half inch,

and a .32 shell casing is .32 of an inch, so...

The possibility of one rolling and falling

in between there and underneath the platform

would be pretty good.

And they ended up finding five spent .32 shell casings

underneath this platform.

And they were shipped off to the

state police ballistics lab.

CHRISTIAN: When we compared the spent cartridge cases

that were recovered underneath the deck to

what was recovered from the crime scene,

it is indicative that it was the same firearm

that was used to fire both sets of ammunition.

But it doesn't mean it's a match for sure.

DOUGLAS: I knew we needed the smoking gun,

for lack of a better phrase,

but If we can't have that,

we need to find as much evidence

as we can whether it's circumstantial or other

evidence that we can use in this case.

I went back to the full male profile...

in the DNA sample discovered

under Monica's fingernails.

Forensics tested it with Tim Jacoby's DNA sample.

CHRISTIAN: It was an exact match to the male

DNA profile recovered from Timothy Jacoby.

♪

DOUGLAS: That was like the last nail in the coffin,

so to speak, for Tim Jacoby,

because he never talked to her,

met her, engaged with her,

so there is no way that his blood or his DNA

should have been underneath her fingernails.

Timothy Jacoby murdered Monica Schmeyer.

[Gunshot]

Now we know exactly what happened.

♪

On March 31st,

Timothy Jacoby took his KelTec .32 semi-auto pistol

with him to work, where he signed out a van...

then drove from where his work was to Monica's house,

to either commit a burglary or a robbery.

Tim knew that John was paying Monica a significant

amount of money, and that she kept cash

'cause she didn't have a bank account.

JEFFREY: He parked and walked up the road.

And that's when the neighbors spotted him.

[Knocking]

Timothy Jacoby gained entry to the house.

DOUGLAS: Either knocked on the door,

or just entered the house,

but was confronted by Monica.

He demanded where the money is.

A fight ensued.

JEFFREY: He didn't count on the fact that

Monica was a fighter.

Things got out of hand.

DOUGLAS: There was a struggle.

Tim hit her with a pistol.

♪

And at some point, maybe he was distracted.

She saw her chance.

She took it.

She calls 9-1-1.

JEFFERY: And that's when he shot her.

[Gunshot]

DOUGLAS: Timothy Jacoby panicked,

grabbed what he could.

But fled because he didn't know whether

that call went through or not.

♪

MICHAEL: In October, 2014,

Tim Jacoby is convicted of burglary,

robbery, tampering with evidence,

and first degree murder.

He's ultimately sentenced to death.

DOUGLAS: This was a difficult and complex investigation.

At the beginning, we had

thousands of pieces of a puzzle,

and through investigative means and forensic science,

we were able to start filling in the corners,

and the middle, and the complete picture

that was able to bring justice to Monica Schmeyer

and her family.

It's why I do this job.

♪

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