All language subtitles for the.fog.of.murder.s01e01

Everything happened so fast.

I looked out everywhere.

I watched the seat handle. I watched the
bottom of it. I watched the knife.

I am guilty, but I'm trying to show the
real story of it.

Aaron and I were working together at the
salon at night.

It would have been the three of us
working together, but Renee didn't show

Renee was never a punctual person, so
when she was late, it was no surprise,

when 4, 5, 6 o 'clock showed up and she
didn't show up, it was suspicious.

That day, I remember...

We were hoping that she was just going
to be late, and we were trying to get a

hold of her.

Aaron kept saying, like, let's go there
after we get off work. Let's just go

make sure she's okay.

So we got to her house probably at,
like, 9 .30.

Aaron knew that she had a backsliding
door, and it's only accessible through

climbing on the roof.

We climbed on the roof, and that was her
patio right there.

I remember going upstairs, outside, and
the sliding door being unlocked.

And at that point, I remember still
hoping that she was maybe still

We opened the back sliding door,
screamed in, Renee, Renee, no answer.

We got kind of nervous, and we shut the
door.

As we were walking back down the stairs,
I kind of felt a presence behind me.

And I turned around, and it was a...
older gentleman, and he said he was the

landlord, and he asked if he could help
us.

I thought it was weird.

I know nothing about who he is or where
he came from, but at that point, I was

getting more and more nervous as there
was no sign of her.

So we went into her front door of her
apartment with this gentleman.

All the lights were turned off.

Renee was definitely a night owl, so...

It was strange to me that the lights
would be off if she was home and it was

p .m.

What you saw first was everything just
kind of everywhere, drawers open and

clothes everywhere.

At that moment, it became apparent that
something was wrong.

I remember seeing partially What was
under the blanket?

And all I remember is

her beautiful, long, blonde hair.

It was no longer blonde.

And it was covered in blood.

I was shocked. I was scared.

The landlord advised us to call 911, so
I dialed 911 on my phone and handed my

phone to the landlord, and I quickly
left the building as fast as I could and

just went and sat on the street and
waited for the police to show up.

This is a real bedroom community.

for a lot of years, rather quiet.

Whenever you have something like this
happen, people obviously don't expect

but it really sort of affects the area
and it affects the neighborhood.

I got here probably close to 11 .30 at
night. That was a Monday night. And the

inner perimeter was completely secure.

There were a lot of officers on scene,
uniformed officers.

This particular case, it was the first
time where I was the lead investigator,

the officer in charge in a homicide
case.

So you immediately start thinking, we
cannot get this wrong.

So I was taking a look just at the
outside of the building before I even

considered going in, looking at the
windows, looking at the exterior,

the doors, looking down the road,
looking down the side street is here as

Do I see anybody that's watching me?
That's an important thing that you want

look for.

The apartment was rather small, so there
was an entryway that led to sort of a

kitchen and a common area. When I walked
up into the apartment and moved towards

the open living room area, I initially
noticed that there was a blanket,

comforter -style blanket, covering her
upper torso and head.

Discovering the blanket on Renee, it
could mean that the person simply did

want to look at what they had done. It
could mean that the person thought, I'm

going to be here a while, and I don't
want to see this while I'm trying to

up. It could be a symbol of finality,
like this is what you get, and now I'm

going to place this on top of you
because it's truly over.

When I first saw Renee, it was very
difficult.

There were 12 total knife injuries.

There was a brutality and a savagery to
this that gave me the indication that

this was somebody who was extremely
angry, indicative of somebody that

knew her.

And that's when I call my boss and say,
looks like we have a homicide.

I'm going to need help.

We're driving on Rochester Road right
now, which leads up to Renee's

And, you know, I got the call. I
responded to the scene to start

area for additional evidence.

To be stabbed, you know, 12 times, you
start to wonder, was it a crime of

passion? I mean, there's some rage that
occurred, you know, when the incident

happened.

And so after searching through certain
parts of the apartment, we found a cell

phone charger inside the residence, but
there was no cell phone.

When somebody takes a cell phone, it's
often an indicator that something about

that person is present in that cell
phone.

And oftentimes securing that phone is in
an effort to hide the fact that

somebody may have been there or hide the
fact that the victim had a relationship

at all with the person whose pictures,
whose text messages are in that phone.

When you process a scene, you typically
would make sure there's no signs of

force entry. Make sure there is no
broken doors and no damaged locks, no

glass on the windows.

Heavy traffic would be where potential
fingerprints could be left.

Door handles, light switches, faucets.

And if you were to sort of develop those
areas with a print powder or super glue

or something like that, then you might
determine smears and smudges and wipes

partial prints that may have been left
behind.

That's when we started focusing on who
was the last person that spoke with Ms.

Chupik, who was the last person that saw
Ms. Chupik, who was the last person

that was in her apartment.

We had to sit there for hours outside of
her building to speak to the detective.

I remember them asking if we had any
idea of who could have possibly done

I told them, I'm not going to pretend
that I didn't for a second think the

landlord did it.

But I remember hearing Renee talk about
how she didn't have the best

relationship with her ex -husband.

So you start to immediately create a
profile on every person who's mentioned.

we were doing that at this particular
case on the landlord who has a key, who

has access.

It certainly was concerning that he was
there, present at the time.

I had no idea who he really was.

I mean, he could have been anybody that
had a key. He could have been the one

who killed her and had Renee's keys, for
all I knew, waiting for somebody to

show up looking for her.

Certainly we were concerned about that
person, but we had also heard that there

was an ex -husband.

Does he then find himself on the list of
possible suspects as well?

Certainly he does.

I don't remember crying ever until I got
home.

And then I cried when I got home and was
by myself.

I never expected to find what we found
when we went to go look for Renee.

She was very nice. She was very good at
what she did.

She was just a very positive person to
be around.

And then I was scared.

I was very scared. I was scared that
whoever murdered Renee was there

and followed us home.

And I just, I couldn't believe that what
happened had just happened.

I didn't know who it was, so I didn't
know if they were following me or if

were going to show up at my work.

I just was nervous and anxious and
always looking over my shoulder.

So I was speaking to the officer that
was manning the door here regarding who

had been into the apartment at that
particular time. I needed to know if he

aware of whether the landlord had gone
up the stairs, was in this part of the

apartment.

When you start to think in your head who
could be responsible or who had access

to the residence or was allowed entry
into the residence, you think about a

landlord.

The detective came in and talked to me.

He wanted me to write out what happened
or what you've seen, all this nonsense.

The way they looked at me, you know, it
was kind of strange.

Like I was almost like a real suspect.

They go, what's going on here? And I
said, well, I really don't know.

I said, I just work here.

They asked me if I owned the building,
and I said, no, I don't own the

I was lying to them, of course, because
I don't want to be involved.

I'm not looking for anything to be
connected with something like this. It's

disgusting.

The landlord produced a rental agreement
at that particular time for us, so we

were able just to confirm that he in
fact was the landlord.

He was able to give us a background of
Renee, just how long that she had been

the apartment, what her general schedule
was.

He wanted it very, very clear to us that
he was not in any way involved with

Renee's murder.

I was down here in my shop the whole
night.

And in here, it's a cinder block.

You don't hear anything on the outside.

If I'd have been in my apartment, I
might have heard something for sure.

Because my kitchen and her kitchen backs
up to each other and our bathroom is

back up to each other.

But I really didn't go up there.

I wish I would have heard anything.

If I would have heard anything, I'd have
been through the wall or through the

door. going after this guy.

We didn't have any reports of anybody
hearing any screaming, sounds of a

struggle. It was late at night, but the
apartment is just about 10 feet from

a busy roadway. So we did have several
businesses, so we were hoping that we

were able to obtain some CCTVs we
thought might have captured

sort of the area.

At the time, we were looking for
surveillance.

or any kind of security video.

I know we had checked the oil change
place across the street, checked with

McDonald's, see if it captured anything.
If it did, it was too far away, or it

was only aimed towards the business.

The only luck that we had at that
particular time was actually from a

surveillance system that the landlord
had.

But at the same time, that particular
video system wasn't recording. It was

simply... Just live video at that time.

Well, this isn't exactly the camera I
had, okay?

But you can see that particular part of
it on the right side here. I had another

camera that was on the telephone pole
out there, which did the whole property.

I have motion -sensing lights out here.

So on my monitor, when I see the light
go on, I automatically look.

Because it catches my eye, and I look at
the monitor, and that's when I see the

guy coming down the stairs.

And he was just standing there right by
the mailboxes.

He was like around 20, maybe blonde
hair, maybe.

When you don't have it recording, then
you take information like that, and what

you have to do is sort of process and
see if it may reveal itself later as you

continue to seek out possible suspects.

Does anyone match that description?

I first met Renee when she wanted me to
babysit her son.

She was really there for people.

She was the type of person that liked to
take people under her wing.

I kind of got the big sister vibe from
her.

When I met her, her son was about six
months, and Renee was married.

He was a good -looking guy, pretty
built, had a decent amount of muscle.

He did a lot of hovering around her, so
he seemed very protective over her.

They seemed to fight quite often, which
was weird for her because she's not the

kind of person that likes to fight. She
goes out of her way to not fight.

I was sleeping over one time in the
living room,

Her husband had come in, and it was
pretty late, and I could hear the two of

them arguing.

And I just kept my eyes closed because
it wasn't my business.

I think she was afraid to say anything
bad.

She just seemed to hold back so much.

We were very close friends, so why would
she not want to tell me what was going

on unless it was something where she was
worried?

Her world really revolved around him.

Renee's ex -husband was a police officer
out in Clarkston.

Renee's son lived with his father the
majority of the time. I think she had

every other weekend or when she was able
to take him. I think they were very

good at co -parenting, so basically when
he wanted to come see his mom, she got

to see him.

I was conducting field interviews of...

The victim's ex -husband.

See if they had any assault of history
or any kind of domestic issues last time

he spoke with her, last time he saw her,
who she may have been with just prior

to her death.

We didn't learn anything from the
husband that was of concern.

They had been divorced, but they were
still in contact. It seemed like they

a rather congenial relationship, that
they were in contact with each other

regarding issues with their son.

So there wasn't protective or
restraining orders in place. There

reports in place that we could identify
that there was difficulties in their

relationship.

We learned from her ex -husband that she
had had a boyfriend in the past named

Stephen Parker, who had been somebody
that Renee kept in contact with.

They did have a history where they had
dated in the past.

I remember he was very friendly.

He was tall, had blonde hair, I
remember.

They were hanging out.

Everything was fine.

But after a couple weeks, he started to,
like, creep her out, and she didn't

want him around anymore.

We understand from both the friends and
from family that she had voiced some

concerns, that he had made her nervous,
that he had recently become...

extremely, extremely religious, and he
seemed to be perpetually lecturing Renee

about what she was doing with her life.

I was a little bit anxious and fearful
of what we were finding out about this

person because we were able to obtain a
manifesto, if you will.

He presented videos preaching for the
end of times, revelations and things

that.

Renee had a boyfriend in the past named
Stephen Parker, who was someone of a

high interest.

Him being extremely religious and
extremely sort of almost described as a

zealot type person.

After doing this for a long, long time,
I still, it scared me a little bit

because of how vehemently he was putting
out his message.

And he really projected this message
onto Renee.

He came into the salon about a week or
two before she was

murdered.

He was very awkward when he came in, and
he asked to speak to her, and she was

very uncomfortable.

And I literally pinpointed the time he
came in between five minutes because it

was such a weird encounter.

And the police had the surveillance
tape.

He was very standoffish, like Renee,
like very short, like he didn't want to

speak to anybody but her.

And she was like whispering and saying,
like, you need to leave now.

So we had an opportunity to speak with
Mr. Parker.

The information that had been provided
to us about him being extremely

started immediately.

He had indicated that he had a vision of
Renee's death.

And he knew that her lifestyle was
ultimately going to lead to this. So

certainly these are red flags.

It was early in the morning.

It was already light out.

I spoke with Sergeant Swakowski, and he
had indicated that Rene Chupik's cell

phone has not been located at the time.

I went ahead and began to canvas the
scene.

I'm pretty sure I started over here.

I believe there was either this alleyway
or right over here.

There was a separate dumpster area.

two dumpsters one did not hold any
evidentiary value the second one it was

green dumpster i proceeded to enter the
dumpster and located a bag i saw about

four cloth rags in the bag i saw an
empty wine bottle

i found a large kitchen knife

in that bag as well as a

steak knife with the blade and the
handle broken apart.

This was a knife that I found in the bag
in a dumpster.

Obviously, the one was broken at the
handle.

When we matched the knives that we found
in the dumpster with the ones we found

in the kitchen, we determined it was
from the same set of knives that was

within Mr. Cupik's apartment.

The knives that we found within the
dumpster, we believe, was the same

used to murder Ms. Chupac.

And then from there, I continued walking
around, kept looking, making sure

nothing was dropped.

This was back in 2011, so the bushes
were right around here.

This was all mulch, an additional wall,
so...

I see the bushes, and I obviously look
through each bush, and there's one of

these three bushes that I found the
phone in.

I was surprised to find it. You know, I
wasn't, like, excited. I was surprised

to find it. Like, oh, there's a phone
right there.

I distinctly remember finding it inside,
on the ground.

At the time, I didn't know if it had any
connection to the case, but I wanted to

make sure I document it, I find it, and
I collect it.

The phone itself was pretty much intact
still.

The back plate was just missing and the
battery's gone, so it was still

workable. The battery was put in place.

We determined the phone to be Renee's
based on the fact that we found a

inside the residence that matched the
type of phone.

Once it was returned here to the police
station, we were able to power up the

phone.

Most people...

Smartphones tell quite a story about
their movements, their phone calls,

obviously voicemails, pictures.

So that information was coming in sort
of piecemeal about the phone

conversations and who she was speaking
to.

This was a color -coded chart that gave
us an indication of all types of calls

in and out and identified those calls by
their source, who they were from.

and what they in fact entailed.

We were able to find a huge volume of
calls from a number that belonged to

a male.

He was speaking to Renee in the very
late hours, up to what we thought to be

maybe about an hour before Renee was
killed.

Yeah, apparently I was a suspect, but
they said I was a suspect, apparently.

That clearly conveyed to them from the
onset that you're going to find a

thousand phone calls from me, you know,
100%. I met Renee back in

1990,

1990, 1990.

Renee was a very outgoing person, you
know, had a lot of friends.

I was the last person to speak with her
because she had called me back. She had

called me back. She kept calling me the
whole day.

It was a Sunday night. I'll never forget
this.

And, you know, she's calling me, yeah,
we're out here. You know, here's some

food. We're having a few drinks right
now. You want to come back on a hangout?

I'm like, I'm done for the day. I go,
I'm tired.

That night, Renee was hanging out with
the married guy.

She liked the guy. He was really
attractive.

He's a typical person from a fluent
community, shall we say.

And ironically enough, she actually saw
him that day before she actually was

murdered, believe it or not. They were
at a restaurant together in Royal Oak,

ironically enough.

And so nevertheless, around 11 o 'clock,
while I was on the phone with her, she

kept begging me to come back out because
she still wanted the party to continue.

I go, I'm going to bed. You need to go
to bed, too.

And then there was a knock on the door.
She goes, I got to go.

And hung up and said, I'll talk to you
later.

That's the last time I even spoke to her
or heard from her.

I worked 9 to 2 the next day, and I was
adamant I was going to

be at my shift, and I needed to go to
work as a distraction.

It was a very tough drive into work,
knowing she wouldn't be there.

knowing that it probably had hit the
news by then and people were going to be

questioning it. Other coworkers were
going to want to know details, not

if it was the religious fanatic that had
killed her and he was going to come

back in.

You know, there was all the details that
you just didn't know what was going to

come of the next day.

I talked to a lead detective, and the
police released over four or five hours

easily.

I gave a very detailed police report on
what I knew and what I didn't know, kind

of a deal.

I told the police that I talked to her
around 11 o 'clock that night, and she

heard a knock at the door, and then, you
know, and the phone hung up, and then I

hadn't heard from her since.

And they asked me who I thought it might
be.

I said it might be the religious guy.
That's who I thought it could have been.

that I thought I could have been as well
also, but with the Mary guy.

Like I said, he actually ended up seeing
her that day, that fable day she passed

away.

So on the 20th, a person did call the
police station and identify himself and

indicate the fact that he was, yes,
involved in an extramarital relationship

with Renee, that he and Renee had spent
Sunday together.

going out to dinner at a local
restaurant here in the Royal Oak area,

after they had dinner that they returned
to Renee's apartment on that Sunday

night.

Information we had from him was that
after he had left her apartment, which

about 8 p .m., his indication to us was
that everything seemed fine, she seemed

okay.

At this particular point in the
investigation, this married man was the

person we know that saw her alive.

Now, I had seen a guy that night come
down these stairs.

There was a guy there, a very young guy.
I don't know how old he was. He could

have been no more, like, say, 20 or
something like that.

And I asked him, I says, well, who are
you looking for? He says, Renee.

But that was the night she was murdered.

It was about 10, 11 o 'clock at night.
It was dark out, of course. There was

light on him, but it was definitely like
20, 21.

Somewhere in that area, you know,
probably no older than that.

That whole day I was kind of thinking
about it. I was going, you know,

wasn't right.

So we were looking for people, some that
we did have names and information for

and some that were basically John Doe's.

We did not have significant and positive
ID on a couple people that certainly

could have been suspects in our eyes.

The autopsy occurred the next day after
the crime scene search was complete.

Now these would be notes the pathologist
would have used noting bruises, noting

cuts.

There were 12 total knife injuries.

Also, she did have probably about a 3
-inch laceration over her eye. It

to be from blunt fourth trauma.

The wine bottle itself, upon
examination, did have some blood on it.

It did have some other matter on it as
well, so it all fit that that was the

item that was used.

to cause that blunt force trauma all
this information to me indicated a very

very specific brutality a significant
amount of strength associated

likely with a significant amount of
anger

Aaron, Renee, and I had hung out a few
times, went to downtown Royal Oak.

Everybody kind of complimented each
other, but when Renee walked in the

all eyes were on her, for sure.

Everybody turned around, no matter male,
female, she definitely was a beautiful

person.

There was another guy that hung out with
Renee.

He was tall.

His hair was short.

He was medium build.

His eyes are, I'll never forget the look
in his eyes. He has those like super

blue eyes, like a husky almost.

The big break came to us when we were
able to find several phone

calls from a 786 area code number.

At that time, we at least had what we
believed to be a prime suspect.

Our next step would have been to try and
obtain that carrier information and

then use that carrier information to get
latitude and longitude and discover

where that cell phone may be.

As we were doing that, one of our police
dispatchers received a phone call from

a woman.

She said that

a person confessed to her son.

He told me.

He said, I did something bad.

I just murdered somebody in a really
horrible way, and I'm confiding this in

because I trust you as my friend.

I can picture it was a beautiful day. I
had opened my windows in my bedroom.

lavender trees in front of my windows
and I was changing my sheets and he came

down and sat on my bed and said I have
to tell you about something bad I

did.

He talked for a half hour in

broken fragments bouncing back and forth
between before it had happened and

after.

He wasn't even sure he had killed her.

I had to make a choice, and I

recorded it.

I am the very first person he told that
to, the whole account.

When he told me, I really maybe didn't
want to believe him. I was starting to.

I'd seen things that made me believe it.

My mom and dad lived two doors down from
me.

I walked in, and I broke down, and I
collapsed on my mom's floor, and I

explained to her what had happened.

And I think she went into shock, too.

And then my mom called the Royal Oak
Police Department.

I met

Chris through

friends, and we became friends. He was
like a little brother to me.

He has the most striking, like...

freakishly piercing blue eyes.

He was fun to be around. Girls loved
him.

And he liked going out and having fun.

He moved down to Royal Oak.

He had been working at a bar.

He met her.

I just assumed it was some girl one of
my friends is having a relationship with

out in Royal Oak.

It was a conflicting position for a guy
because you got your...

who has this older girlfriend.

So I just kind of kept my nose out of
it, you know.

And that night, she texted him.

From what I heard, she was just blowing
his phone up the whole night. He needed

to get there.

From what I had witnessed in the past,

It was like some crazy, distorted mommy
-son relationship, and the way she would

talk to him, and it was bizarre.

Here's what I don't get.

Why didn't you leave?

Because you don't normally stay around
people that do that.

He was going to go leave, but he just
couldn't.

I guess I was just tired of it. He
thought she could walk all over me, and

fed up with it, that's all.

He told me they'd shoved and all that
stuff, and that's when he told me she

swung the bottle at him.

He said she swung a green wine bottle at
me.

Everything happens so fast.

If a girl comes in and he's swinging an
empty wine bottle, but she didn't hit

you with it, that's the problem.

I remember him saying that when he
grabbed the wine bottle from her, he

went to throw it.

But he didn't throw it.

Mr.

Kaminsky had indicated that Christopher
Hearn went to the kitchen and retrieved

a knife.

At some point, he indicated to Mr.
Kaminsky that he stabbed Renee.

He

said

it was self -defense. He told me it's
self -defense.

I'm guilty automatically.

I don't run, and I played it.

It shows that there was something up
about it. Oh, baby, there was something

about it.

He was genuinely sad and horrified and
mortified, struggling

with the knowledge of what had happened,
what he had done, and everything that

had occurred.

I'm just trying to think about the CSI
in my head.

Kevin Kaminsky indicated that
Christopher Hearn spent the night

apartment. He got rid of Renee's cell
phone.

He hid the knife, cleaned himself up,
and left her apartment the following

morning.

So on September 21st, Christopher Hearn
was arrested by the Clinton Township

Police Department, and it turns out it
was just shy of 48 hours from the

discovery of Renee.

Upon his booking, we did notice a
scratch on his palm, a scratch on the

finger of the opposite hand.

These wounds looked to be pretty fresh,
so they could have been...

scratches or wounds from him holding the
knife.

We also later determined the
fingerprints that we took from the

could attribute them to Christopher
Hearn.

Hearn had claimed that he was, you know,
in the act of self -defense.

But, you know, self -defense is once you
get the threat away from you, you don't

keep stabbing the threat.

And the reports of Renee being stabbed
12 times, I don't see that as self

-defense at all.

We did discover that Renee was involved
in a domestic violence dispute that had

occurred sometime prior to this incident
with Christopher Hearn.

When you look at Renee's death, you look
back at the prior domestic assault

case, and it shows you that a single
domestic violence incident can be very

significant and can lead to something
else.

When I saw the breaking news that they
had arrested somebody, I was shocked

because I thought for sure it was the
religious guy.

Then when I saw his mugshot...

I was even more surprised.

It was very shocking to know what he had
done. I did not expect that.

So in March 2012,

Christopher Hearn entered a no contest
plea.

It's not a plea of guilty, but it also
shows a conviction of guilty for

that particular crime.

In this particular case, I do believe
justice was served and he was sentenced.

to 48 to 90 years in prison.

I remember Chris apologizing to her
family.

And frankly, it seems insane to
apologize to someone's family

when you, in your right mind, took their
life.

Because at the end of the day,

Renee's still gone.