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August 2005 Volume 74 Number 8 United States Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, DC 20535-0001 Robert S. Mueller III Director Contributors’ opinions and statements Features should not be considered an endorsement by the FBI for any policy, program, or service. The attorney general has determined Resurrecting Cold Case The NCAVC offers assistance to law that the publication of this periodical is Serial Homicide Investigations 1 enforcement agencies investigating necessary in the transaction of the several types of cases, including cold public business required by law. Use By Leonard G. Johns, of funds for printing this periodical has case homicides. been approved by the director of the Gerard F. Downes, Office of Management and Budget. and Camille D. Bibles The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (ISSN-0014-5688) is published monthly by the Federal Bureau of Reducing a Guilty Suspect’s Investigators who understand and apply Investigation, 935 Pennsylvania Resistance to Confessing 13 criminological theories may develop more Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. convincing themes during interrogations, 20535-0001. Periodicals postage paid By Brian Parsi Boetig at Washington, D.C., and additional resulting in more confessions. mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Editor, FBI Law The Motor Vehicle Exception This is one of the exceptions to the Enforcement Bulletin, FBI Academy, search warrant requirement that allows Madison Building, Room 201, By Edward Hendrie 22 Quantico, VA 22135. an officer to search all or part of a motor vehicle to the same degree as if he had Editor a search warrant. John E. Ott Associate Editors Cynthia L. Lewis David W. MacWha Departments Bunny S. Morris Art Director Denise Bennett Smith 7 Unusual Weapon 21 ViCAP Alert Assistant Art Director Ring Knife Truck Driver Serial Killings Stephanie L. Lowe This publication is produced by 8 Perspective members of the Law Enforcement Excessive Force 101 Communication Unit, Training and Development Division. Internet Address [email protected] Cover Photo © PhotoGear Send article submissions to Editor, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, FBI Academy, Madison Building, Room 201, Quantico, VA 22135. ISSN 0014-5688 USPS 383-310 Resurrecting Cold Case Serial Homicide Investigations By LEONARD G. JOHNS, M. S., GERARD F. DOWNES, and CAMILLE D. BIBLES “It requires a singular focus in committing the actual crime, quite cold-bloodedly.”1 — Robert Spangler pproximately one- third of all homicides Ain the United States are not cleared within the year committed.2 In cold case homicides, investigators often are forced to work with stale information and a lack of evidence.3 However, the View of Miner Spring Trail leading to the crime FBI’s National Center for the scene at Horseshoe Mesa, Grand Canyon, Arizona, hiked by Robert Spangler and his Analysis of Violent Crime third wife prior to her death in April 1993. (NCAVC) offers consulta- tions on the investigation of August 2005 / 1 cold case serial homicides, as suggestions; profiles of un- 15-year-old daughter. All three well as several other types of known offenders; interview, had suffered gunshot wounds cases. The NCAVC combines prosecutive, and trial strategies; from a .38-caliber handgun. investigative and operational major case management; search The daughter, found partially support functions, research, and warrant assistance; and expert clothed in her bed, had a bullet training to provide assistance testimony. With the NCAVC’s wound in her back. The son, without charge to federal, state, assistance, a 20-year-old cold also in bed, had been shot once local, and foreign law enforce- case homicide investigation in in his upper chest. The mother’s ment agencies investigating the Southwest was solved in body lay slumped over a type- unusual or repetitive violent 2000. writer in the basement with a crimes.4 bullet wound high on her fore- Furthermore, the NCAVC’s Suspicious Deaths head. A typewritten suicide note Behavioral Analysis Units On the morning of Decem- on the typewriter was signed provide behavioral-based ber 30, 1978, deputies from the with her initial. investigative support by apply- Arapahoe County, Colorado, As often is the case in intra- ing case experience, research, Sheriff’s Office responded to familial homicide investiga- and training to complex and the scene of a possible double tions, detectives interviewed the time-sensitive crimes typically homicide/suicide in a private surviving spouse as a suspect.5 involving acts or threats of residence in Littleton, Colorado. The husband, Robert Spangler, violence. This support includes A neighbor had discovered the age 45, told investigators that he crime, threat, and critical bodies of a 45-year-old woman, was not home during the crime. incident analysis; investigative her 17-year-old son, and her Spangler admitted marital problems with his wife and that he planned to leave her. He described leaving his house early that morning and finding sheriff’s deputies there when he returned. Spangler’s original story changed significantly in a subsequent interview. Two separate, private polygraph examiners found his answers inconclusive to questions about his role in the deaths. The .38- caliber weapon used in all three shootings belonged to Spangler, and evidence of gunshot residue Special Agent Johns is assigned Special Agent Downes serves was found on his right palm. On to the Crisis Management Unit in the NCAVC’s Behavioral in the FBI’s Criticial Incident Analysis Unit in the FBI’s Criticial January 3, 1979, the Arapahoe Response Group. Incident Response Group. County coroner closed the case as a double homicide/suicide. Ms. Bibles is the assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. The sheriff’s office was unable 2 / FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin to overcome the coroner’s findings, and they had ex- hausted all investigative leads; therefore, they were forced to close the case. Most of the evidence either was returned to Spangler or destroyed. Seven months later, Spangler married again. He and his second wife shared a com- mon interest—hiking in Grand Canyon, Arizona. She eventu- ally wrote a book of her experi- ences hiking the Canyon.6 Subsequently, the couple began to have marital problems, and they divorced in 1988. In April 1993, Spangler and his third wife, age 58, backpacked in Grand Canyon, Arizona. This wife was an active aerobics instructor with five grown children and numer- ous grandchildren from a previous marriage. One morn- ing in April 1993, Spangler appeared at a ranger station in the Grand Canyon and calmly told the ranger that his wife had fallen to her death. He explained that they had stopped to take a picture on the trail and, Sketch depicts path that Spangler’s third wife fell after he pushed her. when he looked back, his wife was gone. never was directly implicated in the Canyon with a variety of Rangers located the third this wife’s death because it was partners several times a year. wife’s body approximately 160 ruled an accident. He drew After the death of his third feet below the trail. The autopsy national attention with inter- wife, Spangler reestablished report concluded that she views on several television contact with his second wife, sustained massive injuries, shows.7 As a grieving husband, who moved back into his including abrasions, contusions, Spangler discussed his wife’s Colorado home and died of a lacerations, and multiple frac- accidental death and the dangers drug overdose in 1994. This tures of the neck, chest, and of hiking in the Grand Canyon. death was not investigated lower extremities. Spangler Spangler continued to backpack by law enforcement. August 2005 / 3 The Investigation knowledge of the Grand Can- NCAVC Behavioral Assess- In January 1999, perceptive yon, joined the team. The ment Questionnaire when investigators from the U.S. AUSA united the cases under interviewing some of Spangler’s Department of Interior, National the umbrella of federal juris- associates. Early investigation Park Service, and counties of diction as an insurance fraud/ revealed that Spangler was an Coconino, Arizona, and Arapa- murder, and an FBI agent educated, intelligent, and hoe, Colorado, linked the cold in Flagstaff contacted the successful man. A charismatic case homicides in their respec- NCAVC. individual, he worked in careers tive jurisdictions. They met with First, NCAVC officials of human relations and public agents from the FBI’s Flagstaff, suggested that investigators speaking. In addition, Spangler Arizona, resident agency and complete a subject history on spent a significant amount of requested assistance. An assis- Spangler, stressing that inves- time living in different parts of tant U.S. attorney (AUSA) from tigators should familiarize Colorado and hiking the Grand the District of Arizona with themselves with all available Canyon. One lead set by the experience in capital murder information.8 Further, they FBI agent resulted in an inter- cases, who had a personal recommended using an view of a woman living in a small Colorado community who, subsequently, contacted authorities a few weeks after her interview. At that time, she gave them a copy of a letter she received from Spangler in which he advised her that he had terminal cancer. The investigative team, with concurrence from the NCAVC, immediately approached Spangler. A complete confes- sion was critical for prosecution because of the lack of existing evidence. The investigative team traveled to Colorado to interview Spangler, and the AUSA met them there to pro- vide on-site legal consultation. Confession In Colorado, local law During the course of investigation, Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Inves- enforcement and the local FBI tigator Paul Goodman (co-case agent) directed the construction of an office supported investigators. anotomically correct trajectory model depicting the bullet path and Because any prosecution de- muzzle distance from Spangler’s first wife’s fatal gunshot wound.