48 Hours - The Troubling Case Against Kevin Cooper

Episode Date: March 22, 2020

A man on death row says his blood was planted at the crime scene. Will an empty vial help his case? "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. You've been with us for the two decades that we've investigated the case of Kevin Cooper, a California death row inmate who has always professed his innocence. Tonight, there are new developments that may help Cooper in his bid for freedom. that may help Cooper in his bid for freedom. Our investigation began with letters from San Quentin Prison outside San Francisco.

I'm Kevin Cooper. I'm on death row. He claimed he had been framed for the murder of four people. There was a terrible home invasion in Chino Hills, California, one night in 1983. Family of four with a young boy who was an overnight guest. Authorities say more than one weapon was used in the brutal murders. Four of them died. One survived, even though his throat had been cut. Did you have some injuries? Yeah.

My throat was slashed, got stabbed here, hit by an ax here, screwdriver punctured my back, my lung broke three ribs. The authorities then arrested and sentenced to death a young black man named Kevin Cooper for the crime. This occurred in an upper-middle class neighborhood, a horse country. Finding somebody to pin it on was very important,

and Kevin Cooper was a convenient person to pin it on. The problem was they didn't have the evidence. There is an enormous amount of evidence that suggests three or four white perpetrators. I'm Tom Parker. I'm a retired FBI agent. I was brought into this case at the request of the lead attorney. The more I dug into it, I began to realize

that there was something seriously wrong with the case. You believe that evidence was planted and tampered with. I don't believe that. I know that. They framed me. It's very hard for the system to try to correct a mistake. That was going to murder me. I think they got the wrong guy.

But the state says it's case closed. I am 100% certain Kevin Cooper committed these murders. I die a little bit every day. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I know I'm innocent. He's got a lot of people pulling for him, not only within the prison, but outside. We've been trying to get this evidence tested over the last 15 years I've been working in the case, and we've always been refused. One year ago, Kevin Cooper

got his wish. California's governor ordered new DNA tests. But what do they reveal about Cooper's case? I was worried that there wouldn't be a lot of good data that could be obtained. We've had the DNA testing. We do have a profile. It's certainly not Kevin. Продолжение следует... The murder victims were all mutilated. It was a massacre. They were a close-knit family of four. Brutal and bloody. Authorities are completely baffled by the slaying. And more than three decades ago, it shattered the upscale horse community known as Chino Hills in Southern California. We have evidence that places Kevin Cooper at the crime scene.

Many wondered back then if the right man had been convicted for the crime. And even more wondered today if the real killers got away. Responding to 2951 English Road, 2951 English Road. On June 4th, 1983, Peggy Ryan, her husband Doug, and their 10-year-old daughter Jessica were stabbed and slashed to death inside their home. An 11-year-old neighbor spending the night, Christopher Hughes, also lost his life. Here's forward DOA.

One second, you're still alive? The only one who miraculously lived through that night was Josh Ryan, then eight and a half years old. I spoke to him in 2003. What does something like this do to a person's life? Changes your life. You lose somebody and it hurts. There was strong evidence pointing to multiple assailants. A bloody hatchet was discovered near the Ryan's Arabian horse ranch. Investigators believed it was just one of three weapons used. And according to the coroner, the victims had some 140 wounds.

The Ryan's family car is missing and presumed taken by the murder suspects. It's a 1977 Buick four-door station wagon. Neighbors reported they saw three people drive away in a car that looked like it. And Josh, still too wounded to speak, also indicated that there were three attackers when he was questioned by a deputy. When we got to the point of asking him how many people were there, I went one, two, three, and he squeezed my hand. Three people when things went crazy. Right. One, two, three, and he squeezed my hand.

Three people when things went crazy. Right. Josh thought the attackers were white or Mexican men, and yet police soon zeroed in on this one man, Kevin Cooper. The prime suspect, escaped prisoner Kevin Cooper, is still at large. Cooper was a career burglar who'd escaped from prison and was on the run. He had been hiding out at a vacant house near the Ryan home before the murders. Authorities believed he killed the Ryans to steal their car.

A hatchet was reported missing from the house where Cooper had been hiding. A hatchet sheath was later recovered there. The huge manhunt was finally over, with Cooper being sly enough to evade them for months. Case of the people of California versus Kevin Cooper. By the time Cooper went on trial, the memory of the only eyewitness, Josh Ryan, then 10, had changed. This is Sunday, December 9th, 1984. The district attorney at the time, Dennis Kottmeyer, questioned Josh.

What did you see? I don't really like saw, almost like a shadow or something. He no longer remembered three attackers. How many shadows did you see? Just one. Just the one? We, the jury of the above entitled cause, determine that the

penalty shall be dead. Kevin Cooper was convicted and condemned to die, although he told the jury then what he later told me, that he was innocent. Why should someone believe you, Kevin? I'm not asking anyone to believe me. I'm asking people to look at the evidence. And the evidence does raise questions. Cooper's fingerprints weren't found anywhere at the crime scene. Neither were any of his hairs. But there were strands of light-colored hairs found clutched in Jessica Ryan's hand. Her grandmother, Mary Howell. When I saw that little hand, she must have fought terribly.

And there were those multiple weapons that authorities say were used in the attack. How could one man wield at least three weapons? I still can't believe that one person could do all that to my family. There's five of them. And I just know that they didn't stand in line saying I'm next. The scene was incredibly bloody. There was spatter all over the walls. And yet the state's experts said he found only one single drop of blood that matched Cooper's blood type. It is on the tiny paint chip seen here in this evidence photo. A man walking his dog spotted

the Ryan car in a church parking lot yesterday morning. And then there's the stolen family station wagon. Police eagerly searched the car for clues. Blood was found in the car, but if Kevin Cooper used it to get away, why was the blood found on three seats, not one? Mary Howell believed there had to be more than one killer. If somebody's out there that thinks that maybe Josh could identify him, if they went after Josh, they'd go after me too. I'm concerned. I'm a protective grandmother. After our first report on Cooper's case aired, the state agreed to conduct DNA tests. There wasn't enough DNA in the hairs, but cigarette butts found in the car, a tan t-shirt found near the scene, and that tiny blood-stained paint chip were all sent to the lab. In 2002,

In 2002, the results came in, and no one seemed more shocked than Cooper. The evidence tested positive for his DNA. Cooper was convinced that somehow investigators had tampered with and planted the evidence. But who would believe him? Not Josh Ryan. It's time to face it. The DNA is pointing to Kevin Cooper. So he was there. He needs to pay for his crime. So we have closure. Christopher Hughes' mother agreed. But Josh's loving and protective grandmother didn't see it that way.

I haven't changed my opinions at all. I still am looking for the truth. I feel the killers are still out there somewhere. Kevin Cooper was scheduled to die by lethal injection on February 10, 2004. Would you go watch him die? Yes. You would need watch him die? Yes. You would need to do that? Yes.

He was there, so he needs to pay for that. If Kevin Cooper is executed, do you believe that they'll be killing an innocent man? Yes, I do. What do you think the evidence shows? Watch more of 10-year-old Josh Ryan's interview on Facebook at 48 Hours. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals.

However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows

early and ad-free right now. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman,

the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. We say hell no! February 10, 2004. Kevin Cooper's date with death was set. And then, with just hours to go... The execution that was supposed to happen a few hours ago is now on hold. A surprise ruling late tonight that stayed his execution and stunned just about everybody. The Ninth Circuit Federal Appellate Court stepped in and saved Cooper's life. He later described that moment to me.

How close did you come? I came within three hours and 42 minutes of being strapped down to that gun and physically tortured with lethal poison. After the court stayed his execution, attorney Norman Heil, working pro bono, joined Cooper's defense. I think Kevin is innocent, and I also think that he was the victim of a horribly racist prosecution,

and I just don't give up. Heil fought to get Cooper a new trial. For years, he petitioned court after court, but the boxes of legal documents continued to pile up. And that was her hairdo at that time. Mary Heil still refused to say it was over. Everybody knows that I want to know the truth, why my family was killed, who did it was over. Everybody knows that I want to know the truth.

Why my family was killed. Who did it? Why? And I don't want to die without knowing it. Sadly, the 93-year-old grandmother never got the answer she hoped for. Love you, Grandma. In 2008, Mary Howell died. Kevin Cooper had been on death row for 23 years. One year later, Cooper finally got a break.

His case was back in front of the Ninth Circuit Court with 27 judges. While the majority refused to review his case, 11 of them disagreed. There is not a single case in U.S. history where 11 appellate judges said that they felt that the person had not gotten a fair hearing. One judge, William Fletcher, wrote in a scathing 100-page dissent, the state of California may be about to execute an innocent man. And there is substantial evidence that three white men, rather than Cooper, were the killers. Please join me in welcoming Judge Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit.

In a lecture, he pointed to contradictions in the only survivor's account. Josh Ryan first indicated the assailants were three white or Mexican men. By trial... I don't really like the shadow or something. His story was different. How many shadows did you see? Just one. Just the one?

Judge Fletcher believes Josh's memory was influenced by a deputy who had visited Josh approximately 20 times during the hospital stay. The deputy got Josh to change the story so that he no longer said three or four white men did it. The judge also noted Josh never identified Kevin Cooper. During his stay in the hospital, Josh twice saw a picture of Cooper on television. Both times, he said Cooper was not one of the killers. It's what Cooper's lawyers have been saying all along.

As soon as they identified Kevin Cooper, a black escaped prisoner, in the house down the hill from the Ryans, they stopped looking for those people and focused entirely on proving that Kevin Cooper had killed the Ryans. Repeatedly attacked with hatchet blows to the head by Kevin Cooper. Judge Fletcher also questions the key piece of evidence in this case. That tiny drop of blood the state says proves kevin cooper was inside the ryan home at first the criminalist said it was one blood type and later

he said it was another when he found out that he'd put the wrong blood type down and he had not matched it to kevin he changed his notes to say it was the same blood type as Kevin's. The judge says the criminalist altered his lab notes and claimed that he had misinterpreted his results. And that's not all. Remember those cigarette butts found in the Ryan station wagon? Defense attorney Norman Heil believes they came from the home where Cooper had been hiding out. When they found the Ryan station wagon, they planted those two cigarette

butts. Those butts weren't found until sheriff's deputies did a second search of the car, and according to Heil, one of the butts inexplicably grew from one test to another. The previous tested cigarette butt was 4 millimeters long, and the one in 2002 was 7 millimeters long. Judge Fletcher says deputies discounted, disregarded, and discarded evidence pointing to other killers. Like evidence provided by this woman, Diana Roper. Days after the murders, she called the sheriff's office after she found bloody coveralls left in her closet.

I tried to tell them this has to do with the Channel murder. She said they belonged to her ex-boyfriend, a parole killer by the name of Lee Furrow. Furrow had murdered 17-year-old Mary Sue Kitts on the orders of a gang leader. He strangled her and threw her off a bridge in a river. Just an evil, evil person. Roper said she told investigators that Furrow also owned a hatchet that looked like the weapon used on the Ryans and Christopher

Hughes. Well he kept all his tools on the back porch hanging on nails and as soon as I said I walked back there and his hatchet was the only thing missing. And she said that on the day of the murders Furrow was wearing a t-shirt. It was like a beige light brown colored beige. A tan shirt was found down the road from the Ryans' home, not far from the Canyon Corral bar. That's significant because on the night of the murders, three white men were seen in that bar, one of them in a light colored t-shirt and another in bloody coveralls.

I realized at that time that he was just covered in blood, spattered in blood. Christine Sloniker and Mary Wolfe, who were in the bar, spoke to us in 2004. It was spotted. He had a light-colored shirt on, so it was, you know, it showed. It really, I mean, it showed up. It was, even though the bar was real dark, you could still see it. When you first heard that the Ryans had been murdered, what was your first thought? The guys in the bar. Diana Roper died three years after we interviewed her.

The bloody coveralls she turned over to the authorities were never tested. Instead, a deputy threw them out before Cooper's trial. This disposition report shows the coveralls were destroyed and described as having no value. I don't know that that happened. That did happen. When we spoke with Floyd Tidwell, who was sheriff at the time of the murders, he didn't seem to know anything about it. But doesn't that concern you that maybe not all the evidence was available at Kevin Cooper's

trial? I can't be concerned unless I know about it. But it was something that happened when you were sheriff. It was your sheriff's department. Hey, let's bring this to a screaming halt right here, okay? That's enough of that crap. Kevin Cooper believes the coveralls could have helped his case. And so does Judge Fletcher.

The bloody overalls were, to say the least, inconvenient, so the deputies threw them away. Kevin Cooper, the man now sitting on death row, may well be, and in my view probably is, innocent. Doesn't that give you pause? Doesn't that make you feel that you have to do whatever you can to make sure that the right person's being executed? The right person is being executed. Former District Attorney Michael Ramos inherited Cooper's case in 2003. It doesn't give me pause at all because you're talking about a sending judge of the Ninth Circuit Judges Court of Appeals,

which is, with all due respect, a very liberal circuit. The majority opinion was not only guilty, overwhelmingly guilty. How do you think Cooper's blood got on the evidence? See more evidence photos from this case at 48hours.com. By 2010, Kevin Cooper, 52 years old, had been on death row nearly half his life. His appeals had run out. And then, a newspaper columnist 3,000 miles away took notice. I'm Nicholas Kristof. I write op-ed columns for The New York Times.

What caught Kristof's attention was Judge William Fletcher's dissent. I had never read an opinion like this of a respected circuit court judge arguing that somebody on death row had been framed. Kristof is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer covering genocide and human rights issues. And there was something about Kevin Cooper's case that struck a chord. The prosecutors kind of seized upon him as, you know, he's sent by central casting. He looks the part that people had in their minds for a ruthless killer.

And it is particularly problematic when a black person is charged with the killings of white people. And I think that made it a lot harder for Kevin Cooper to be tried fairly for this crime. Kristof and a team from the New York Times closely examined the evidence the state said tested positive for Cooper's blood in 2002. The tiny blood-stained paint chip and the tan T-shirt. Kristof's conclusion? You believe, as you're sitting here right now,

that there was evidence planted? I believe that there was evidence planted. But if that's true, how did Cooper's DNA get on those items? Defense attorney Norman Heil has a theory. That's true. How did Cooper's DNA get on those items? Defense attorney Norman Heil has a theory. When Kevin Cooper was arrested, they took blood paint chip, was checked out overnight, signed out to the same criminalist who had matched the blood on it to Cooper.

His reason? He said it was to assure there was enough evidence to test. I spoke to Cooper about it last year. Kevin, what do you believe happened when he took out the single drop of blood that they say connects you to the case? I think he put either lava or blood in there or something in there. He had it out for 24 hours. And you only sign it and date it when you open the container. And the date is on there. You know, I've seen the picture. Yes. And so that means he opened it. But why did he take it out the book?

As for the T-shirt, a judge who held a hearing on evidence tampering after the DNA test determined that the shirt had not been checked out or looked at by anyone prior to DNA testing. But that's not accurate. The state showed us the T-shirt a year before the DNA tests were done, when we first started looking at the case. Can you turn around and hold it, though? Right, yeah. If you were going to test this shirt here,

you would test it for what? To see if there's any DNA there that can be tested. Later, the defense discovered something alarming about that vial of Cooper's blood the state had taken for evidence. It was tainted. The vial that contains Kevin Cooper's blood has a second unidentified person's DNA on it. Kristof believes there's a suspicious pattern in Cooper's case. I think this is unusual in the enormous amount of evidence that suggests that Kevin Cooper was framed. The way consistently

a place would be searched, no evidence would be found. And then once they knew they were looking at Kevin Cooper, then they would search again and abracadabra, they would find critical evidence that they needed against him. Former District Attorney Michael Ramos says claims of evidence tampering have been dismissed by both state and federal courts. As far as planning evidence, that's absolutely impossible. There was no evidence tampering at all. And yet, after Cooper's conviction, key people who had worked on the case

got in trouble with the law. Crime lab director William Baird resigned amid allegations of stealing heroin from the property locker. Sheriff Floyd Tidwell was charged with a felony. Floyd Tidwell was found out to have been taking guns that the Sheriff's Department deputies took from people during their normal police activities, and he sold them. That's the same Sheriff Tidwell who didn't want to answer our questions about destroying evidence. Hey, let's bring this to a screaming halt right here, okay? It does raise questions about the caliber of the work that was being done by the sheriff's office. Both Cooper's defense team and Nicholas Kristof called for new DNA testing and got a huge response from readers, politicians, even celebrities.

Kim Kardashian West sent out this tweet. Governor Brown, can you please test the DNA of Kevin Cooper? And what was your reaction when she actually went on social media saying you deserve to get testing? I'm very thankful that she cared enough and took the time out of her busy life to do that. I understand even the Pope responded. The Pope weighed in. Yeah, how great is that? You saw the article written by Nicholas Kristof.

Right. Is he wrong? Absolutely wrong. And I wish that he would have taken the time to go over the evidence, the evidence that was presented at the trial, the evidence that was presented to the pellet courts, the evidence that was presented at the trial, the evidence that was presented to the Pellet Courts, the federal proceedings. I truly believe that he didn't do his homework before writing that one-sided, very one-sided story.

So if you disagree with my conclusions, then test the evidence. The best response, if you don't like my argument, is to prove me wrong with the evidence that is sitting in lockers and has been for 35 years. The defense believes new tests will connect someone else to the murders, but they'll need the power of California's governor to make it happen. Make it happen. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life.

Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn. And it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist

Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. That's him.

That's him. Kevin Cooper's lawyers have long believed Lee Furrow was involved in the murders of the Ryan family and Christopher Hughes. When we found him in 2000, Furrow had moved cross-country to Pennsylvania. Here I am, and I'm willing to talk to anybody about it. Furrow was a known killer. He had murdered that 17-year-old almost a decade before the Chino Hills massacre. Can I ask you point blank, did you kill the Ryan family? No, I did not. Or Christopher Hughes? No, I did not. I had nothing to do with any of this.

I asked Furrow about those bloody coveralls that his ex-girlfriend gave to authorities. I never had any coveralls. Furrow said that at the time of the murders, he had been at a concert. Former San Bernardino District Attorney Michael Ramos. He was 30 plus miles away from the crime scene when this murder occurred. But if California Governor Jerry Brown agrees to retest the evidence, the defense hopes they will find a forensic link to Furrow. In 2018, Furrow agreed to give Cooper's team a sample of his DNA. Were you surprised that he was just willing to hand over his DNA? I was astonished that he would be willing to do that.

Defense investigator and retired FBI agent Tom Parker. And I asked him why, and he said he really had nothing to hide. Furrow was seen here with a relative at a meeting that was secretly recorded by investigator Parker. So, if you wouldn't mind opening up your mouth, I'll do this side here. Furrow was willing to give his saliva, but not his blood. I'm not doing blood to where it can end up on evidence like whatever they did to him. No, no. We never had a tan t-shirt.

No, no, no. It's not what you have. No. Well, DNA's going to tell us. Even 35 years later, those skin cells are still going to be there. We went back to Furrow's door again in January 2019. This time, he wouldn't talk to us. While the defense team pushed for new DNA tests,

the only survivor of the massacre was pushing back. Josh Ryan doesn't think any more DNA tests are needed to determine who killed his family in 1983. In a letter to Governor Brown, Josh wrote, Kevin Cooper is on my mind every day. He's a nightmare which plays over and over in my head. I can never get away from him. Christopher Hughes' mother, Mary Ann, agrees.

There's just no doubt that Kevin Cooper was the one and only killer, and they need to carry out the sentence that he was given. But Cooper, facing death, still insists he's innocent. Well, I can't not take responsibility for murders that I did not commit. Then, in December 2018, Cooper got a surprise. Two weeks before leaving office, Governor Jerry Brown tonight has issued an executive order directing DNA testing be carried out in one of the most shocking and brutal murder cases in Southern California.

How did you hear about it? I found out about it on Christmas morning when I was watching the news. The governor's order allowed only four items to be tested. The hatchet, the tan T-shirt, an orange towel that was found next to it, and the hatchet she discovered in the house where Cooper was hiding. I'm just trying to stay positive and hopeful but I'm also skeptical. So are these DNA tests really a matter of life or death?

They are for Mr. Cooper for sure. But then just two months later, Cooper got more good news. The new governor of California, Gavin Newsom, ordered more testing, including that vial of Cooper's blood. Why do you think that Governor Newsom so quickly added the number of tests? Well, I like to think that it's because he saw in the clemency petition, that there was a significant doubt about whether Kevin Cooper was guilty. Newsom also suspended executions in California. San Quentin's lethal injection facility was dismantled and hauled out of the prison.

But Kevin Cooper remains on death row. I'm finally getting to meet Kevin Cooper face to face after all these years. Last spring, I went to San Quentin prison with attorney Norman Heil. It's the first time I had seen him in person. We were not allowed to record the visit, but we talked for hours. Even after all this time, Cooper is confident he will eventually walk out a free man. The fact that he now could have so much of this evidence tested, do you see a difference in Kevin?

I think he's very cautious about trying to predict what's going to happen and trying to get too optimistic. We're worried that something nefarious could happen and that the testing will not show his innocence. Kim Kardashian West also went to see Cooper, and she shared her visit with her millions of followers. She just didn't get on board just to get on board. She did her research. When people look up the evidence, they say, oh, hell no, this guy didn't do that. Thomas says to you he didn't do it. All you got to do is look at

everything and put everything together. And that's what she did. Cooper continues to wait for the test results. But his team says they're not relying on that. They have new information, they say, that has nothing to do with DNA. We have three people who have testified under oath in the form of a declaration that Lee Farrell confessed to them. Kevin Cooper is 62 years old. He's now been on San Quentin's death row for more than half his life. I'm doing as best I can despite my situation. I'm strong mentally, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually and I continue to fight. It's been one disappointment after another in his bid to prove his innocence.

And now, after a year of DNA testing, more disappointment. This evidence was collected years and years and years ago. Defense attorney Bica Barlow, a DNA specialist, says the test confirmed her biggest fear, that the DNA is too degraded for even modern testing. At the time, evidence wasn't handled very well. It wasn't stored well. This is the T-shirt. Do you know, as you're sitting here today, who was wearing that T-shirt? No.

And why not? We know that this T-shirt was used in these murders. Why don't we know who was wearing it? We don't know for lots of reasons, but the DNA testing didn't tell us anything. Don't know for lots of reasons, but the DNA testing didn't tell us anything. The lab was unable to find even one full DNA profile anywhere on the tan T-shirt that could be matched to a wearer. I'm sure for Kevin Cooper, it's incredibly disappointing. He's been asking to test this for years and years and years. And, you know, maybe we would have gotten different results 10 years ago or 20 years ago but that's not what happened it was much the same story

for most of the other evidence testing was done on the hatchet the hatchet sheath the fingernail scrappings from the victims, and we got no conclusive results. So this is the orange towel found with the tan T-shirt. They had better luck with that orange towel, the one believed to have been taken from the Ryan home. A full DNA profile was found on the towel. We have a single male profile that is not Kevin Cooper's. Barlow says the profile doesn't match Cooper or any of the victims, We have a single male profile that is not Kevin Cooper's.

Barlow says the profile doesn't match Cooper or any of the victims, but it also doesn't match Lee Furrow. It was uploaded into CODIS, a national database of known offenders. But again, there was no match. To be honest, this is a towel inside a family home. It could be a full profile of somebody who was visiting the Ryans. It could be all sorts of people. All of that blood had to go somewhere.

There was one unexpected and disturbing discovery made during the testing. You look at all of these blood vials, and they all have a substantial amount of blood in them. But the vial that has contained Kevin Cooper's blood since he was arrested in 1983 is empty. To have an entire vial disappear like that raises all sorts of questions in my mind. I can't understand how all of that blood could have been consumed in testing. And when you say questions, what do you mean by that?

I don't know what to think. I know my questions are, where did the blood go? Was it taken out deliberately and placed someplace else? There's so much evidence of bad behavior by the police in this investigation that, frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody took blood from that vial and dropped it on things. Cooper has always claimed that his blood had been planted on evidence.

And the defense is still waiting for more test results, including the painstaking process of testing those light-colored hairs found in Jessica Ryan's hand. If you look at what we have so far, Kevin is not tied to these crimes through any of this testing. Even without DNA tests that definitively tie someone else to the murders, Heil says he now has other evidence that does. The team found five new witnesses who connect Lee Furrow to the crime. We have found witnesses that, in one case, Lee Furrow to the crime. We have found witnesses that, in one case,

Lee Furrow confessed to shortly after the murders, gave a detailed confession to this individual who I'm sure he never would have believed would ever go to the police. Two of those witnesses came forward after they watched our broadcast last year. For now, they want to remain anonymous. What makes you believe these men are credible?

I mean, how do you know they might not have a beef with him? Obviously, you don't take confessions just at face value. You dig into them. Their backgrounds are such that contribute to their credibility. One witness vividly recalled Furrow saying, we butchered all of them. And another witness gave details about Furrow's alleged accomplices that are shocking. It was a surprise, quite frankly. Defense investigator Tom Parker. We have statements from people that there were

two women involved on this killing team along with Lee Furrow. Doesn't that contradict the witnesses at the Canyon Corral Bar? They all said it was three men. I have been told that at least one of the women could be mistaken for a man based on the clothing that was being worn. Both women named by the new witnesses did hang out with Lee Furrow. Heil says he and his team are following this lead. Fewer than one out of five cases are solved by DNA testing. There's a lot of other ways in which people are exonerated, a lot of other ways in which the truth emerges.

Two months ago, Cooper's defense team asked, actually pleaded, with Governor Newsom to go beyond DNA tests and take a fresh look at Cooper's claims that evidence had been tampered with and planted. In this 152-page petition, they made a case for a full innocence investigation. Does this feel like a really tough uphill battle? Always has. The current San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson says his office is participating in the testing but he won't comment until all of the results are provided. Governor Newsom has not responded to Kevin Cooper's request for an innocence investigation.

But Cooper is not giving up hope. He is a very strong person and he is somebody who believes in the truth and is willing to fight for it. I cannot give up and I will not give up. This is terrifying. This is a senseless murder. This is not a minor point. This is... This is all the victim's blood. This is the man that's supposed to kill you.

This is really a whodunit. This is a heavy gun. This is hate. This is real. This is crazy. This is $800,000. This is the moment of truth. This is... This is hate. This is real. This is crazy. This is $800,000. This is the moment of truth. This is, this is, this is the dark web.

This is terrifying. My name is Eura. And you could hire a hitman. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.