Cold Case Files - Reconstructing Murder

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Advances in forensic modeling helps investigators identify a murder victim whose skin was stripped from her head, neck and legs. However, it’s a specially trained dog with a nose for blood that proves to be the prosecution’s smoking gun. Sponsors: Progressive: Progressive.com  

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. Baraboo, Wisconsin. In 1899, the Midwest town housed the winter residents of the Ringling Brothers Circus. A century later, another circus is about to inhabit this sleepy town. But in this show, the main act is murder. July 30th, 1999. Friday afternoon in Sauk County, Wisconsin at 345, Detective Joseph Welsh answers a call about a family finding a strange bag by the river.

The mother was on the beach. They had come over and they were actually poking at what they had thought at the time was garbage. a family finding a strange bag by the river. The mother was on the beach. They had come over and they were actually poking at what they had thought at the time was garbage. And they had poked it open, told the mother that they had found something. She came back and looked and found that it was a human torso.

A female torso wrapped in a black canvas bag. The remains are fresh, deposited on the beach within the past seven days. Search teams immediately begin patrolling the banks for the rest of the body. By Saturday morning, four more bags are recovered. Each contains a separate limb. When Detective Welsh moves in for a closer look,

the merely horrific turns bizarre. The femurs, both femurs were completely skinned. The legs or the skin along with the flesh was removed and that was found in a bag. Another very unique aspect of the body was how precisely this young lady was dismembered. Special Agent Liz Fegels views the disarticulation of the corpse as an investigative key, a window, perhaps, into the mindset of a killer. Disarticulation specifically refers to the taking apart of the joints as opposed to hacking or cutting. And it was done almost with surgical precision.

On Saturday afternoon, 24 hours after the torso was discovered, search teams find the victim's head amidst a thicket of brush on the river's north bank. When it's placed next to the recovered arms and legs, the investigation takes yet another twist. The skin from the face was actually removed. There was no skin on the face at all, and the scalp, along along with the nose was removed from the skull. It completely precluded her identity, at least for a facial recognition. You know, there's no way that you could have shown this photograph to anybody and had any sort of compassion or concern for them as possible surviving victims of their loved one. A skull without a face.

Whoever killed the young woman clearly did not want her identified. Fegels and Welsh believed if they can find the identity of their Jane, she will lead them to her killer. On the first floor of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, behind the banners and columns, dwells the Indian Burial Department. Inside, forensic anthropologist Leslie Eisenberg studies the art of reading bones. Most of her specimens date back hundreds of years. Occasionally, however, she is called upon to read the tea leaves in an active murder investigation. One of the ways that forensic anthropologists can contribute

to a case that's otherwise unidentifiable is to provide information on the sex of the individual, the age of the individual, the stature, and the ancestry. Eisenberg is asked to examine the Jane Doe remains. Based on my examination and measurements of various bones, the height was estimated at between five feet and five foot four. The age, in my opinion, was 18 to 24, and ancestry was African American. Eisenberg's findings provide detectives

with their first toehold in the investigation. Jane Doe's profile is cross-referenced against missing persons from across the country. Now, certainly we had to notify all law enforcement nationwide using the teletype system. Then we entered her parameters, unidentified deceased victim in NCIC, the National Crime Information Center, for any possible, what we call hits, of similar

missing females. The remains of the victim show evidence of decapitation. Then we also used a press conference to get our information out to the community and get leads coming in, at least locally. The story gets local, then national play. A phone bank is set up. Over 1,000 hits are registered, all potential leads on missing Black females. Detectives quickly realize they need more detailed information on their Jane Doe if the investigation is to go forward. Specifically, they need to put a face to their skull.

Giving them the information that this was a female black, giving them the height and weight was not going to give us a lot of information at all. It was that we needed to actually have a physical photograph that people could look at on a poster to attempt to identify this person. Detectives want to undertake a facial reconstruction of the skull. The problem is, it's a procedure that requires boiling any existing soft tissue off the bone. That's a step County Prosecutor Pat Barrett does not want to take. In order to do clay reconstruction, you need a naked skull, and we didn't have a naked skull.

We also didn't know if we had anything of evidentiary value with the flesh itself. Because we didn't know necessarily what weapons may have been used to do that, we didn't know what we would miss by taking any of that flesh away. Unwilling to chance destroying critical evidence, Barrett refuses to allow the skull to be stripped for facial reconstruction. Fecals in Welsh are forced to return to the initial phone leads for missing persons. The volume is overwhelming.

In 1999, over 100,000 missing black females were registered nationwide. The chances of matching one to the detective's Jane Doe, especially without a picture or sketch of the victim, are slim to none. In time, the case of the dismembered torso goes cold. I believed that it was going to be virtually impossible to solve. And as time went on and we didn't have a missing victim being reported anywhere and we had not been able to find a fingerprint match, I thought, you know, this probably never will be solved.

When we return, technology provides detectives with a face for their victim and breathes new life into a cold case. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Hey, Cold Case Files listeners, whether you love true crime or comedies, celebrity interviews, news, or even motivational speakers, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, right? And guess what? Now you can call the shots on your auto insurance too. Enter the Name Your Price tool from Progressive. The Name Your Price tool puts you in charge of your auto insurance by working just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance.

Then they'll show you a variety of coverages that fit within your budget, giving you options. Now that's something you'll want to press play on. It's easy to start a quote and you'll be able to choose the best option for you fast. It's just one of the many ways you can save with Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com to try the Name Your Price tool for yourself and join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. open the app and something good will already be playing because it's curated by people who love TV as much as you do. So if you're in the mood for comedy, there's 18 channels that'll make you laugh. Looking for drama? We got so much of it, you'll cry tears of joy. Reality shows, game shows, sports, Star Trek, and even more Star Trek. No matter what mood you're in, there's something

on Pluto TV. Just download the app and start streaming. Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never. In the summer of 1999, a female body is found along the banks of the Wisconsin River. The victim's head is missing its face, making identification impossible. Traditional face reconstruction requires removing all flesh from the skull and reducing it to bone. It's a step the district attorney is unwilling to take for fear of destroying critical soft tissue evidence. The case goes cold and remains cold until one day when detectives happen upon a group of engineers working out of a lab in Milwaukee. It's not every day that an engineering professor, you get a call asking if he can help solve a murder. Dr. Bob Crockett works in the basement of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, home to an emerging technology called rapid prototyping.

The basic idea of rapid prototyping is to take a computer model, anything that you can draw on the computer or import from medical data. A skull is a good example. Usually we do industrial parts, things like engine blocks and things that people design. Three dimensions makes all the difference. Using rapid prototyping, Crockett is able to make an exact replica of the skull without removing any of the soft tissue the DA wants to preserve. Well, we received a data disk from the sheriff's department that had a CAT scan of the victim's head. All the data was sent to the machine, which sliced it up into probably about 10,000 different layers. And when you do that enough times, you've actually built up, layer by thin layer, a physical object.

Each layer of paper is quite a bit thinner than the CAT scan slice. A CAT scan typically pulls information out one millimeter at a time. So we've actually used our computer in this case to interpolate, to actually smooth out the CAT scan images to get a better representation of the actual skull. The feature definition is about one thousandth of an inch. It's an identical replica to the actual skull. When I actually saw the skull, I was amazed. I thought it looked exactly like an actual skull. All the proportions down to the teeth, the eye sockets, everything was exactly the way an actual skull would look like. Welsh drives the skull to Lexington, Kentucky,

and the office of Dr. Emily Craig, a world-renowned expert in the field of clay reconstruction. Welsh presents the rapid prototype skull to Dr. Craig. I thought it was really well done. Since it was made with layers of paper, you could still see the layers, and so it was like a topographical map of the entire skull. The next day, Dr. Craig begins the process of building a face from the skull. These are basically the ingredients that we use, the materials that we use for doing a 3D facial reconstruction. Craig uses a knife, erasers, glue, and clay. Her most important tool, however, cannot be found on the shelves of any store. The best tools I have are right here. Craig starts by consulting an anthropological chart for the typical tissue depths of a young black female. Using the erasers, she plots these out

on the skull. And those were then glued on the skull at these specific places. And then I simply connected the dots in three dimension with clay and built the face up according to this particular victim's skull structure. Craig then moves from skin tissue to eyes. The eyes have to be there first and working on a correct gaze is actually one of the hardest aspects of doing a facial reconstruction. Once the eyes are set, it's like, okay, now let's do the rest. The rest takes three days to complete. Three days Dr. Craig spends alone relying on an innate sense of feel to reveal Jane Doe's identity. As a matter of fact, the final stages of the reconstruction I actually do with my eyes closed.

So I'm feeling the contours and seeing if it's symmetrical. Some people say it's a little bit of clairvoyance to kind of think how this person would look. And when I'm doing a facial reconstruction, I almost hate to say this because it makes me sound like so much of an artist, but it just has to feel right. On September 16th, it feels right. It's an approximation created to suggest the victim's facial contours and the proportions of the facial features.

Dr. Craig presents her approximation of Jane Doe to cold case detectives. It was phenomenal. I expected a Gumby sort of clay figure that would not at all look human. This actually looked like a photograph of a person. Four different photographs are taken, each showing the same clay model in a slightly different way, with longer hair or glasses. It really personalized the case for both Detective Welch and myself when we could see this young lady's face.

The pictures are placed on posters and distributed around the world. It would be two more months, however, before cold case detectives got the break they need. But it would happen less than 100 miles away. In November of 1999, it's winter in western Wisconsin. On a Wednesday afternoon, nurse practitioner Sherry Goss makes a routine stop at the local grocery store. I stopped at the cash machine at the front of the grocery store and looked at a poster out of the corner of my eye and saw what I thought was a picture of Moivano.

It just struck me very immediately that that was her. Her name is Moivano Kupaza. In 1997, the 23-year-old Tanzanian lived with Goss and her husband in Madison. It's been a year since Goss last saw the foreign student. When she first sees the poster, Goss thinks it's a photograph of Mivano. Then she reads the details. Very upsetting. And I tried to convince myself that it couldn't be true.

But I was quite convinced that it was her. And very frightened. Goss provides cold case detectives with Muvano's name, but precious little information about the young woman's whereabouts. The team checks with immigration, but can find no identifying information on Muvano to check against their Jane Doe. Cold case detective Welsh then discovers that Muvano

had attended an English language school during her time in Madison. He goes there with a hunch. We had known that she had handled documents at the school that she had attended, so we took those documents, submitted them to the crime lab, and the crime lab was able to develop prints from those. The prints are compared with lifts taken from the corpse. They're a match. The victim, who for so long has just been a skull, now has a face and a name.

Mivano Cupaza. Detective Welsh receives the news while in his car. I was driving down the roadway and I almost went into the ditch. It was an unbelievable feeling. I was extremely elated, I guess, that we at least knew who she was and had a place to start. Then, of course, the investigation takes a whole different angle.

You can't really do a productive investigation until you know who your victim is. When we come back, the search for a killer finally begins, and a dog with a nose for blood becomes a cold case detective's best friend. I'm Brett. And I'm Alice. And together we host a weekly true crime podcast called The Prosecutors. In every episode, we bring our unique perspective as full-time prosecutors to the most famous and debated true crime mysteries. Whether it's Maura Murray, Scott

Peterson, or the Delphi murders, Brett and I dig deep to bring you details you won't hear anywhere else. Our podcast is about more than just a story. We will walk you through the legal problems lurking behind every case, breaking down the complexities of the criminal justice system with humor and a personal touch. And it's not just true crime. We bring the same training and approach we've learned

as prosecutors to classic mysteries like the Dyatlov Pass incident and the ghost ship Mary Celeste. So if you're looking for a true crime podcast with a different point of view, The Prosecutors is the one for you. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. curated by people who love TV as much as you do. So if you're in the mood for comedy, there's 18 channels that'll make you laugh.

Looking for drama? We got so much of it, you'll cry tears of joy. Reality shows, game shows, sports, Star Trek, and even more Star Trek. No matter what mood you're in, there's something on Pluto TV. Just download the app and start streaming. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never.

A corpse without a face is found along the banks of the Wisconsin River. Months later, the female victim is still unidentified, the case cold. Technology, however, is able to replicate the skull, providing the victim with first a face and then a name, Mivano Kupaza from Tanzania. She had come to Madison in 1997 to live with her cousin, 37-year-old Peter Kupaza, and his wife, Sherry Goss. I think she was excited about coming here and furthering her education. She wanted to study so that she could have a good job back in Tanzania. Sherry Goss and Peter Kupaza welcomed the Tanzanian woman into their home.

At first, the arrangement seemed to work. Then Peter Kupaza began to change. He seemed to be very kind and caring. Through our time together, I found that that was not his true character that he tended to manipulate and control a lot. But he was very concerned about himself above all other people. According to Goss, Cupaz's desire for control turned into anger, which eventually gave way to violence. In July of 1997, Sherry Goss moved out, and Mivano Cupaz followed, but she didn't stay away for long. She wanted to continue to go to school, so she went to stay with friends of hers, and I believe went back to live with Peter.

Aware of Cupaz's capacity for violence, Sherry Goss warned Mevano not to return to her cousin. The warning, however, did not take. I was very concerned, but it was a difficult time in my relationship with Peter, so I didn't see her again. The next time Goss does see Mevano is on a police poster about a murdered woman. I knew that he was capable of harm and cruelty,

but I didn't feel that it would extend to murder, particularly of a family member. On reflection, I decided that it was within his capacity. Goss shares her concerns with cold case detectives, and Peter Cupaza jumps to the top of their suspect list. They decide it's time to talk with the man who last saw their victim alive. January 31st, 7.30pm. Detectives Welsh and Agent Fegels approach a townhome complex

in Madison, Wisconsin. They're there to execute a search warrant for the home of Peter Cupaza. As they ring apartment 107, Cupaza answers the door. We showed him the reconstruction. I asked him if it looked like anyone that he had ever seen before. He had said, no, it does not. Everybody else we showed that poster to didn't miss a beat and says, that looks just like Movano. I asked him if it actually looked like Movano, and he said, no, it does not.

He's the only person we talked to who said it did not look like Movano. Cold case detectives press Cupaza for details. He said she went back to Tanzania on April 25th of 1999. As he talks, one fact makes itself clear. Peter Cupaza is lying. He said that her father called him, said that she returned to Tanzania, that he had picked her up at the airport and she arrived safely. We knew none of that was true. A suspect who lies is good. In a homicide investigation, hard evidence is even better. Inside Kupasa's apartment, cold

case detectives find the murdered young woman's clothes, her jewelry, and her hymnal. In the upstairs bathroom, the first hint of murder. Behind the baseboard, technicians find a drop of blood measuring half an inch. DNA testing matches it to Muvano. One drop of blood, however, is a slim lead upon which to rest a charge of murder. Cold case detectives want more. They bring in Eagle, a dog trained to search for blood. He hits on multiple spots in Cupaz's home and garage. Well, as you can see, this garage accommodates about 28 vehicles. There were only about eight

in here at the time. And virtually immediately after entering the the garage she let him off leash and eagle she sent him to search and he immediately alerted on peter cupaz's vehicle which was then parked in this stall eagle's alert convinces cold case detectives cupaza is their killer on january 31st he is arrested and taken to Sauk County Jail to await trial on a charge of murdering his cousin. On June 12th, at the Sauk County Courthouse, Peter Cupaza stands trial for the murder of his cousin, Mivano. Watching from the front row of the courtroom sits Mivano's parents. They are also the accused's aunt and uncle. Pat Barrett delivers the prosecution's opening statement.

Our case to the jury basically was that she was a young woman who came here and was, to the best of our knowledge, totally dependent on Peter Cupazza. And that Peter Cupazza lied about things that he had no reason to lie about when law enforcement contacted him, lies that were proven to be lies. Cupazza enters a plea of not guilty. This has been going on in my heart. I don't know what to say. But I would like to tell you today that I did not do this.

His defense focuses not on what the prosecution has, but on what is missing. Certainly the defense was the obstacles. You don't have a cause of death. You don't have a motive. You don't have a manner of death. You don't have a motive. You don't have a manner of death. You don't have any weapons. You don't have any smoking gun. What the prosecution does have is Mivano's blood found in Peter Cupaza's bathroom. Barrett contends this is where Cupaza killed Mivano and then drained her blood in the bathtub. Central to the state's case is the work of the specialized canine, Eagle.

The dog hid on every place the lab had already found blood. But it also hid on a lot of other locations where we could not visually detect anything. But we knew the dog was hitting on areas where there in fact was blood. Now just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. The dog has certainly a much stronger sense of smell than we have a sense of vision. For the jury to find Cupaza guilty, they must believe Eagle can and did detect blood throughout the suspect's home. The first item I'll be using is going to be beef blood. To illustrate that point, cold case detectives provide the court with a demonstration. He's soaking the anchor chief in the blood.

Detective Welsh soaks a series of cloths, one in beef blood and then another in pig's blood. I'm the one that you're using is going to be human blood. Welsh then takes one drop of human blood, puts it on a third piece of cloth, and then washes the cloth in cold water. Okay. Launch stop. Welsh and Barrett place three brown bags containing the different blood samples in separate areas of the courtroom. Eagle the dog is then brought in and asked to locate the human blood. The

canine walks past the bags containing the animal blood and alerts on the cloth containing human blood. Show me where exactly. This compelling demonstration, taken together with the blood evidence found in Cupaz's home and car, his inability to answer questions about Mevano's whereabouts, and the fact that

the accused was the last person to see the victim alive comprises the prosecution's case for murder. After nine hours of deliberation, the jury agrees that the case is sufficient and finds Peter Cupaza guilty of murder in the first degree. He's sentenced to life in prison. When the verdict was read, I had no idea Joe was doing this, but I was doing it at the same time. They polled each individual juror. Is this how you voted?

They said, yes, yes, yes. Joe and I looked at each one of them and mouthed the words, thank you. Thank you. Neither one of us knew that the other was doing it. Like so many others, Mivano Cupaza came to America a stranger. Like so many others, she trusted in the people she knew best, her family. Peter Cupaza repaid that trust with a violent and brutal death, cutting short the young woman's life and her dreams.

Mivano Cupaza did not, however, die without a champion. Cold case investigators who took up her case to discover first who she was and then who was her killer. Mivano was buried in a cemetery close to Sherry Goss' home, the woman who knew Mivano the best

during her brief time in America. Her friend's memory may have been put to rest, but it will never be forgotten. Oh, I try very hard to remember her smiling and happy and laughing. She's a very sweet person. That's my best memory ever, and I struggle really hard to keep her living in my heart. Cold Case Files is hosted by Marissa Pinson,

produced by Jeff DeRay, and distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at anetv.com.