Cold Case Files - REOPENED: A Deadly Pattern

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

In 2004, 58-year-old Phyllis New was found dead, the victim of an apparent home invasion. However, when a second murder comes to light, police suspect the killer might be right under their noses... SimpliSafe - Right now, get 20% off any new SimpliSafe system with Fast Protect Monitoring at SimpliSafe.com/COLDCASE There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. 

On October 15, 2004, at her home in Santee, California, Phyllis New was shot in the head at close range. 911 received a call from her husband, Bill, at 4.02 in the morning reporting her injuries. 911, emergency. Yes, somebody broke into my house. Are they there right now? reporting her injuries. I drove to Rite Aid to get her some migraine medicine. Just give me a rough estimate of how long you were gone. 30 minutes? Maybe 30 minutes.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. I'm Brooke, and here's the distinguished Bill Curtis with a classic case, A Deadly Pattern. The reporting party, who was the husband, had supposedly left his house to get his wife some medication. And when he returned to his home, he found that someone had broken into his home and murdered his wife during the 30 minutes that he was gone. San Diego County Sheriff's Detective Pat Gardner heads to the crime scene. Basically, the only room that was involved was the room that Phyllis New was found in. She was found deceased, lying in her bed, close gunshot wound to the back of her head.

It appeared that she had been murdered in her bed as she slept. The detective follows up with paramedics, who had responded to the scene four minutes after Mr. New's 911 call. Arrived on scene, declared Phyllis New deceased at the home, and noticed that the shell re-showed signs of lividity and rigor mortis. Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Kampman reviews the paramedic's findings. It was his opinion that she had been dead for at least a couple hours, that he felt rigor mortis in her face and maybe an arm, and that he saw some color changes, lividity of her body, that let him know that in his experience that she'd been dead for some time.

Rigor mortis, the stiffening of the body, and lividity, the settling of blood in the body, are used to determine approximate time of death. It generally takes a couple hours to be very visible, so that it could be seen at four in the morning suggested that she'd been dead, you know, a couple hours. According to Mr. New, however, his wife was killed by an intruder approximately 30 minutes before paramedics arrived. Detective Gardner finds time of death isn't the only inconsistency at the crime scene. The president said the home was a very large freestanding jewelry box.

It had eight drawers total and then two vertical drawers on the side. And basically only three of those drawers had been disturbed, and the very top ones, the rest were completely full of jewelry, and that appeared very unusual. My gut telling me that there were some serious problems from looking at that home, that it did not appear to be a residential burglar slash murder. The shot basically appeared to be an execution-style shot. That's something you don't see normally in a home invasion.

While Gardner continues processing the scene for evidence, Bildo is taken downtown for more questions. We knew at that point he was the only person that was in the house with her around the time that she died, so he's the one we need to start with. Sheriff's detectives Richie Hann and Sharon Lunsford sit down with Bill New and ask where he was on the day his wife was murdered. Well, I got home on the later side because I had gone over to the office team in La Jolla to talk to them. About a job.

Yeah. So what kind of a mood was she in when she got home? Everything okay? Yeah. She made herself a sandwich. And we watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and she fell asleep. Later that night, Bill New says his wife woke up with a migraine. I said, do you want me to get you an Emetrex?

And she said, no, I've taken too many of those. I need something else. I said, do you want me to go to the store? And she said, yes. New says he doesn't know what time Phyllis woke him up or what time he returned home. He said that it probably took him, he was guessing about 15 minutes to get there,

maybe as much as 15 minutes in the store he wasn't sure, and then maybe another 15 minutes to get home. That's why I said we're looking at a time frame of maybe half hour to outside of 45 minutes that he was gone. And I flipped the light switch on in the hall, and the dressing drawers were open. So I moved a little quicker, and she was on her side. I put my hand on her side of the way, and I saw the blood on the pillow. I just came up with it. He exited the room

and then proceeded to use the phone in the other room. Never gave her first date, even when the dispatcher came on the line and offered assistance, you know, check her. He didn't check her, never went back into that room. Detectives ask about the state of the news marriage. Yeah. We asked him, you know, had they had any problems,

and he said, well, you know, everyone has their problems, but there was nothing significant in their relationship that, you know, wasn't out of the norm for a married couple to have disagreements. Nothing serious. After three hours, detectives end the interview, and New is free to go. Meanwhile, Detective Gardner has been canvassing neighbors

near the crime scene. A witness came forward who said that on Thursday night that Phyllis had come over to her home upset over the fact that she and Mr. New had gotten into an argument over him possibly not working. My first thought was that SOB, he did something because she caught him in a lie. She had backed him into a corner finally. She had finally confronted him that this was it. Carol Espinoza is Phyllis New's friend and neighbor. She just started crying and saying that Bill's been lying again about his so-called current job. She had called apparently the agency that hired him, the temp agency, and they had never heard of him.

So then she confronted him and told him that she was going to follow him to work the next morning and he'd better produce a pay stub or a time card where she had had it. Ten hours after confronting her husband, Phyllis New was dead. All that information was critical for the case in regards to Phyllis due to the fact it contradicted what Bill originally told the first team of investigators that interviewed him. The information is relayed to detectives back at the station

who bring Bill New in for a second round of questioning. The information is relayed to detectives back at the station, who bring Bill New in for a second round of questioning. This time, the gloves are off. My first thought was Bill had something to do with this. Three hours after learning of her friend Phyllis New's murder, Carol Espinosa tells detectives to take a hard look at Phyllis' husband, Bill. Because I felt she had pushed him into a corner and gave him an ultimate on, you know, this is it. I'm not carrying you any longer.

The night before the homicide, Phyllis had confided in Espinosa. She had called the temp agency where he was working, and they had never heard of him. So she said, well, then I'll be following you to work tomorrow, and you better produce a paste check or a time card, or I've had it. The case will continue after this short break. It was my birthday recently and celebrating another year gives me the opportunity to look past the small stuff and reflect on what's most important in life. And every year I'm reminded just how valuable my family is to me and how important it is to give them what they need to thrive as well as keep them safe, which is why I'm so grateful for SimpliSafe and the protection they give to my family. And because I want you to enjoy the same peace of mind I have, I've partnered with SimpliSafe

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Yeah. Okay. Now, have you worked for them at all? Have you done jobs for them? No. She was a little upset about him not working, and he had possibly been lying about having jobs when he didn't. Bill, what happened when you got home and you talked about that? not working and he had possibly been lying about having jobs when he didn't. What has happened? What happened, Bill? Nothing happened. We talked and we talked and we talked. And she told you that she wasn't going to put up with that anymore, didn't she? No.

She said that she was going to see that I got some help. Did something go wrong in that house last night? And did you wind up doing something that you would never dream of doing in a million years? Did something happen? Did you hurt Phyllis, Bill? No. No. No, I told you.

The only thing that I didn't tell you was about the term of agency. Bill New denies any involvement in his wife's death. Detectives lean in and continue to turn the screws. Nobody broke into your house. You need to tell us what happened. What do you mean nobody broke into my house? Why don't you tell me what happened between you and Phyllis last night? I told you what happened.

After nearly two hours in the hot seat, New begins to shut down. I gotta eat something to eat. I'm just... I'm shaky. I don't know what to do. Detectives end the interview, and Mr. New is free to go. This time, however, he walks out of the police station

knowing there's a bullseye on his back and a team of detectives who believe him to be a killer. Nancy Friend has known Phyllis New for 16 years. A week after the murder, Friend remembers a conversation she and Phyllis had years earlier about Bill New. She says his first wife died when she was eight months pregnant. And that kind of threw me and I said, well, what happened?

She goes, well, Bill was cleaning the gun. It fell and discharged and hit her across the room. And the hair on my arm stood up. I got goosebumps all over my whole body thinking, you know, this didn't sound right.

Nancy phones San Diego detectives and tells them her story. I said, my name's Nancy Friend. I've known Phyllis a number of years, and you do know that he killed his first wife. There was dead silence on the other end of the phone, and the first thing he said to me was, how do you know this? I said, well, Phyllis told me. killed his first wife. There was dead silence on the other end of the phone. And the first thing he said to me was, how do you know this? I said, well, Phyllis told me.

San Diego County Sheriff's Detective Pat Gardner reviews Bill New's police interview. Had you been married before? Yes. Do you have children, any children from the previous original? My first wife passed away and my second wife. We got divorced. What was your first wife's name?

Her name was Somchiri Tassari. She was from Thailand. I met her when I was overseas. Oh my gosh. What was the cause, if you don't mind me asking? It was the automobile accident. Oh my gosh. Just hours after the murder, Bill New had told police his first wife died in an automobile accident, a statement that now appears to be a lie. Then I also received additional information that she died from a supposed accidental shooting. Did any of that information ever get brought up to you?

An accidental shooting? No, absolutely not. He was very clear that this was an automobile accident, nothing more. Lead detective Pat Gardner believes he might have the leverage he needs to crack Bill New and decides to confront his suspect. Actually, I figured the best way for me to do it was to call him on the telephone, and that's what I did. What was your first wife's name, sir? Her name was Som Sree, and she passed away in an accident. What type of accident was that, sir?

I really don't want to go into all that. I really don't. I'm just beside myself here. You can't tell me what type of accident it was? No, I just don't want to talk about that. I was told that the accident was an auto accident, and then I was also told that the accident was an accidental shooting accident. Can you just let me at least know that? Okay. It was an accidental shooting, but my mom and dad decided that they were going to just tell everybody that it was an auto accident.

I was cleaning a rifle, and I dropped it, and I grabbed it when it fell, and it went off, and she was struck. He just finally, he finally admitted that he had shot her during a gun cleaning accident. What type of weapon, what type of rifle was that? I don't remember. Oh, my gosh, where did it hit her at? You know, I don't know that. You don't know where she was struck at? No.

Well, it's pretty unusual that if you would shoot your wife, you wouldn't know the facts of the shooting. I mean, this is your wife that you supposedly had shot, and so that seems suspicious. Through the Department of Vital Statistics, Gardner locates a 1973 death certificate for Soms Renew in San Bernardino, California. And then I called San Bernardino Police Department,

and I spoke with Detective Dave Dillon. Okay, we're getting ready to go into the Identification Bureau at the police department. San Bernardino Detective Dave Dillon learns that in 1973, the Soms Renew case was determined to be an accidental death. So here in the ID Bureau, for all our murders or death investigations, we maintain photographs or negatives.

Detectives find 26 old negatives from the Soms Renew crime scene. They are the only remaining pieces of evidence in the case. So what I asked them to do after that was blow them up to 8x10s, which told me another story about what happened at the scene. The photos tell Detective Dillon the story of a cold case that original detectives got wrong. I look at this, and I saw that the blood spatter did not match with the trajectory of the bullet. The blood spatter had traveled to the back of the wall, which was not consistent with the bullet path. The bullet path had gone back out this way,

and in fact, everything was this way. According to Dillon, the photos show that Somsri Nu could not have been shot the way Mr. Nu explained. Based on my experience in homicide, and having spent so much time there, I thought and felt that this was in fact a murder. I just did not feel comfortable saying this was a death investigation. I went over to the crime lab and I gave them the photographs and the reports and I asked them to do a crime scene reconstruction and have them make their own determination scientifically on what the Assamster News shooting was. It had to be a contact, as if somebody was standing over her, pointing the gun down towards her, placing it on the back of the head and then discharging the weapon.

Both wives were sleeping, both wives shot in the back of the head. There was many similarities. When you laid them out side by side to how his M.O. was, they were very strikingly similar. A true crime podcast. It got me upset because this is someone's kid and someone knows she's gone. That takes a different approach. It was shocking for something like this to happen in our little town. Focusing on the communities affected by life-shattering crimes. It made news throughout the entire region that these two people had been shot while they slept in such a safe community.

To give a new perspective on the devastation crimes can cause. It was shocking for something like this to happen in our little town. Featuring cases from quiet towns to bustling cities and interviewing the people closest to the case. My first thought was that it's an unusual location for us to have a homicide.

Listen to the true crime podcast, City Confidential, and step beyond the yellow tape to learn just how far a crime can reach. There are certain cases in the history of Boston that I think sort of define the city. I think this is one of them. New episodes of the City Confidential Podcast are available every Thursday, available wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2004, Phyllis New was shot and killed, according to her husband Bill, by a random intruder. 31 years before that, Mr. New shot and killed his first wife, Somsri, while allegedly cleaning his gun. The coincidence makes Detective Pat Gardner uncomfortable. He decides to consult an expert. So what we did is we flew out and saw Dr. Vincent DeMaio, and we presented the case to him. Now, the weapon in this case was a.44 Magnum carbine.

Dr. Vincent DeMaio is an expert in the field of ballistics and gunshot wounds. He reviews evidence from the accidental shooting of Samsari Nu, along with Bill Nu's statement from 1973. According to the husband, he was sitting on the couch, and he started to get up, or he was doing something at that time, and the gun fell from his hand, and he grabbed it get up where he was doing something at that time and the gun fell from his hand and he grabbed it in midair and it accidentally discharged. DeMaio has immediate suspicions about Mr. Du's story.

It'd be awful hard to drop this gun and get your finger in the trigger guard and put pressure on it because you need not only for it to get in, but it's got to also fire the weapon. On top of that, if he's sitting down and the weapon slips from him, the bullet would have to have traveled in an upward direction to her head. However, the bullet, after entering the head and exiting the face, then went into the back of the couch and into the wall behind it in a downward trajectory. So actually, the overall trajectory of the bullet was into the head, through the face, through the back of the couch, into the wall,

which is not consistent with this account where the bullet would have had to have been going upward. In addition to the inconsistent trajectory, DeMaio sees a problem with the gunshot wound that killed Samsri Nu. This wound was a huge stellate wound on the head, and there was also a large gaping exit wound on the left side of the face. And this suggests that at the time the deceased was shot, the muzzle of the gun was in contact with the head. According to Mr. New's statement, however,

he accidentally shot Samsari from a distance of six feet. It could not have occurred the way he said it did. This injury was that from a contact wound, and the individual had to be standing at the time the weapon was fired, pointing downward. Basically, they were executed. The muzzle of the gun was right up to the head when the shot was fired. In light of Dr. DeMaio's findings, Assistant DAs Kurt Mechels and Jill Lindberg review both of Detective Gardner's cases.

I mean, the most obvious similarity is the fact that both Somsery and Phyllis were the defendant's wives. Both of them were shot in the home. Both were shot at nighttime in the home. And both were shot in the back of the head. Not just in the back of the head, but the trajectories were almost identical. Another similarity lies in Mr. New's possible motive for killing both of his wives. He stood to gain, and ultimately his son did get $800,000 in life insurance from the 2004 murder of Phyllis.

And back in 1973, he collected $15,000, which doesn't sound like a lot now. But if you use present value of money, that was more than $66,000 to a young man back in 1973. That's a lot of money back then. Right. In April of 2005, Bill New is charged with the murder of Samsri New and the murder of Phyllis New. The district attorney's office decides to try both cases together.

You can't separate these two cases. Even if San Bernardino had tried the 1973 case and we tried the 2004 case down here in San Diego, the evidence would have been cross-admissible because of the similarities, because you could show that the same person did this. Bilneu's trial opens in February of 2006. After a month of testimony, he is found guilty of murdering both of his wives, one in 2004, the other 31 years earlier. Mr. New, it is the judgment of this court that probation be denied in this case, of course. Four weeks after the

verdict, Bill New is sentenced. And I'm not exactly sure even how to describe this sentence when it gets down to the total, but it is life plus five years and a consecutive term of life without the possibility of parole plus 25 years to life for the total of a very long time. We're here to support her. We're here to support the verdict. We were happy with the verdict. Outside the courtroom, a group of women gather. Phyllis knew his friends, here to honor her memory.

It's a heartbreaker because we all knew her. It's just a sad situation that something like that should have to happen. But I believe, and I think we all believe, that he was guilty and that he is getting his just desserts now. Despite several attempts at appeal, Bill Newt is still incarcerated in California. The state of California's inmate locator lists his current location as treatment for substance abuse. He's currently 71 years old. This was one of Phyllis New's favorite places, the Wagon Wheel Saloon. The place to dance, to laugh, and most of all, to live.

Everybody was a friend to her. The first time she met you, you just felt like you were welcomed. On a Thursday evening, Phyllis' friends gather at the wagon wheel to celebrate her life and cherish the memories. I think of her out there on the floor, and she always would shine. You'd see her out there smiling and happy, and that's the way that I like to remember her. Probably looking down and smiling

at us like she always smiled at us. So we just want to say, Phyllis, we love you and we miss you. God bless. Cold Case Files, the podcast is hosted by Brooke Giddings, Thank you. and is hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more cold case files at AETV.com or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the A&E Real Crime blog at AETV.com slash realcrime.