Cold Case Files - REOPENED: A Man Scorned

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

A young woman is murdered in her bed, and investigators' key witness soon becomes their prime suspect. SimpliSafe - Right now, get 20% off any new SimpliSafe system with Fast Protect Monitoring at SimpliSafe.com/COLDCASE There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. 

In 1994, Don Brissetti was a social worker employed at the Community Mental Health Center in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Among her many clients was a woman named Elizabeth Harrington. Elizabeth was a graduate of the University of Texas with a master's degree in art and a history of hospitalizations related to both her mental and physical health. She struggled with depression and substance use. At 46, Elizabeth had decided it was time to seek help for her illnesses, so she moved into an apartment in the supervised living facility where Dawn worked. She was receiving treatment for her disorders,

and Dawn was optimistic about her progress. Well, I remember her. She was very pleasant, very independent. She didn't need a lot of supervision, and she kept her apartment really neat and tidy. It looked really good for her. She could have done really well on her own. Unfortunately, that progress was halted because Elizabeth was murdered.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. Supervised housing is set up like an apartment complex where any of us might live. However, there are trained staff members on duty to assist a person with whatever symptoms they might be experiencing. When I was one of those staff members, my job was to be available if a resident needed me, schedule activities the residents could participate in, and make medication available at the appropriate times. The residents, however, weren't required to participate in any of those things, promoting independence but encouraging positive choices. I also did rounds up and down the halls, just to make sure everything sounded okay and there were no obvious signs of trouble. While making her rounds, Dawn noticed that Elizabeth's door was slightly open. Dawn decided to check on her and make sure everything was okay. Walked up calling her name as I'm going up the steps. Elizabeth, come on, let's get up. It's

time to go. And got to the top of the stairs. I called her name probably two more times. Everything wasn't okay. First, she noticed the ordinarily neat space was in shambles. Then she found Elizabeth face down on her bed, covered in blood.

Dawn called the police. The investigators believed Elizabeth had struggled with the killer in the living room and then had been assaulted in her bedroom. She'd been bound by her neck and her pants were pulled down. This is Detective John Lippincott, a crime scene analyst, who was the first on the scene. The ligature appeared to be a scarf of some kind that had been wrapped around the victim's neck and tightened.

The body was positioned, and it appeared that she had been assaulted from the back, from the way the body was laying and the pants being pulled down and so forth. Elizabeth's autopsy didn't reveal any semen on her body. Her clothes and bedding were sent to the state crime lab in hopes that the killer might have left some other physical clue behind. The case was assigned to Detective Waverly Musselman,

who started by reconstructing Elizabeth's final day. He discovered that she'd been in a neighborhood pub with a local man named Matt. I had several interviews with Matt because I felt like Matt didn't know more about this case than he was giving up. I think she was counseling him, trying to help him through some of the questions that he had at the time, some of the things that he perceived as problems. Matt told Musselman when he and Elizabeth left the bar, they sat in his car and talked until about 10 p.m. After that, they said goodnight and went their separate ways. The detective was doubtful of Matt's story, but he didn't have any evidence linking him to the crime.

Shortly after Matt's interview, the results of the tests on Elizabeth's bedding and clothes came back. The investigators were puzzled by the results. Here's Detective Lippincott again. Strangely enough, there was no sign of any body fluids that would be deposited at a crime scene, a sexual crime scene like this. So that was kind of an unusual situation. It kind of had us scratching our heads. The detectives were forced to re-evaluate their theory of the crime. Perhaps the killer hadn't raped Elizabeth after all.

It was possible the murderer staged the scene to look like an assault to lead the investigators astray. If their goal was to mislead the detectives, it had worked. The lack of evidence pointing to a sexual assault meant that practically anyone could have murdered Elizabeth, including the other residents of the assisted housing facility. Detective Musselman spent months investigating any links between Elizabeth and the other residents. If there was a connection,

he couldn't find any evidence to support it. With no evidence and no suspects, the detective wasn't sure where to look next. It turned out, though, he didn't have to look far at all. The next lead walked right into his office.

Archie Talley, a homeless man, slept underneath a bridge in Fredericksburg. During the day, he would stand in line at soup kitchens for food. Sometimes he visited churches or other charitable locations if word got out that clothing donations were being offered, or if he had lost track of his last shower. On June 4, 1994, Archie Talley went somewhere he never went willingly, the local police station. He sat down with Detective Musselman and told him the story that brought him to the station. Archie said that he was under the bridge when a man and woman

approached him making threats. Outraged that the homeless man was gay, the two people threatened to kill him. The cases seemed unrelated until Archie shared the last bit of his story with Detective Musselman. Here's Musselman to explain. And especially the white female had been very verbal in telling him that they were going to do the same thing to him that they did to the woman down on Sophia Street. Elizabeth Harrington's apartment was located on Sophia Street. Archie went on to say that the two people who threatened him believed that Elizabeth was a lesbian and bragged about killing her. Here's a clip of the interview between Detective Musselman and Archie. Now, you were telling me that one or both of them

said something about the murder? She said that she knew that she was a d*** and d***s and homosexuals and black dads. No purpose in this. The girl was almost dead. There's something that they had tied around her neck. Tied it back around her neck. Detective Musselman tried to locate or even just identify the two individuals from Archie's story.

With such a small amount of information available, the search came up empty. And despite the detective's best efforts, the case seemed to be drying up. Investigators had to focus their efforts on active cases. Detective Musselman shares that he was not alone in his frustration. After two and a half years and the case still being unsolved, she was probably the only person that could have been any more frustrated than I was. He's talking about Neva Harrington, Elizabeth's mother. I don't know, I never gave up hope because the police department didn't.

You know, they were, they always indicated that the file was enormous and they weren't giving up. If you're like me, you're constantly thinking about the safety of the people and things you value most. After a local man assaulted a woman outside her house in my neighborhood, I knew I needed to secure my home with the best. My research led me to SimpliSafe. I use SimpliSafe to protect my home and the level of security and customer care has been incredible. I sleep better every night

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I started hinting to my supervisors that I would like to take over that case, although I didn't really have any experience in homicide investigation. I just felt that I could take the case and run with it. Perkins' supervisors allowed him to take over the investigation, and he began to review the evidence that had been collected at the crime scene. One particular item caught his attention, a strand of hair. This is Detective Perkins again. It was item number 45. I still remember the item number 45A. And that hair was found under the body of Elizabeth Harrington on a red dress.

It was determined that the hair likely belonged to a person of African-American descent. Perkins was curious about how the hair had been found on Elizabeth's dress, considering that all of the investigated suspects were white. He decided to send the hair to the state crime lab to see if analysts there could provide any further insight. The hair was received by Bob Scanlon, a DNA analyst with the Virginia State Crime Lab. Let me preface this next part by saying that I was skeptical at first when I learned investigators had zeroed in on a single hair as their breakthrough. I personally know people who've been wrongly convicted based on junk science related to hair evidence. However, when I learned it wasn't the hair itself that

was going to be used to identify possible suspects, I felt more at ease. Here's analyst Bob Scanlon to explain the process he used to examine the evidence. The tissue was in very good shape. I removed the root portion of the hair with the tissue and put it in a test tube and did my extractions and got some DNA out of it. Unlike hair, DNA evidence is a wonderful tool in identifying both victims and potential perpetrators. But a DNA profile isn't effective

unless there are other DNA samples for comparison. Here's Bob Scanlon again. This is the computer terminal that I can utilize to search DNA profiles through the Combined DNA index system, CODIS for short. Shortly after being entered into CODIS, the DNA information extracted from the root of the hair was matched. Analyst Scanlon was thrilled. It's always fun, after all the work in the lab, to then pick up the phone and call the investigator with the information that, hey, I've got a great lead for you. You know, you need to chase this down.

Doug Perkins was eager for the results when he answered Scanlon's call. When Mr. Scanlon told me that he had received his DNA data bank kit, I was very excited. Then when he told me who the contributor was, I'll have to say I was very puzzled. He wasn't confused because he was unfamiliar with the name. It was the opposite, actually. The DNA from the hair matched the DNA of a man named R.G. Talley, the same man who had visited the police station years earlier to share information about his altercation under the bridge. But Detective Perkins thought it was unlikely

that a gay man would sexually assault a woman. So the DNA match raised more questions than it answered. Perkins needed to talk to Archie, who wasn't difficult to locate, as he was in jail awaiting trial on an unrelated matter. Here's Detective Perkins again to explain what happened during the interview. I approached Mr. Talley by just laying it out to him.

I told him that his DNA was at the crime scene. And I remember him vividly telling me, not mine, not me, and things of that nature. Here's some audio from the conversation between Archie and Detective Perkins. I'm seeing your DNA. He's at that crime scene. Here's some audio from the conversation between Archie and reminded Perkins, in a less than constructive manner, that he wasn't interested in women. Man, if I started telling men I've slept with, you wouldn't even believe it. I change men like I change my underwear 24-7. He became extremely agitated when the detectives presented him with a warrant for a sample of his blood. Talley becomes verbally

aggressive with Perkins. Archie then threatens physical violence if anyone attempts to collect I'm not going to veto anything for no murder case. Archie then threatens physical violence if anyone attempts to collect his blood. Here's Detective Perkins again. He told me it would take, I believe in his own words, four or five people to hold him down and that we would have to physically fight him before he would submit to a blood sample. The warrant remained and eventually Archie was able to regain his composure. He then accompanied Detective Perkins to the hospital to have his blood drawn. While the two men were waiting for their turn in the lab, Detective Perkins struck up a conversation with Archie.

At this point, I got one of my best leads in this case. I said, well, do you know anybody that you associate with that knows Elizabeth Harrington? And Mr. Talley told me, yes, he was friends with Matthew. Matthew was the same Matt that Elizabeth Harrington had spent her last evening with, first talking in a tavern and then in Matthew's car. Archie then goes on to tell Detective Perkins that he and Matthew had been lovers.

Perkins believes that if Archie's claim is true, he might have discovered a motive. This is Detective Perkins again. Of course, I'm thinking in the back of my mind, possibly we have a motive. Maybe he saw Matthew with Elizabeth Harrington at Merriman's restaurant the night she was murdered and became jealous.

Archie strongly disagreed. The cops tried to make out as a hate, jealous, enraged, boo. This guy was as cold and calculated as they come. Maybe we weren't going to get it solved. It was like the epitome of innocence that had been preyed upon. This is a case that has no evidence. We didn't have DNA. We didn't have fingerprints.

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You just have a pit in your stomach thinking how many people are we going to find? New episodes of American Justice are available every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Detective Perkins seeks out Matthew to find out if Archie Talley had been telling the truth. Matthew confirmed that he and Archie had been lovers when Elizabeth was murdered. Perkins believed that this furthered his theory that Archie Talley had killed Elizabeth in a jealous rage. He scheduled a meeting with Deputy Commonwealth Attorney Philip Fiennes. Fiennes would be tasked with prosecuting and convicting the person police arrested as the killer. So, he had to look at every detail of what Perkins was suggesting.

What he saw in Detective Perkins' theory was a gap in the evidence that the defense would have no issues poking holes in. Over the course of their relationship, Archie Talley had spent a lot of time in Matthew's car, the same car Elizabeth had spent time in the night she was murdered. There was no way to prove the hair hadn't been transferred from the car to Elizabeth's clothing and then to the bed. Here's attorney Philip Fiennes. We wanted to pursue the connection and go further. We were also looking for other evidence of a less mobile nature, I guess I should say, something that couldn't be explained away as having been brought into the scene on a piece of clothing or by someone else.

Frustrated, Detective Perkins went back through the evidence looking for something more definitive. Ironically, he was able to gather evidence, but it wasn't in the case file. Someone called the police and shared some disturbing information about Archie Talley, who is now out of jail. Detective Garrett had taken the call. He said something about, um, this girl was messing with his man, and he said he caught the bitch down at Club Merriman's one time. The informant was Archie's boyfriend, who had been spooked by some of his behavior. Here's the informant again.

He had said so many times, you just don't know how lucky you are. I sit there and watch you lay in that bed, sleeping and stuff. And so many times I thought about sending gasoline to you and killing you. I would have been spooked too, terrified even. On top of making threats on his boyfriend's life, Archie Talley also bragged to his boyfriend that he had killed before. Detective Garrett notified Detective Perkins that he had some new information for him. Here's Perkins to explain. Detective Garrett calls me and says, you're not going to believe this. My informant has told me that Archie Talley, on a previous night, had talked about killing a woman over a man. Perkins started to develop a plan.

He wanted to trick Archie Talley into giving up irrefutable evidence. He started by convincing Talley's informant boyfriend to return home, wearing a police wire. While Archie's wiretap boyfriend was making his way home, Detective Perkins talked to a local reporter and told her that he was going to catch the killer. It was only a matter of time. Here's Perkins talking about the article's headline. So on the following day, she comes out with an article, cop the killer, give up now.

After giving the article a day to circulate around the city, Detective Perkins pays a visit to Archie Talley. He mentions the article and tells Archie that he's still looking into the case and then leaves. At that point, Archie's wired boyfriend brings up Elizabeth Harrington. Here's Archie's boyfriend to explain how Tally reacted. I was like, what is all this, Archie, what's going on and stuff about this woman? And he's like, oh, they're trying to pin something on me, but them bitches, they stupid and stuff.

Despite his aggressive denial of involvement in Elizabeth's murder, he makes a statement recorded by the wiretap that could prove to be his downfall. Here's Talley's recorded response. Detective Perkins believes he's well on his way to gathering definitive evidence against Talley. He once again reviews the physical evidence and realizes an oversight that no one else had caught.

Besides a scarf tied around her neck, Elizabeth had also received several blows to the head and face. Her scarf was covered in blood, but no one had ever thought to test for a second person's blood. This is Bob Scanlon, the analyst at the crime lab who received requests to test for another person's blood on Elizabeth's scarf. And I'm thinking, wow, to go back and try and find a foreign DNA type, foreign blood on that, is going to be just like painstaking because it was saturated with blood. This was a 22-inch long scarf, and it just read from one end to the other.

Where do I select a sample from? To be safe, he took a sample from every part of his scarf. Good judgment on Scanlon's part. Most of the samples only contained Elizabeth's blood. But a few had a different result. Here's Scanlon to explain. Sure enough, came up with a couple of samples, showed mixture consistent with Francis Elizabeth Harrington's type and Archie Talley's.

And there was one area that I tested that actually was his DNA type alone. Unlike a hair, blood isn't likely to be unknowingly transferred. Philip Fiennes, the prosecutor, was less apprehensive about the case after concrete evidence was discovered. Here's prosecutor Fiennes again. I was very happy because I knew that now we had some good solid evidence that Mr. Talley wasn't going to be able to explain the way. Combining the single hair and blood evidence made the case against Talley wasn't going to be able to explain the way. Combining the single hair and blood evidence

made the case against Talley stronger than ever. Perkins interviews Talley after he's arrested. Here's some of that recorded conversation. The ligature has your blood on it three times. The pantyhose has your blood on it three times. No way. Do you not believe me? You know.

Do you want to read it? No. All that I see is that y'all is looking for a damn scapegoat. Ain't going to be a damn scapegoat. That's all I see. You know. You can't tell me nothing, man. I'm not stupid.

If they found all this shit at her crib, wouldn't they have came and locked my ass up years ago. If I killed anybody, you think I would stay in this white town? Do you really think I would stay here? This is evidence against you. That don't mean shit to me. That don't mean nothing to me. I'll tell you what.

Not a damn thing to me. It, but it wasn't for a trial. It was to submit an Alford plea to the court. An Alford plea is an acknowledgement made by the defendant that, based on the evidence, a guilty verdict is almost certain. Though legally an Alford plea is a guilty plea, it doesn't require the defendant to admit guilt. Talley was sentenced to 80 years in prison, a sentence identical to the one he would have received if he pled guilty or were convicted. Archie Talley's arrest did provide closure for Elizabeth's mother, Neva.

I think it's only right to give her the last words. I guess I have compassion for him. But again, I think he's very dangerous. And I'm very happy that the case is completed. Very happy. And very proud of the detective work and pleased with it and grateful for it. Thank you. created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and is hosted by Bill Curtis.

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