Cold Case Files - The Night Shift

Episode Date: July 11, 2017

A college student in Utah is brutally murdered while working the graveyard shift at a local gas station. His death shakes this small Mormon community to its core, but all police have to go on are some bloody dollar bills, and two eye-witnesses who sketch out a figure, with dark, piercing eyes. Who could have committed this horrific crime? Was it a disgruntled employee? Is there a connection to an illegal drug ring? And will advances in forensic technology decades later help to bring Brad Perry's killer to justice?

The following program is brought to you by your friends at Podcast One. This episode contains some explicit language as well as a graphic depiction of violence. It's not recommended for younger listeners. Close your eyes. Go ahead. Look at the dark. Is it scary? I think it's not the dark we're afraid of, but rather what could be in the dark. When we can't see clearly, our brains have a harder time interpreting what's happening around us. We don't know if we're safe. We don't know what's out there, who's out there.

And that leads to fear. Without getting too technical, let's talk about the brain for a second. The brain is like a factory. It uses our feelings like raw materials. Then it sends them on to our neurological pathways. Our neurons fire, creating chemical reactions, which later become behavior. When the raw material is fear,

the factory goes into crisis mode. The longer pathways, leading to the parts of the brain that are responsible for logic and reason shut down. The brain tries to keep us safe by using the emotional pathways, allowing people to make a quicker decision. I have to wonder, though, how often is the moral choice and the safe choice the same. Based on the hit show on A&E, a gas station, and a man who was perceived as having scary eyes. Brad Perry was 22. He was described as a good person. He made good choices, and he had a positive impact on those around him. He worked at the family business, the local gas station in his hometown of Brigham City, Utah. He frequently picked up extra shifts to earn money. He was

saving to go to college and to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Laura. On May 26, 1984, he chose to work the late shift. That same night, two college students had stayed up late studying for upcoming exams. Instead of going to bed, they decided to go for breakfast. On the way to their restaurant of choice, at about 10 minutes before 4, they stopped at a gas station. This seems like a very normal, non-scary thing to do. When they pulled into the gas station, they were surprised to discover that an attendant had come out to serve them. This wasn't New Jersey or Oregon, where gas stations are full service. This was Utah,

so there should not have been an attendant. They needed gas, though, so they went along with the situation. They were explicitly told not to go into the store and asked what they wanted. The student who was driving specifically asked for $5 in fuel and gave this attendant five $1 bills. The other student wanted cigarettes and gave him, I believe, a $5 bill. That's when things got really strange. The attendant returned with their change. Four $1 bills covered in blood. If that weren't scary enough, that's also when they noticed that the attendant himself had blood on his clothes and shoes. My brain would have interpreted that as terrifying. I'm guessing by their behavior that their brains had the same reaction. Immediately, they, in their words, decided they better get the hell out of there. They stopped about five or six miles down the

road at the next phone booth. That's Box Elder County Deputy Attorney Brad Smith. Just after 4 a.m., the police arrived. Upon entering the gas station, they discovered blood on the floor. The trail led them to the gas station stockroom and to the body of Brad Perry. He had been tortured in a way that I can't bring myself to explain. So I'm going to let Deputy Attorney Brad Smith tell you what happened. The victim had been stabbed with a foot-long screwdriver that penetrated through his upper chest.

There was a large cast iron bell, appeared to be hit in the side of the head with that and had a skull fracture from that. The coup de grace was a large soda canister, would weigh probably the neighborhood of 40 pounds that was used to crush his skull. I don't know if there can be a worst part to such a horrible murder, but to add to the terror, the officers who found Brad Perry knew him. It was a small town. They were friends. These friends also had the task of notifying Brad's family of what had happened. Brad's father, Newell Perry, was the first family member to find out about his son's death. The rest of the family was out of town on vacation at SeaWorld. Brad's brother Lee and his mother Claudia tell us what that was like.

We obviously didn't have cell phones back then. My dad knew we had to be notified. He said, well, I've got a friend that is a fireman down there, and he can do it. We go back to the hotel, and he took my mom into another room and told her that her son was dead. And I said, well, what happened to him? He said, well, somebody killed him. Just like that.

And I just lost it. Meanwhile, just two hours after the crime had been discovered, the investigation was already on its way. The two students, Saba and Barish, went to the police station for questioning. They told the tale of the unexpected gas station attendant and handed over the bloody money. While at the station, the students attempted to work with a police sketch artist. Nowadays, police composites are typically made using technology. A witness is shown the pictures of facial features on a screen and chooses one that resembles the person they saw. The features are then combined and fine-tuned

to make a composite that resembles the intended person. However, in 1984 in Brigham City, an artist with a pencil was the technology, and the pictures of the features were plucked from two students' brains. Brains that, I might add, had suffered some intense fear. Even in the best of circumstances, it can be hard to describe people. Some brains aren't wired for that kind of detail. I struggle with that myself, to be honest. I can't tell you what color my father's eyes are. I'm not sure if in this case it was a struggle of explanation, perception, or understanding. But the police sketch artist wasn't creating a likeness that the students felt was accurate. So what could they do? Actually, that question isn't rhetorical at

all, because they did do something. Saba, who apparently is quite the artist, drew his own sketch of the man they saw. Barish agreed that Saba's sketch was a remarkable depiction of the man they saw. Here's Detective Scott Cosgrove. They were very consistent with their description of the suspect's eyes. And they talked about the emptiness looking into those eyes and how dark they were. When I hear empty eyes, as a person who didn't experience the same trauma as them, it's hard for me to imagine what they might mean. Were his eyes themselves the problem?

Was their perception changed because of their fear? The police were very thorough when considering possible suspects. At three hours after the murder, they determined that it was possible, and maybe even likely, that an employee could have been involved. Their reasoning was that the gas pumps had to be turned on inside the station for the two students to get their gas. Also, while investigating the crime scene, they discovered that the floor safe had been opened. Brad didn't have access to that safe. Only a manager would. These clues led to a man named Thomas Nager. He was the assistant manager that was supposed to work the morning shift but didn't show up. Eventually, though, he was spotted at the crime scene in a crowd of onlookers. He didn't

call out or come forward with any information, and Thomas looked like the man in the sketch made by the students. These facts made police even more suspicious, and the investigation into Thomas began. Oh yeah, and one more thing. It was rumored that Thomas had used the gas station as a base for dealing drugs. Because of these red flags, the police looked hard at Thomas Nager. They began the investigation by collecting fingerprints. In the 1980s, fingerprint evidence was where DNA is today. The technicians that dusted for the prints

told us that they could tell a fingerprint just like they recognize a face. I had to do some research for this one. Basically, fingerprint analysis was able to help generate a list of people who possibly could match the sample print. But I think that's where the comparison to DNA ends. Fingerprint matching is actually more similar to facial recognition. An expert is needed to link the actual print to the list of possible matches. But Thomas Nager wasn't even a possible match.

In fact, they didn't find any of his fingerprints at the crime scene at all. He worked there for years. They should be all over that place. They eliminated him as a suspect. The police really wanted to be detailed in their investigation, so they brought in an expert to use an advanced technique, forensic vacuuming. It's okay. I didn't know what it was either, so I looked it up. Basically, a forensic vacuum is sort of a wet vac. It can pick up evidence from places such as a floor or a counter that aren't able to be taken into a lab.

In this case, using a forensic vacuum, a hair was discovered. The family needed a break, and so about two weeks after the murder, they went away to Montana. When they came back, they found their home had been broken into. Who would have done such a thing? Broken into the home of a grieving family. I have to admit that I am the one that said, why don't you look next door? I thought Craig Martinez was involved. Craig Martinez was considered the neighborhood delinquent based on his previous behavior. The police searched Craig's home and found some of the stolen items. After further investigation and talking with people who knew Craig, they discovered some other interesting information.

Police had some witnesses come forward who said that Craig Martinez came up to a party up above Brigham City the night of the murder with blood on his clothing. They also discovered that Martinez was a friend of Thomas Naggers, or maybe the better word is an associate. Regardless, neither the fingerprints or really any other physical evidence linked either man to the crime. It appeared this case had come to an impasse time and time again. The family was losing hope. I was angry and frustrated. I just kind of backed away and started to separate myself from my parents, my family. We didn't think they'd probably ever solve it. We thought we just, we were through.

And that's not fair. You miss Brad, whether it's cold, hot, or whatever it is. Because he just was such a good person. Our story will return right after this word from our sponsors. If you're a regular listener to this podcast or any of my other projects, you probably know I could always use more hours in the day. But I also like to stay informed, which is exactly why I use Texture, an app that lets me keep all of my favorite magazines in one convenient place.

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Hi, I'm Tavis Smiley. You may know me from my PBS talk show. I'm excited to tell you that I have a brand new podcast that you can hear on podcastone.com starting this July. I'll discuss the latest in politics, sports, music, and much more with big thinkers, artists, and celebrities. I'll also share my own opinions and answer some of your questions. So join the conversation this July on the Tavis Smiley podcast coming to podcastone.com, the Podcast One app, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Eleven years after Brad's murder, there was a new detective on the block, Scott Cosgrove, whom we heard from earlier.

Sheriff Jensen came to me and said, I know you're new in detectives, but I want to give you the Perry case. And I about fell over in my chair. I think he might have been a little bit surprised, but to his credit, he dove right in. Unlike the previous detectives, he didn't share the same feelings of fear and closeness to the victim. Using all of his skills, he began to review the evidence and look at all of the different parts, pieces of a puzzle that needed to be fit together. He reviewed the crime scene video around 100 times.

To be clear, because I had to clear this up for myself, this is the video that the police made of the crime scene after the crime had already been committed. He looked at the pictures. He examined the fingerprints. And he really tried hard to assemble the puzzle. What he discovered was a missing piece. Sometimes, identifying what you don't know can be as helpful as reviewing what you do know. And in this case, it was how Thomas Nager compared to the hair that was recovered from the scene. Detective Cosgrove reopened the investigation on Thomas Nager. What I realized was it had never been analyzed. We needed to compare the hair at the scene to the main suspects. We picked Thomas Nager up on the way to the station. He became irritated and blurted out that, why do you have me?

You know, Craig Martinez killed Brad Perry. Craig Martinez. That name sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's another piece of the puzzle that in the beginning didn't seem to connect with a larger image. Now, police had two men to compare the hair samples with. I, police had two men to compare the hair samples with. I'm going to acknowledge at this time that in the opinion of many experts, hair match analysis isn't all that accurate, but that's another podcast in itself. Investigators wanted to compare the hair sample that they found to Martinez. Conveniently for investigators, Martinez was incarcerated at the time and so the search for

him didn't take too long. Because of his history of violent crime, a team brought Martinez in to collect a hair sample. This is where it starts to get confusing. So they bring him to me and he is shaved completely. He turns to me and he says, I guess you won't be getting my hairs. Thing number one I don't understand. How did he get shaved? After speaking with an attorney for another podcast, I discovered razors aren't a commodity that are easily accessible in prison. Privacy is also not something that's readily available. Nonetheless, he was shaved, which meant no hair to compare. Another question was posed by Brad Perry's brother, Lee, which I think deserves some attention. Why would you shave yourself from head to foot if you had nothing to do with this crime?

I don't think the answer to this question is straightforward. Martinez was nearing the end of his term and was likely ready to go home. If he was guilty, he didn't want to give law enforcement any reason to extend his time. But let's face it, they don't always get it right. And maybe he made his decision out of fear. Have you ever had to make a choice that felt like the lesser of two evils? They really wanted to find a hair to test, so the prison nurse got creative. The nurse actually said, uh, I'll find a couple. We found him.

She found two on his nipple. Ouch. They got the hair. They made the comparison. Craig Martinez was not a match. He made bad choices, but it appears that killing Brad was not one of those. Let me introduce you to Amy Hugie. Not only was Amy the county attorney, but she had been babysat by Brad as a child. Amy had an idea, one you might have heard of. D.N.A. In 1984, it hadn't been an option. But now, 18 years later,

it was an amazing tool. So, Amy pushed hard to get the funding necessary to do the test. And thanks to her tenacity, they were able to test the blood collected from the scene to see if they could find a match. And they did. But it was Brad Perry, the victim. As Detective Cosgrove recalled, though, the blood at the crime scene wasn't the only DNA to check. And that's when I remember there's one last thing to be rechecked, the blood on the dollar bill. And finally, 18 years in the making, they found a DNA match from the dollar bill. The thing is... Who the hell is Glenn Griffin?

Glenn Griffin was in a California prison. He was apparently familiar with the prison system because he had been in and out of prison his entire adult life. He also matched the original sketch perfectly. Cosgrove decided to start his investigation into Glenn by questioning his parents. I meet with them,

and I just ask them to tell me about Glenn. The mother said that they had problems with him. As he grew up, he was acting out, stealing money out of the till at the store, harming animals. It feels to me as if Cosgrove is using the examples of acting out, stealing, and mistreating animals to imply that Glenn was born bad. However, those same behaviors can also be indicators of child abuse, neglect, or a sign that a child has witnessed domestic violence. Glenn could have participated in these immoral behaviors, but it's possible that there's a reason. Not an excuse for what he did, but rather an explainer.

After reviewing all the evidence, Cosgrove started to believe that more than one man committed this crime. So he asked Griffin's mother about her son's friends. And she said that he was always with his buddy Wade Maughan. They got into criminal activity and drugs together. She explained Glenn was the leader. He often threatened Wade or made fun of Wade. So Wade was kind of a follower. Wade was the weak link. And if anybody would give me good information, it would be Wade. Griffin was described as aggressive and unpredictable, and Wade was his disciple. He did what he was asked and without question.

Questions were interpreted as a challenge, and he was afraid of Griffin's reaction. Cosgrove brought Wade in for an interview under the pretense of an unrelated incident. This is the crime we're talking about. Oh, my God. Detective Cosgrove lays out the pictures of the crime scene. Wade's expression immediately shifts from in control to deadly serious. The pictures are brutal, graphic. I imagine they'd have some impact on just about anybody.

The muscles in his face tense as he stares at the photos, almost through them. Wade, I can't express this enough. You've got to be open and honest with us. So what happened when you got him in the back room? Wade at first denied any involvement in the crime. Was he telling the truth? Was he afraid and using his emotional pathways to make decisions he thought would keep him safe? Cosgrove pushed through. He appealed to that emotional center of Wade's brain. Look at this kid. He's 22 years old. He had a fiance. He had his whole life in front of him and somebody snuffed it out. But then we got into the conversation, and I says,

Wade Glenn is being released from federal prison. And you could see the blood just drain from his face. Wade uncrosses his arms, perks up, and starts moving the photos around. Now I'm starting to think happened that night? After over 20 years, was the killer finally going to be charged? This is how I imagine the story, based on the evidence. In the early morning of May 26, 1984, Brad told his family goodbye as they left for their vacation. He probably wished he could go too, but he wanted to get that ring for Laura.

He wanted to save up money for college. Instead of a vacation, he went to work. At first, things at the station were normal. The smell of gas, people buying junk food, and the occasional whiff of alcohol on a late-night patron. Two men arrived. They looked around for a while and then walked into the station. Wade Mon and Glenn Griffin. The men purchased some alcohol, but in the exchange something happened.

Glenn, known to be unpredictable, became upset. He felt like his change was short, and so he confronted Brad. Brad told them to leave the station immediately. So Glenn became irritated and confronted Brad. They got in an argument. Glenn went berserk. They didn't leave. In fact, things escalated to a physical fight between Glenn and Brad in the public area of the store. I wonder what emotion was influencing Glenn's behavior at the time. Was he angry? Was he upset? Were those same emotions influencing Glenn when he saw the two college students pull up? What did his eyes really objectively look like at that moment?

Glenn went out to talk to the students. Brad was still alive. I don't know if he was conscious, but he was not dead. He was also in the presence of Wade, who could have used that moment to call for help. He didn't, though. Maybe it felt like the safest thing to do for himself. Glenn told the students not to enter the store and that he would take care of them, and he did. He somehow managed to activate the gas pump and bring them the cigarettes that they had asked for, along with an incorrect amount of change, bloody change, in the form of $1 bills. The two students drove off and found the first available place to call for help. If the timing in the police notes is correct,

it was 15 minutes or less between the time they pulled into the station while Brad was alive and the time when the police found his body. 15 minutes. The time it takes for your pizza to cook in the oven. The time it takes for your oil to get changed. The time it takes for a man with his entire life ahead of him to be brutally murdered. The next part is going to be a little graphic, so if you're sensitive to that type of thing, you might want to fast forward a minute or so.

There's also exactly one use of the F-bomb by a traumatized man. Two men, Glenn the leader and Wade the follower, took Brad into the back room of the gas station. Glenn was said to have gone berserk. It doesn't seem like the logical or moral parts of his brain were working. I think everyone in that room was scared. Brad, Wade, and Glenn. Everything that happened was due to emotions going out of control and the human response to protect itself. Brad was scared of Glenn.

Wade was scared of Glenn. Real scared. Wade was scared. In a way, I think Glenn was even scared of himself. Wade held Brad's legs, and Glenn stabbed him with a 12-inch screwdriver through his chest. He didn't let go while Glenn bashed Brad's head with a large cast-iron bell. It wasn't until after a 40-pound soft drink canister crushed Brad's skull, that Wade let go. I imagine that Wade relives that experience every day of his life. He probably envisions Glenn with dark,

empty eyes. He probably wishes that his logical brain would have helped him to stop Glenn. It didn't, though, because Wade was scared. If he stood up to Glenn, would he have been next? Wade was offered immunity to testify against Glenn, but he didn't. He was scared. He was in crisis mode. Was it more just that he was charged but not convicted? Or would justice have been better served by putting a scared man who made a terrible choice in prison? I don't know. I do know that if I had to make the choice between living life in a cage or being imprisoned by a memory of the time I could have saved someone but didn't, I would choose the former. Glenn was found guilty of first-degree murder and will be spending the rest of his life

in prison. I don't think he'll be rehabilitated. I think maybe it's too late. As a social worker, though, I have to wonder about little Glenn. If he would have gotten the help he needed from the system as a child, would this murder have occurred? I don't know the answer to that, but sometimes the question needs to be asked anyway. Did the family get justice in this case? I'll let them decide. What has helped me probably the most is the gospel, is the church I belong to. I feel that Brad's fine. He's just on to another sphere, and I feel like I'll see him again. Because of Brad and because of his death, I think it led me to where I'm at

and allowed me to do the things I've been able to do. I became a law enforcement officer to protect good law-abiding citizens from being hurt from people who are doing bad things. And that's what I do every day when I go out and do my job, try to find the Glenn Griffiths of the world. If you'd like to see more about the case, check out Cold Case Files at aetv.com. You can catch brand new episodes of Cold Case Files

Thursdays at 10 on A&E. Also, if you like what you hear, please leave us a rating and review on your podcast app. It helps us to stay on the charts where people can find us. Thanks for listening.