S28.E31: Janet's Secret

[zxy556575]

What did I miss? What secret?

 

I'm not sure the right guy was convicted in this one.

[biakbiak]

I think he probably did it. If it had just been semen on the sheet, I would have more doubts but the fact that it was on the ropes that bound her I am just not buying the she sweated so much it transferred it all over the sheets and the ropes. That said the "expert" for the prosecution was ludicrous.

 

I think her "secret" was that she slept with three different men in a short amount of time and didn't do laundry that often.

[applecrisp]

I would not say a slam dunk.  But the brother,poor guy.

[Ohmo]

Not to be indelicate, but I think the amount of semen was significant. It was a robe tie, so I could see small amounts of semen being on the tie.  However, the lab said it was enough to make a profile.  Unless I missed something, there was no mixing of semen on the robe tie. It all belonged to Scott, didn't it? That paints a mental picture of a man "enjoying" himself during a sex act..."enjoying" all over the robe tie.  Since her hands were bound with the robe tie... I can see how the jury reached its verdict.

 

I don't necessarily think he intended to do it, though.  I know the prosecution said that strangulation takes a while, but people do all kinds of weird things during sex. She certainly seemed to be the "adventurous" type, and I can buy the possibility of the two of them being willing to try something new and the whole situation just carried both of them away. Her literally, and him figuratively.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Ohmo

[ByaNose]

Also, there was no for entry into the house. It appears she let him willingly, right? Rough sex gone wrong....maybe? He was able to keep it a secret for all these years and didn't get into any other trouble, right? Yeah, it's a tricky one. Three guys around the same time. Hopefully, her brother & her family have found some sort of peace.

[Morbs]

The big news is 48 Hours now has a giant touch screen, because they are so now and so hip and it's not at all awkward when they ask the local cop to swipe at it while talking.

 

They were trying to say that he shot his wad and they were able to match up the items to show how his streams of semen hit the items in the pattern of his ejaculation but they wanted to say that as delicately as possible.  I think the secret was the identity of her killer, but also the secret she was into kinky sex?  I guess it's unknowable how into it she was.

 

I loved when the cops were such assholes and interviewing suspects for 8 hours at time and then like, "Nevermind, the DNA didn't match."  What a waste of time and money, just like the lie detector tests.  How can they hold it against innocent people who lawyer up right away just to avoid the browbeating?

[zxy556575]

The big news is 48 Hours now has a giant touch screen, because they are so now and so hip and it's not at all awkward when they ask the local cop to swipe at it while talking.

 

Ha! The awkwardness made me snort.

 

I found it hard to believe that Hopkins could sneak in and out of bed with someone and walk past two other people without any of them waking up. And why chance it when there were plans in place to be up very early the next morning. It didn't seem like a hot and heavy ongoing affair in the first place, so why even try to meet up that particular night with all the obstacles?

 

The polygraph evidence was all over the place, yet police (these and others) keep believing in its nonsense. To make it worse, they often lie about the results during interrogations.

[Ohmo]

I found it hard to believe that Hopkins could sneak in and out of bed with someone and walk past two other people without any of them waking up.

 

My mother swears up and down that she often doesn't sleep well.  However, in my life, i've come into a room to wake her, and I'm telling you, she's fully capable of sleeping through a freight train or the dropping of the atom bomb! There can be a difference between how a person thinks he or she sleeps and what actually happens. That's why I agree with the prosecutor about that one witness who says she's a light sleeper.  I don't think she's lying and I do think she believes she's a light sleeper.  However, that doesn't guarantee that she actually is.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Ohmo

[tobeannounced]

Y'all are cracking me up.  My only thought about this one was what someone mentioned up-thread.  Do all these false results on the lie detector tests give the investigators pause and make them realize the test isn't the end all, be all?  Thank goodness they aren't admissible in court.

[Neet]

I hope to see Hopkins appeal the case and get even more evidence on the table. This one felt even more bare bones just because cameras weren't allowed in the courtroom, but I thought his alibi seemed to check out. Why the hell did the investigators not look at the other DNA found on the sheet? Hopkins could have been the killer, but shit, they didn't seem to finish jumping through hoops to prove it. The last part of the case felt sloppy, like the team just wanted to go to bed and named him the killer because he was the prime suspect and they were tired.

[UsernameFatigue]

There were several things I thought odd about this and wondered if 48 hours just missed covering some basic facts. (Or did they and I missed them?). They kept talking about the DNA evidence from the semen and where it was found. I kept waiting for DNA evidence to be presented that would have been found from skin cells on the bandana (I think it was) that was used to strangle her. There would have to be some (assuming the guy didn't plan to kill her and was wearing gloves). Also didn't they say originally that all of the other guys were excluded when DNA tests were run on the semen samples,  but turns out there were two other guys' DNA including one of the original suspects?

 

I don't know if this guy did it or not but unless there was much more evidence presented than shown to us I would have had a hard time convicting him. Makes no sense to me that the guy would leave his girlfriend (sleeping on a water bed no less), sneak out of the house when he has people sleeping on his livingroom floor (not even in a bedroom and out of sight), go to Janet's, have sex, kill her, then sneak back to his home and into bed as if nothing has happened. And as a light sleeper myself who can sometimes fall into a deep sleep, I might not hear something once but twice in unlikely.

Edited May 19, 2015 by UsernameFatigue

[Neet]

In addition to lack of evidence (at least a lack of evidence presented on the show), what was the real motive for him killing Janet? Their relationship was described as a brief fling and he was already dating someone else, so why would he really care about her at that point?

[RedheadZombie]

I don't know his motive, but I thought he was guilty when he called her parents, and told them she didn't show up for work.  Who calls the parents of a married woman?  It immediately struck me as the killer arranging to have the body found.  That happens frequently.

 

I don't really credit his alibi.  I'm a former night nurse, and everybody claims to be a light sleeper.  They didn't sleep a wink the whole night, etc.  Even when I've witnessed them snoring loudly, and not moving the entire night.

[zxy556575]

We should all be on a jury together sometime. :)

[UsernameFatigue]

Who calls the parents of a married woman?

 

But she wasn't married, she was separated and living apart from her husband. Who else would he call? Certainly not her ex. She lived alone and her parents lived in the same town so it would make sense (at least to me) that he would call them. Also she didn't get home from bar hopping until 4am. That seems like an odd time that sometime after 4am the guy would leave his own home, his bed with his sleeping girlfriend and friends sleeping on the floor of his living room and go to her place. And how would he know she was home at 4am? It isn't like there were cell phones to text in 1979. Did he call her? Did she call him? (Not likely at 4am - I am sure that would wake up at least one of the three other people in the house). Just makes no sense to me.

Edited May 19, 2015 by UsernameFatigue

[OpieTaylor]

Also she didn't get home from bar hopping until 4am. That seems like an odd time that sometime after 4am the guy would leave his own home

This gave me a sudden revelation - he said he and his group had plans early that morning. So he woke up really early, because he had the plans on his mind, and he knew it was just too early to wake his girlfriend up (and maybe she just wasn't really doing it for him), so he decides he'll go out for a booty call to Janet. But why the bondage? Maybe that's what they were in to and he was getting all horny thinking about it that early morning. And maybe he did have a sadistic streak and just took it too far. 

[UsernameFatigue]

I don't know his motive, but I thought he was guilty when he called her parents, and told them she didn't show up for work.  Who calls the parents of a married woman?  It immediately struck me as the killer arranging to have the body found.  That happens frequently.

 

Actually I mixed these two up as well - with so many suspects it is easy to do. It wasn't her boss who was convicted of killing her, it was the guy who owned the construction company.

 

As far as the short 1.5 hour time frame the guy convicted had to get to her house, have sex, kill her and get home - why would he take the chance that someone else in his house would not also wake up early? And 1.5 hours is the most time he would have as she did not get home until 4 and the guests in the house got up at 5:30. I often wake up when I am in someone else's house but lie quietly in bed not wanting to wake anyone else up. How was he going to explain his absence if someone woke up also with plans of the day ahead on his/her mind) and Hopkins is nowhere to be found?

 

My money would be on the ex. He had no alibi. He was at her place earlier in the evening to drop off the alimony check. Either he saw she wasn't home or maybe saw that she was going out? His semen was on her sheets, so she was separated from him but still having sex with him as recently as since whenever she last washed her sheets. She told the drifter guy that she could not give him a ride home as her ex got mad whenever he saw her with someone else. Why would he see her with someone else in the middle of the night? Unless he made it a habit to check up on her to see when she got home if she went out at night. I can't imagine he was too happy to be paying support, still having sex with her but have her sleeping with however many other guys. In fact she said so herself - he got mad if she was with other guys.

Edited May 20, 2015 by UsernameFatigue

[applecrisp]

I really have to question this decision after all of these well thought out posts.  Was the estranged husband ruled out because of a lie detector test?  Also, I think three witnesses would trump that even though they were asleep.  

 

The semen for the husband was expected because they did have sex, yet there was still some unknown semen as well?  I am really having some doubts as well.  Again what was the motive?

[UsernameFatigue]

The ex failed two lie detector tests on the question "did you kill your wife". However the drifter guy also failed so I guess the police with so many suspects and more than one person failing the lie detector test didn't pursue him. I also thought it was interesting that the first thing the mother asked the ex when she saw him was if he killed Janet. There had to be some kind of a history either while they were married or since they separated for the guy's mother in law to think he could kill her daughter.

 

And yes there was unknown DNA. Plus the unknown guy who was at the house two doors down from where Janet lived on the night she died asking where she lived.

 

With regards to the guy who was convicted, I also find it interesting that the girlfriend who was sleeping beside him on the waterbed went on to become his second wife. They later divorced so when she testified at his trial that he was sleeping beside her she was testifying as an ex. If she had been protecting him before she had no reason to at this point as they were no longer together.

 

Edited to add: apparently she told the drifter guy that she would not give a ride because her ex got mad if he saw her with someone else, that it would be better if he just left because "I don't want you to get hurt". Sounds to me like the ex not only had a temper but could be violent.

Edited May 20, 2015 by UsernameFatigue

[RedheadZombie]

The ex does seem suspicious.  The problem is, people have been known to flunk a polygraph if they feel they should have protected the victim.  So an innocent parent may feel they failed at protecting their child, or a spouse (even a separated one) may feel they should have been there to protect her from the killer.  Janet was surrounded by a surprisingly large suspect group, and I appreciate that the show managed to convey that Janet was sexually active with several men, without slut-shaming.

 

I've seen this story elsewhere, and I don't remember having so many doubts about the suspect.