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Forensic Files

Hand Delivered

Forensic Files

HLN

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.43.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2019

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1995, police in San Diego, California are baffled by a pair of hands found in a dumpster. The case goes cold but about a year later, investigators receive an anonymous letter with information about the crime that had been withheld from the press - information only the killer (or someone close to the killer) would know. Laser technology helps to identify the state, city, street address, and even the office number from where the anonymous letter was mailed, which leads them to LDS (Mormon) Bishop Mark Davis. Davis cites the privilege between clergy and church member as a reason to not disclose the source of the information, but a judge rules that since Davis sent the letter, he must identify the source.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

In 1995, police in California received an anonymous letter which identified a pair of severed

0:09.2

hands as those of a Navy pilot who had been murdered.

0:14.6

The letter described the murder in gruesome detail.

0:20.2

Investigators searched for some clue to the identity of the author and the killer.

0:30.0

San Diego, the second largest city in California, its bay is one of the finest natural

0:43.8

harbors in the world and is home to one of the largest naval bases in the country.

0:53.6

In 1994, workers at the San Diego Fibers Corporation were sifting through some card

0:59.8

board in a recycling bin.

1:06.8

They made a gruesome discovery.

1:11.8

Two human hands.

1:13.8

First, I wasn't sure that this was legitimate.

1:16.8

I thought, you know, a pair of human hands found in dumpsters seemed a little bit strange.

1:21.2

And we collected evidence as if it was a normal homicide with a complete body.

1:26.7

This was a little bit different because all we had were hands.

1:31.0

X-ray showed the generative damage of the joints consistent with an individual over age

1:36.8

60 and the size of the fingers and knuckles indicated they were men's hands.

1:44.2

The right hand had one distinctive feature.

1:48.2

The thumbnail was missing.

1:52.2

It's checked local hospitals and morgs to see if they had a body of an elderly man without

1:59.0

hands.

2:01.4

On the other side of town, Mary Meade and Terry Holland were beginning to worry.

2:07.7

They hadn't seen their father Don Hardin in more than a week.

...

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