[music playing]
[police sirens]
NARRATOR: At 8:30 PM, Albany Police Detective PJ McKenna
rolls to 799 Myrtle Avenue.
An 85-year-old woman has been found
wandering the neighborhood.
PJ MCKENNA: We were informed that she
was in the early stages, at the very least, of dementia,
and really couldn't provide much, only
to say that he had hurt her.
NARRATOR: Inside the old woman's house,
McKenna finds blood and evidence of a possible rape.
PJ MCKENNA: Nothing was taken, but the phone
cords were pulled out.
It was the phone cord that was actually tied up in a knot,
as if used for holding something, tying someone up.
NARRATOR: With no identified suspects,
the case is not a priority for DNA testing.
Eventually, a DNA profile is extracted from semen
found on the victim's body, and entered into the state's
databank as an unsolved case.
PJ MCKENNA: With no one in the neighborhood
being able to know anything, nothing off
Canvas, nothing off registered or known sex offenders,
it went cold.
We had no leads in this case.
NARRATOR: Less than two months later,
detectives McKenna and Tim Carroll arrive at the apartment
of Martha Montalvo, a 50-year-old woman with
a history of mental illness.
Inside, they find a dead body and a crime scene
already several days gone cold.
There was no forced entry.
There was no struggle by the doors.
She was decomposed, advanced stages of decomposition.
Her buttocks was propped up on some pillows.
She was partially naked.
There was a towel draped on her face, and she was blood soaked.
PJ MCKENNA: And we had both said,
after speaking to dozens of people in the area
and seeing the scene that this was
going to be a forensic case.
It was going to be something where we were
going to need a forensic break.
NARRATOR: An autopsy reveals no evidence of semen in the body.
The victim's blood-stained jeans and bedding
are sent out for DNA testing.
Detectives get a hit, not to an individual,
but to the unsolved rape of an 85-year-old woman committed
just six weeks before the Montalvo homicide,
and only five blocks away.
PJ MCKENNA: In the first case, it
was someone who was clearly stalking an individual
for the purpose of sex.
And six weeks later, he sees some more
prey, follows her into her house, attempts to take sex.
And when she defends herself, he is not
afraid to turn in a moment and turn it into a homicide
and kill her to put her down.
NARRATOR: Detective McKenna believes
he is looking for a sexual predator, one who targets
older or vulnerable women.
Detective McKenna, however, is wrong.
[music playing]
It was so violent right here when
they came through the door.
He had to stand up to open the door.
And he was laying here almost like in a fetal position.
NARRATOR: Just after 12:00 noon, PJ McKenna
and Detective Jack Grogan respond to the home
of 69-year-old George Young.
Inside, they find Mr. Young beaten, bloody, and dead.
JACK GROGAN: And the pool of blood
that Mr. Young was laying in--
you could see that it was an extremely violent
crime that happened here.
NARRATOR: Detectives find an unlocked safe near the body,
indicating robbery to be the likely motive.
Also near the body, a bloody piece of steel,
otherwise known as Rebar.
JACK GROGAN: Just looking at the position of George Young
and the way his head looked, to me,
that looked pretty obvious that that
was probably the murder weapon.
So many little things--
NARRATOR: An autopsy determines that George
Young was both beaten and shot.
While detectives don't recover a gun,
this news bolsters their theory that this
was a two-man operation.
When one of them brought the safe down,
they stopped right about here, and they
put the safe on the floor.
While this was going on, the other one
was beating George still.
He beat him numerous times in his head, about the body.
From the injuries that we could see from the autopsy photos
it was-- it was numerous to count.
NARRATOR: Detectives hit the street
hoping to find out who knew what about George Young's money.
PJ MCKENNA: Everyone in that part
of town, which is economically depressed,
said that George had money.
JACK GROGAN: He wouldn't let people in his house
unless he knew who they were.
And that's one of the things that piqued our interest
when we found Mr. Young--
how did somebody get into his house by not forcing the door?
He had to let them in, so he had to know who they were.
NARRATOR: Detectives learn of a handyman
who did odd jobs for the victim, someone George Young would
have allowed into his home, someone
already familiar to police.
PJ MCKENNA: This was someone who had a checkered history.
His name had come up in a previous investigation,
a previous homicide investigation.
His name was on a short list of possibilities
amongst street people.
NARRATOR: The handyman is brought in for questioning
and denies killing Young.
PJ MCKENNA: We also asked him to take a polygraph, which he
initially agreed to, and then as hard as it is to imagine
for a person who is in his 40s, refused to cooperate
any further unless his mother could be in the interview
room with him at all times.
He didn't want a lawyer.
He wanted his mom.
NARRATOR: The handyman ultimately
refuses to take a polygraph.
Meanwhile, evidence from the crime scene
is examined for possible clues.
Of particular interest, the probable murder weapon.
PJ MCKENNA: Ultimately, the decision
was made by our forensics unit to send it out
for identification in the hopes that whoever had taken this--
and when you use this with such force,
if you're not wearing gloves, you
can cut your hand on the metal, or as it twists in your hand,
you can leave skin scrapings behind.
The actual piece of Rebar in the case was longer and--
NARRATOR: On February 11, criminalist Nicole
Zevotek examines the piece of Rebar
used to kill George Young.
Appear that the way--
NARRATOR: She focuses on the end with very little blood,
believing it to be the end most likely handled by the killer.
NICOLE ZEVOTEK: I took another swab towards the very end,
and that's the swab, DNA-wise, that ended
up yielding a mixture profile.
NARRATOR: It's a mixture of blood from the victim
and a little something from the killer.
Most likely it's skin cells, shed skin cells, or from sweat.
NARRATOR: The partial profile is plugged into CODIS.
It doesn't match to any offenders in the system
or to a voluntary DNA sample taken
from George Young's handyman.
But investigators do get a match, one
that takes them by surprise.
And we got a case-to-case hit on this case
with two other previous cases.
NARRATOR: A hit to two crimes that have already been linked--
the sexual assault of an 85-year-old Albany
woman and the murder of 50-year-old Martha Montalvo.
It was an unbelievable revelation
when it came back from the lab.
Scary.
These-- these people just-- they had
no connection to each other.
They had none.
NARRATOR: DNA has connected the dots for detectives--
three crimes, one person.
Now, the hunt is on to find out who.
If it was someone who was very much alive,
someone who is still very much active, unfortunately, and had
expanded not only their area, but their MO.
NARRATOR: Forensics has matched the unknown profile
to a convicted felon named Raymon McGill.
We had no idea who he was.
He was no one that was on our radar.
His name had never come up, never come up in any crimes.
NARRATOR: McGill is sitting in a New York State
prison on an unrelated robbery conviction
from earlier in the year.
PJ MCKENNA: Going through his criminal history, very
petty stuff, I mean, some drug arrests
and that attempted robbery.
But other than that, nothing.
Nothing major.
Like I said, talking to you--
NARRATOR: Nothing major, and no substantial ties
to any of the victims.
A DNA match however, would seem to be enough for a conviction.
Detectives sit McGill down and get down to business, beginning
with the most recent murder.
JACK GROGAN: We just started with, you know,
did you ever know George Young?
At first, he denied it.
Asked him if he'd ever been in this house, old George's house,
and he said no.
NARRATOR: Detectives know they've caught McGill in a lie
and begin to unpack their evidence for the suspect.
PJ MCKENNA: Well, let me show you some paperwork.
This is your DNA, and this says that the odds
of another person having the same DNA
are one in something like 26 billion.
So do you want to tell me how it is
that your DNA is in this house?
You want to tell me the truth now?
His shoulders just seemed-- they-- they went down like,
you know, now, it's time.
It's time to tell us what actually happened.
NARRATOR: Raymon McGill confesses
to beating George Young to death,
but he says he didn't do it alone.
He names another person as the one
who shot Young, the same handyman
who refused to take a police polygraph
at the time of the murder.
Once old George opens a door, Raymon starts to hit him.
They demanded where the safe was, because they knew
there was a safe in the house.
When the safe was brought down, he asked him the combination.
The combination was wrong, and he started
striking again and again.
And with George's dying breath, he
gave the correct numbers to the combination
to stop the beating.
NARRATOR: McGill says his accomplice then
shot George Young in the head.
And they took off with about $1,200 in cash.
Detectives next press McGill about Martha Montalvo.
PJ MCKENNA: He was confronted again with the DNA.
And he was told, you told us what
you did on Alexander Street.
You told us that the DNA down there was yours.
So how do you explain your DNA?
And there was this pause.
And he looks out the window, he looks back, and he said, OK.
That was me. I was there.
I killed her.
Justice is not served here today
because the killer, mad man still runs free,
and I'm being punished for it.
NARRATOR: The killer McGill refers to, the accomplice he
says shot George Young, a handyman police
had looked at it in 2004 and continue looking at today.
MAN: The challenge now is to develop sufficient evidence
apart from what McGill has told us
to prosecute this other person.
Because under New York law, we cannot
use a co-defendant's statement as a basis for a prosecution.
We need some evidence, whether it's testimonial
or whether it's physical evidence,
linking this other person to the commission of the crime.
And the police are working on that now.
NARRATOR: As for Raymon McGill, he will serve 40
years to life for his crimes.