Cold Case Files - Murder on the Menu   View more episodes

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Aired at 01:00 PM on Monday, Oct 05, 2009 (10/5/2009)      View all transcripts from this day

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00:00:02By the light of the moon, 11- year-old Billy Huling runs through the woods.
00:00:07He runs for help.
00:00:08He runs for his life.
00:00:11Billy's family has just been shot.
00:00:15Office Jim Kostreba responds to the call.
00:00:19>> As soon as I opened the door into the porch and stepped in, I could immediately smell the smell of gunpowder.
00:00:27And with my flashlight, I was able to see a 12-gauge shotgun casing laying on the floor.
00:00:33>> KURTIS: Kostreba continues into a darkekened living room and the only bedroom on the first floor, where a mother appears to be sleeping.
00:00:41>> I saw her laying on the bed, and she was laying with her head towards the foot of the bed, with her legs drawn up.
00:00:49And I... just by observing her, I realized that she was dead.
00:00:53>> KURTIS: Dressed in a nightgown and robe, 36-year-old Alice Huling lies dead.
00:00:59Kostreba moves upstairs to look for her children.
00:01:02>> When I got to the top of the steps, I could see that there was a lot of blood and tissue and hair splattered against the wall, the far wall.
00:01:11>> KURTIS: He follows a trail of shell casings to the second floor.
00:01:14There he finds three of the Huling children: 16-Year-old Susie, 13-year-old Wayne, and 12-year-old Patti.
00:01:22Each had been shotgunned to death.
00:01:25The officer presses on to the bedroom of the one child who survived, Billy Huling.
00:01:31>> A sleeping bag was laying on that bed, and you could see two gunshot holes actually in the mattress and the pillow.
00:01:38And Billy had said that the guy had shot twice at him and had missed both times because he had kind of slid down inside his sleeping bag.
00:01:49>> KURTIS: As morning comes, a team of investigators arrives to scour the scene for clues.
00:01:54They search the house and find nothing but shell casings.
00:01:58They follow tracks in the snow, but none lead to a killer.
00:02:04Here in Stearns County, Minnesota, the Huling massacre is a crime unlike any before or since, its horror indelibly etched in the mind of a young deputy.
00:02:15>> By Patti's bed, there was a dresser.
00:02:17On that dresser, there was a stack of clothing.
00:02:20And obviously what she had done is she had gotten her clothes out the night before, before she went to bed, and had placed them there to put on in the morning.
00:02:31And I knew that that's what she was going to do.
00:02:33She had plans to get up in the morning and go to school, get dressed and go to school, and that didn't happen.
00:02:38She didn't have a chance.
00:02:40The only chance she had was to cover up her head before she got shot, and I guess that's something that'll be with me the rest of my life.
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00:04:53w?C >> KURTIS: A few days after the murders, Deputy Gary Miller is on patrol in neighboring Wright County.
00:07:34On the morning of December 19, he enters a routine call at the Clearwater Plaza truck stop.
00:07:39A customer is harassing the waitresses.
00:07:43Before approaching the individual, Miller runs a quick check on his car.
00:07:48>> Then I ran the tag, the license number, to try to get a little background on who I was going to be dealing with.
00:07:54When that license check came back, it indicated the vehicle was stolen.
00:07:59>> KURTIS: Miller confronts the problem patron, 27-year-old Joe Ture, and arrests him for auto theft.
00:08:06>> The vehicle that he was driving was towed into our impound area there, and as was our procedure, I asked another officer to accompany me, and we did an inventory of the car.
00:08:20>> KURTIS: Among the items found inside Ture's car are handwritten lists scribbled on odd scraps of paper, the names of dozens of women, many of them waitresses.
00:08:32>> There was a number of notebooks and coasters and napkins that had names of females and license numbers of cars, and some of them had descriptions of where they live.
00:08:44A couple of them had been circled, said, "Get this one." >> KURTIS: Like every other cop in the area, Gary Miller is on the lookout for connections to the Huling massacre.
00:08:55Joe Ture's fascination with waitresses appears to provide one such link.
00:09:00One of the Huling children, 16- year-old Susie, worked part-time as a waitress at a local diner.
00:09:07Miller passes the information on to the man working the Huling case, who questioned Ture about the list of names.
00:09:45>> He was kind of a drifter.
00:09:47He wasn't able to hold a job very long.
00:09:49And since he really didn't have a place to live, he spent a lot of time in restaurants and truck stops and those sorts of places.
00:09:56And he said that he was trying to find a girlfriend, and so he would write down descriptions of potential girlfriends.
00:10:04>> KURTIS: While the catalog of women may be unusual, even suspicious, it is not, by itself, illegal.
00:10:11Detectives turn their attention to a second unusual item found in Ture's car-- a 27-inch metal bar wrapped in black vinyl.
00:10:21>> Well, we knew that Alice had sustained some beating, and we always thought that bar was a possibility.
00:10:29But when they weren't able to find any blood or tissue on it, then it was kind of put aside.
00:10:34>> KURTIS: Investigators are uneasy, but can develop no specific links between Ture and the Huling murders.
00:10:42A few weeks later, the auto- theft charge is cleared.
00:10:46Joe Ture is released and fades into the background of a Minnesota winter.
00:10:58>> What do you understand we're going to try to do today, if you wouldn't mind telling me?
00:11:02>> KURTIS: 11 days after the murder of his family, 11-year- old Billy Huling undergoes hypnosis in hopes of recalling some clue to the killer's identity.
00:11:13>> I thought I heard a shot, and then I heard somebody come upstairs.
00:11:20He came through the hallway, and Wayne looked up at him and saw him, started yelling, "No, no, don't, don't." And then the guy shot him with a shotgun.
00:11:41And then I heard him...
00:11:43At that time, I had went under my blankets.
00:11:48>> KURTIS: From inside his sleeping bag, Billy hears the sound of his two sisters, Susie and Patti, being shot to death in their beds.
00:11:56Then he hears the killer's footsteps approaching.
00:12:01>> I heard the guy come back into our room, and he came over and stood in... about in the middle of the room, shot at me once, came by my head, and rang my ear.
00:12:15He poked me with the barrel gun... barrel of the gun, and I think I moved a little bit.
00:12:24I tried staying still.
00:12:25And when he poked me, he must have saw something on me move, shot at me again in the same place, missed me again, felt me again with the barrel.
00:12:38>> KURTIS: With his life in the balance, Billy Huling plays dead.
00:12:42The killer is satisfied and leaves.
00:12:46Billy's story offers police a window into the killing ground, but presents few clues to help catch a killer.
00:12:54In time, the case goes cold.
00:12:56Meanwhile, a killer continues his work, selecting and stalking his next victim, another young waitress.óébv'fTFñn y2óv >> KURTIS: December 1978, ten days before Christmas, winter's grip holds tight in rural Minnesota.
00:15:26The cold, however, does not stop a killer.
00:15:30Just before dawn, a man breaks into a solitary farmhouse.
00:15:34He guns down a mother and her three children as they lay sleeping in their beds.
00:15:39Police find few clues and can tie no suspects to the crime.
00:15:44The case sits cold.
00:15:51Five months later and 95 miles away, winter is but a memory, and the town of Afton, Minnesota, relishes its first taste of spring.
00:16:02The day unfolds like most others for Fran Wohlenhaus.
00:16:06By mid afternoon, she finishes her errands and heads for home.
00:16:10>> So I drove in the driveway, which was a long driveway, and I saw Marlys's car.
00:16:18>> KURTIS: Marlys is Fran's 18-year-old daughter.
00:16:22She's a month away from graduating high school and works part-time as a waitress.
00:16:27>> I opened the door to the lower level on the side of the house, and I called, "Marcy," and she didn't answer.
00:16:39>> KURTIS: A few more steps and Fran is in the study.
00:16:42It is here that she finds her daughter.
00:16:44>> She was sitting upright against the little school desk that I had when I was in third grade, and she was totally covered in blood.
00:16:58>> KURTIS: Marlys Wohlenhaus is barely alive.
00:17:02Fran calls the police.
00:17:06>> And all I did was hold her to me until the police came.
00:17:12I mean, there was no... I saw the injury and knew.
00:17:16I mean, her brain... skull was totally crushed and was on the floor.
00:17:24>> KURTIS: Marlys is rushed to the hospital and dies two days later.
00:17:29Mike Johnson is among those assigned to investigate.
00:17:33>> There were a number of investigators that were assigned initially.
00:17:36Probably two-thirds of what then was our investigative division worked the case in the early weeks.
00:17:42But it was quickly evident that it wasn't... that there was not going to be a quick resolution to this case.
00:17:49>> KURTIS: Without a murder weapon, finger prints, or any other clues, the case quickly goes cold.
00:17:58On Saturday, May 12, the day before Mother's Day, Fran Wohlenhaus buries her daughter.
00:18:06>> Of course I was totally in shock, numb, had no feelings.
00:18:14And Mother's Day, from then on, for many years, were extremely painful.
00:18:21And I wanted to know, in my lifetime, who did it and why.
00:18:27I wanted answers.
00:18:35>> KURTIS: A chilly night more than a year after the murder of Marlys Wohlenhaus, a young waitress clears the last of her tables and clocks out.
00:18:44It's about 9:00 when 19-year-old Diane Edwards walks north along Roberts Road.
00:18:50She's just three blocks from home when a brown station wagon drives up over the sidewalk and an unidentified man forces her into the car.
00:18:58Five people witness the abduction and call police.
00:19:01A search ensues, but there will be no trace of Diane Edwards found for weeks.
00:19:12Off a country road, a hunter stumbles upon a pair of glasses and a purse.
00:19:18Inside the purse: An id bearing the name Diane Edwards.
00:19:23By late afternoon, Chief Deputy Dave Hofstad and dozens of officers are searching the brush.
00:19:31>> Shortly thereafter, here comes a helicopter, and I would say within five minutes, one of the deputies in the helicopter radioed me and said to get in my car and drive up the road to this little hill and get out of your car and walk down into the ditch.
00:19:48And as I walked into the ditch, I observed a female laying on her stomach, with her hands like this and her head like this.
00:19:55>> KURTIS: With one glance, Deputy Hofstad realizes he's found Diane Edwards dead from a single stab wound to the chest.
00:20:03Within a couple of weeks, Hofstad gets wind of a possible suspect.
00:20:08In Minneapolis, police have a man in custody on charges of kidnap and rape in a case unrelated to the Edwards homicide.
00:20:17The suspect's name is Joseph Ture-- the same Joseph Ture once suspected, but never charged in the 1978 murder of Alice Huling and three of her children.
00:20:28Police get a warrant and search Ture's garage looking for clues that might link him to the Edwards killing.
00:20:35>> They found spiral notebooks with pages of names of girls.
00:20:41>> KURTIS: Two years earlier, a similar collection of women's names and numbers was found in Joe Ture's possession, but could not be linked to the Huling murders.
00:20:50This time, however, Ture's notes offer much more.
00:20:54Diane Edwards's name and the number to the restaurant where she worked are found in a notebook inside Joe Ture's garage.
00:21:02Hofstad believes he might have found Diane Edwards's killer and travels to Minneapolis to question Ture.
00:21:08>> He played with you.
00:21:10I mean, I think he was good at trying to think he could manipulate you and lead you all over and not go anywhere.
00:21:16He never, ever said anything, when we talked to him up there, that you could come down on, but when you walked out of there, you really had a feeling this is the right trail.
00:21:26>> KURTIS: For the second time in two years, Joe Ture's name tops a list of murder suspects.
00:21:31And for a second time, investigators are stymied by a lack of evidence against him.
00:21:37As the darkness of winter once again descends upon Minnesota, the Diane Edwards homicide case joins the Huling murders and the Marlys Wohlenhaus murder in the cold files.
00:21:54Joseph Ture is not off the hook yet.
00:21:56In April of 1981, he is convicted on three counts of rape in cases unrelated to the unsolved murders.
00:22:03With his convictions, he's looking at at least 30 years behind bars, and life behind bars does not agree with Joseph Ture.
00:22:13>> He was being picked on by fellow inmates.
00:22:17The guards were giving him a bunch of crap.
00:22:21Nobody liked him, he had no friends, and everybody was picking on him.
00:22:26>> KURTIS: Deputy Archie Sonenstahl transfers Ture to a new cell block.
00:22:31Ture is grateful.
00:22:33>> He says, "I really appreciate that." He says, "You're the first one that's ever did anything for me." I says, "Well, here is my card.
00:22:43If you have any further problems, give me a call." >> KURTIS: Two weeks later, Joe Ture uses that card.
00:22:51This time he's looking for a transfer out of jail altogether.
00:22:55>> We got into a conversation about his cooperating with authorities and did I feel that they would cooperate back with him if he needed some psychiatric help, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
00:23:15>> KURTIS: Convicted rapist Joseph Ture would rather do his time in the state mental hospital.
00:23:20To get there, he's willing to give up the details of a murder.
00:23:25>> Basically, in so many words, Joe would clean up the Diane Edwards homicide.
00:23:33>> KURTIS: Sonenstahl relays Ture's overture to prosecutors investigating the Edwards case.
00:23:39>> And they said, "Go back and talk to him and tell him that we're receptive to the idea of cooperation; we can't make any promises because we don't know what the problem is, but we'd be receptive to his cooperation." You have the right to remain silent.
00:24:00>> KURTIS: When we come back, Joe Ture begins to talk about waitresses, rape, and murder.
00:24:05>>Anything you say will be used in a court as evidence against you.
00:27:23>> KURTIS: Two waitresses dead in Minnesota, a third also murdered along with her family-- three cold cases with one man in common.
00:27:32His name is Joseph Ture, and cold-case detectives suspect he might be a serial killer stalking waitresses at work and killing them at his leisure.
00:27:42Unfortunately, investigators have no evidence to work against the suspect-- that is, until Ture pulls a 30-year prison stretch for three unrelated crimes and suddenly wants to talk.
00:27:59In Minnesota, Hennepin County Jail is not the easiest place for a convicted rapist to do time.
00:28:05Joe Ture has been locked up here for almost seven months when he decides to cut a deal.
00:28:10Ture offers to trade a murder confession for a bed in the state mental hospital.
00:28:15In May 1981, Deputy Archie Sonenstahl turns on a recorder, and Joe Ture begins to talk about how he killed Diane Edwards.
00:28:41>> He pulls up alongside of her, and he recognized her, and she recognized him, and he asked her to get in the car.
00:28:49And she wouldn't, so he grabbed her, forced her in the car.
00:29:10>> KURTIS: With Diane Edwards restrained, Ture drove 60 miles north to a rural area near Elk River.
00:29:18>> Then he raped her on the front seat, and she screamed some insult at him, and he just blew it, and he stabbed her.
00:29:57>> He said he then drug her down an inclinement, down towards the woods, where he raped her again.
00:30:07Then he thought she might have been dead by that time, because she wasn't moving or saying anything.
00:30:15>> KURTIS: To be certain Ture is telling the truth, investigators arrange an afternoon drive.
00:30:20Ture directs them to an empty stretch of road some 60 miles north of St. Paul.
00:30:27>> And he had me turn up this little trail that I knew led to the site, and we're coming up that little hill.
00:30:35And as we get to the spot, he says, "Stop right here." >> KURTIS: Ture gets out of the car, walks down an embankment, and points to a ditch alongside the road.
00:30:46>> And Dave looked at me, and he said, "You know, he's within four feet of where we found the body." >> And this is a very rural setting so far as landmarks.
00:31:01I mean, they just aren't there.
00:31:03He knew.
00:31:04>> KURTIS: Detectives are now convinced their tour guide is a killer, his confession genuine.
00:31:12On May 13, 1981, Joe Ture is charged with the murder of Diane Edwards-- a crime for which he will eventually be convicted.
00:31:22As he awaits trial, however, Ture discovers that despite his confession, a transfer to the state mental hospital is not in the offing.
00:31:31Instead, he finds himself in yet another jail cell, still doing his level best to make the state believe he's crazy.
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00:33:24Toby Krominga has spent a lifetime drifting in and out of prisons.
00:33:29In December 1981, he finds himself incarcerated in a county lockup in Elk River, Minnesota.
00:33:35It's here that he meets his new cell mate, Joseph Donald Ture.
00:33:40>> Well, right off the bat, after the jailer locked the door, he told me what the rules were going to be.
00:33:46And I was in a foul mood anyway, and I told him, "Kiss off." So he stood up, and then I... we started swinging on each other.
00:33:55>> KURTIS: After the initial fireworks, the two men settled into a friendlier relationship, and Toby Krominga begins to learn about his cell mate.
00:34:04>> Well, we played cards.
00:34:05We played checkers.
00:34:07He was waiting trial on Diane Edwards, and he talked a little bit about that.
00:34:14>> KURTIS: With a guilty verdict all but certain in the case of Diane Edwards, Joe Ture is once again looking for a way around doing hard time.
00:34:23>> Well, that's when he came up with the idea of being nuts.
00:34:26He wanted to write a letter to the judge, you know, and so I say, "Sure, we'll write a letter to the judge-- you know, whatever you want to write." >> KURTIS: Joe Ture dictates, Toby Krominga writes two letters detailing two more killings.
00:34:42The first relates to the murder of waitress Susie Huling.
00:34:55>> He actually went over to the mother's house and told the mother he wanted to date her daughter, and she told him...
00:35:01called him a pervert and told him to get the hell out.
00:35:05>> KURTIS: The letter goes on to describe Ture's revenge.
00:00:01Krominga signs as a witness and hands the letters off to a jail guard to be delivered to the judge.
00:00:08But once again, Joe Ture's plans go awry.
00:00:11His letters never make it to the judge.
00:00:15Instead, Ture finds his confession leading the local evening news.
00:00:20>> In the Huling murder confession, Ture says he knew one of the Huling daughters, but her mother refused to let him see her.
00:00:27>> I was standing next to Joe, and they had a news flash.
00:00:31>> He planned to tie up the family and rape one of the daughters.
00:00:34But when he went into the house and entered Mrs. Huling's bedroom on the main floor, she recognized him and said-- and we quote-- "Leave my house, you pervert." >> I said, "Oh, damn," you know?
00:00:45I mean, I was just as stunned as Joe was.
00:00:47I had no idea it was going to be on the news.
00:00:50>> Ture then says he shot her above the knees and hit her a couple of times.
00:00:54>> Oh, he just freaked.
00:00:56He kept on saying to me, "You double-crossed me; you lied to me; the judge was supposed to get it"-- all that, you know?
00:01:02>> This evening, Joseph Ture said he has never raped or killed anyone.
00:01:06>> KURTIS: Once the statements are made public, Joe Ture denies ever making them.
00:01:10As for his signature on the bottom of the page, Ture claims he signed a blank piece of paper, what he thought was a jailhouse petition for better food.
00:01:19Ture then offers an alibi for one of the killings he supposedly confessed to.
00:01:25On the day Marlys Wohlenhaus was killed, according to Ture, he was working on a production line at the Ford Motor plant.
00:01:32Investigators call Ford and confirm the alibi.
00:01:35Suddenly the letters don't look so solid.
00:01:40>> Basically what it amounted to was a jailhouse confession from one person to another.
00:01:45And early on in that part of the investigation, our office alibied the suspect, believed he was at work, and for that reason, there was no credibility put on it.
00:02:00>> He had his name written out, and he wanted me to sign it too.
00:02:04>> KURTIS: Police accept Joe Ture's alibi, and the jailhouse confessions are discredited.
00:02:09This is how things will remain for 15 years, until a team of cold-case detectives takes a closer look at Ture's confession and find the clues that everyone else has been missing.s who need assistance getting around their homes.
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00:04:59?.=(=PCPCPCPCPCPCPCPCPC2h, This is Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
00:05:43In a single office on the second floor, a select few take on the cases all others have given up-- the cold cases.
00:05:50In 1996, the agents dig into a file that has haunted them-- the murder of 18-year-old Marlys Wohlenhaus.
00:05:58>> The trouble is it's not a good case for cold case.
00:06:00We didn't have any evidence.
00:06:03The only really strong, strong thing was the victim, and that means is the... small community.
00:06:10Everybody in the world out there wants this.
00:06:12They all knew her.
00:06:13I mean, it's one of those cases that just kept crying and saying, "Please pick me up again." >> KURTIS: Special Agents Everett Doolittle and Randy Stricker begin by reevaluating all the players in the case, including one-time suspect Joe Ture, now serving a life stretch for the murder of Diane Edwards.
00:06:33>> And I met with the investigators, and they said, "No, we cleared him.
00:06:37Ture was at work at the time of the murder and couldn't have done it." And that's been said all along.
00:06:43>> KURTIS: 15 years earlier, detectives had placed a phone call to officials from the Ford Motor Company, who told them Joe Ture was working at one of their plants at the time Marlys Wohlenhaus was killed.
00:06:54Cold-case detectives are not satisfied with the verbal confirmation.
00:06:59They ask Ford to locate the actual time card for the day in question.
00:07:04Later, one of Doolittle's detectives calls him with results from the search.
00:07:11>> And he said, "Yeah, Joe Ture was at work on May 8 at the time of the murder-- Joe Ture date of birth 1911 was." And I says... he said, "Yes, his dad was at work at the time.
00:07:23There's no record showing Joe Ture was at work." >> Going back and rechecking, identified that they were both employed there and that Joe was working the later shift, which afforded him the opportunity to commit the crime and still make it to work on time.
00:07:40So that was the big break.
00:07:41It blew away his alibi.
00:07:43>> KURTIS: The collapse of Ture's alibi puts the convicted killer once again in the crosshairs of the Wohlenhaus investigation and brings his jailhouse confession back into play.
00:07:53Detectives give it a fresh look, hoping to determine if it reads true or is just another piece of cell-block fiction.
00:08:00>> We took it apart piece by piece by piece, what he said he did, where he went.
00:08:06And then there were little things in there, and one of the... little things-- they didn't seem to matter that much, but they mean everything.
00:08:12>> KURTIS: On the third page of his confession to the Wohlenhaus killing, cold-case detectives discover one of those little things-- a story about a little girl.
00:08:21>> He talked about coming out the end of the driveway and spinning his tires and blowing gravel all over this girl.
00:08:29>> His quote: "I see this little floor, I spin gravel, and I take off." >> KURTIS: Detectives find a chilling echo of Ture's letter in a statement taken at the Wohlenhaus crime scene.
00:08:42>> And there's a statement from a little... a girl who was eight years old at the time who got out of school, is walking to her girlfriend's house, and she's walking right by the entrance to the long driveway.
00:08:53And she's interviewed back then and said, "I saw this"-- she called it a cream-color little car-- "come out," and this guy threw gravel and dust all over her and took off.
00:09:04That's never been in the media.
00:09:05That's never been out, because they're really worried about...
00:09:08she's eight years old.
00:09:08The family was scared for her safety.
00:09:11>> KURTIS: How did this confidential detail find its way into Joe Ture's confession?
00:09:16For cold-case detectives, the answer is simple: Ture's confession is genuine.
00:09:22>> In this business, you'll have people confess to crimes that they didn't commit, but they don't know the particulars.
00:09:31Joe knew the particulars.
00:09:33>> There's information in there that nobody would ever know and couldn't know but the person who committed the murder.
00:09:38>> KURTIS: It is the third time Joe Ture has been looked at hard for the Wohlenhaus murder.
00:09:43This time the suspicion sticks.
00:09:4517 years after Marlys Wohlenhaus was found bludgeoned to death, Ture is arrested for her murder.
00:09:59>> KURTIS: John Fristik is given the task of prosecuting Ture for the Wohlenhaus murder.
00:10:05To prepare for trial, Fristik decides to educate himself about Ture's criminal past-- part of that history, the lingering suspicion among members of law enforcement that Ture might be responsible for yet another set of crimes, the murder of Alice Huling and three of her children.
00:10:25Fueling those suspicions is a curious police stop made just days after the Huling massacre.
00:10:31From a stolen car driven by Ture, police pulled a metal bar, a list of women's names, and a toy Batmobile.
00:10:41At the time, no link could be developed between these items and the Huling murders.
00:10:4519 years later, John Fristik believes he sees just such a connection.
00:10:52>> And I thought to myself, "What is Joe Ture doing with a Batmobile in his car?
00:10:57Everything else in the car I can understand somewhat.
00:11:01What is he doing with a child's toy, a little, tiny Batmobile?" And then it occurred to me.
00:11:08Alice Huling had two small sons, Billy and Wayne, the same age as boys who would play with toy Batmobiles.
00:11:19And so I thought to myself, where did he get this car?
00:11:23Did this come from the Huling house?
00:11:27>> KURTIS: To answer that question, John Fristik must first track down the one person who might know.
00:11:33>> Shot at me again in the same place, missed me again.
00:11:35>> KURTIS: The sole survivor and only witness to the killings, Billy Huling.
00:11:47Petty Officer William Huling has spent more than two decades trying to forget about a cold night in December 1978-- the night his childhood ended, the night his family was murdered.
00:12:01>> Being as young as I was, I didn't... I didn't want to talk about it.
00:12:04I didn't want to do anything.
00:12:07And I just wanted to continue on with my life and forget that it ever happened.
00:12:11But it's something that you never really forget, and as you grow older, you start thinking about it more.
00:12:15You know, it hits you, and you're like, "Man, you know, my family is not here." >> KURTIS: After 20 years of trying to forget, Billy Huling is now called upon to remember.
00:12:27>> The witness coordinator of Washington County called up and said that they had some evidence that they wanted me to look at.
00:12:33And just... I don't know why I said it or how... or where it ever came from.
00:12:37I was just like, "Oh, did you find my Batmobile car?" >> KURTIS: The following day, Billy Huling identifies the Batmobile-- a toy believed lost the night his family was murdered, a toy found in Joe Ture's possession just four days after the crime.
00:12:54>> Joe Ture took, from their house, after he killed Alice Huling and her children-- he took, from their house, Billy Huling's Batmobile.
00:13:08He took a souvenir.
00:13:10>> KURTIS: Piece by piece, Joe Ture's carefully arranged world is breaking up, and the specter of old crimes rises anew.
00:13:18Up next, cold-case detectives return to the county evidence locker.
00:13:22Just a few feet away from Bill Huling's Batmobile they find the final clues that will undo Ture altogether.
00:14:12>> KURTIS: For 20 years, the murder of Alice Huling and three of her children has remained a mystery.
00:14:18And for 20 years, a child's toy has gathered dust at the bottom of an evidence locker.
00:14:24Investigators found the toy among the possessions of a man named Joseph Ture, but could never fathom its significance.
00:14:34Now the sole survivor of the attack, Billy Huling, has identified the car as identical to one of his childhood possessions, a toy detectives believe Ture took as a souvenir of the night he slaughtered the Huling family.
00:14:47Now the team returns to the Huling case file, wondering if any other clues might turn up.
00:14:53Special Agent Randy Stricker reviews Alice Huling's autopsy photos and notices an unusual pattern of bruising.
00:15:03have been generated by the officers that were conducting the investigation, they had indicated that the bruise on the body could have been caused by a shotgun butt or a shotgun barrel, and I couldn't see the correlation there.
00:15:17>> KURTIS: Stricker decides to take his questions to an expert, a man who studies bruises for a living.
00:15:28Dr. Michael McGee is a medical examiner and forensic pathologist, a specialist in the field of pattern injury recognition.
00:15:36Agent Stricker asks McGee to look at Alice Huling's autopsy photos and suggest what kind of weapon might have caused her injuries.
00:15:45>> She had a bru It looked like it almost had a cylindrical or tubular appearance.
00:15:55The bruise has a distinct upper border and lower border, and in the midst of it are small, punctate areas of hemorrhage suggesting to me that whatever object had struck her was long, probably metal, had a rounded edge, and had a series of circular to oval-shaped depressions cut into it.
00:16:12At least, that's what I told the BCA they should be looking for.
00:16:15>> KURTIS: Playing a long shot, Randy Stricker reviews physical evidence pulled from Joe Ture's stolen car in 1978, hoping to find just such an item.
00:16:25>> The one piece that really stood out in my mind was the pipe, because of looking at the photographs of Alice Huling and looking at what appeared to be a pattern injury on her right breast area.
00:16:38I wanted to look at the pipe.
00:16:40>> They left it for me to look at.
00:16:43I measured it, compared it to the autopsy photos, compared it to the autopsy measurements.
00:16:50And based on that, I told them, "I think this is it." >> KURTIS: When Dr. McGee has photos of the bruise and bar enlarged, the connection becomes clear.
00:16:59>> So you can see the edge of the bar matches the edge here.
00:17:03The edge of the bar matches the edge here.
00:17:06The small holes present in the surface of the wrapping match the small focal areas of bruising and abrasion on the surface of the body.
00:17:15The strap in the middle of the bar that holds the wrapping in place can be seen as this blanch mark running down the course.
00:17:23So when the bar impacted the body, it imprinted this pattern of the bar strap and the holes on the body, causing a reverse image.
00:17:34>> KURTIS: Dr. McGee's testimony is the final link in a chain of physical and circumstantial evidence tying the Huling murders to Joe Ture and Joe Ture to yet another set of charges for murder.
00:17:51Stearns County waited 22 years for this trial.
00:17:54A jury returns its verdict in 12 hours.
00:17:57In the case of the Huling family massacre, Joseph Ture is found guilty on four counts of murder and sentenced to four consecutive life terms in a Minnesota prison.
00:18:11For sole survivor Billy Huling, the sentence seems appropriate.
00:18:16>> I'm at a point now where it doesn't matter.
00:18:21It's not going to change anything.
00:18:23He's doing his time in jail.
00:18:25He's never going to get out.
00:18:28I'm happy with that.
00:18:29I can live with that.
00:18:3220 years ago, no, that probably wouldn't be enough.
00:18:37>> I think justice is a very important part of the healing process.
00:18:43>> KURTIS: Fran Wohlenhaus finds her own measure of justice on October 14, 1998-- the day that Joseph Ture is convicted of yet another murder, the beating death of Fran's daughter.
00:18:54>> For us, we went for so many years without knowing who killed Marlys, and I say it was like a freeing of my soul when I finally had answers.
00:19:07>> The real killer should be sitting in this chair, not me.
00:19:12>> KURTIS: Justice, it seems, brings comfort to everyone save the man behind bars-- a man who says he is wrongly convicted.
00:19:20>> No, they ain't got no evidence on me.
00:19:23They ain't got none, just all circumstantial stuff that they manipulate to make me look bad.
00:19:32Like I said, they can indict a ham sandwich in this state.
00:19:37>> KURTIS: Joe Ture is serving six consecutive life sentences here at the penitentiary in Stillwater.
00:19:44And while there is no death penalty in Minnesota, sometimes a de facto sentence is imposed inside the walls of a prison.
00:19:52Joe Ture nearly met such a fate when a fellow inmate drove a laundry hook nearly into his brain.
00:20:00The convicted killer survived and now seeks the compassion of society.
00:20:07>> But I can't get no justice because I'm a poor man.
00:20:10I ain't got no lawyer.
00:20:11I ain't got no family to stick up for me.
00:20:15That's why I'm locked up.
00:20:17I ain't got nobody.
00:20:19>> KURTIS: The investigators who put Joe Ture behind bars suggest he deserves no such grace.
00:20:25>> He explained to me one day-- Joe Ture quote-- "It's not my fault all women are nothing but whores and Every one has ruined my life.
00:20:33They broke my heart." I mean, he was looking for a relationship that never happened.
00:20:38He thought he would... you know somehow was going to date one of these girls, what he called it, and they'd fall in love, and it never happened.
00:20:45He was very angry.
00:20:47>> Joe is a very, very sick individual.
00:20:50He has no remorse for his deeds.
00:20:53He just does not belong in society.
00:20:56He belongs exactly where he is.

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