| 00:00:01 | Money for himself as a
stockbroker, not all of his
clients liked the way he did it.
|
| 00:00:07 | Zina shirl says she gave michael
$20,000 but told him to invest
only in stocks that she chose.
|
| 00:00:16 | >> Iim, and I said,
"this is the deal.
|
| 00:00:18 | You do not touch it.
|
| 00:00:19 | This is whatever I -- you do
"
"
>> Narrator: Almost immediately,
zina realized michael was buying
and selling stocks in her
account without her permission.
|
| 00:00:32 | >> I had a bill from the company
that I owed them almost like
$8,000 or $10,000 for
commission, buying, and selling.
|
| 00:00:43 | So I wen company, and i
said, "mike, look, this is
wr
>> Narrator: In the brokerage
business, that's called
"churning the account" -- buying
and selling stocks in a
customer's portfolio for the
sole purpose of ge
commissions.
|
| 00:00:59 | Other clients allege that
michael prom
a year in order to get their
business, a practice that's
illegal in many states.
|
| 00:01:09 | Michael -- he crossed a lot of bridges.
|
| 00:01:12 | ..
|
| 00:01:14 | A lot of illegal things was
done.
|
| 00:01:18 | >> Narrator: Investigators also
learned that michael didn't
always pick good stocks.
|
| 00:01:23 | For example, he bought shares in
texas air for many of his
clients at $48 per share.
|
| 00:01:29 | In a matter of weeks, it fell to
$15.
|
| 00:01:33 | >> I would say most of the
people we had talked to that had
lost money were really not that
upset that michael had
disappeared or that he had been
murdered.
|
| 00:01:46 | We even had several people that
said they wish they could have
done it.
|
| 00:01:52 | >> Narrator: On the night
michael was reported missing,
his wife said he called her
around 8:30.
|
| 00:01:58 | He said he was with a client and
was working late.
|
| 00:02:02 | She also said michael asked her
for his supervisor's home
telephone number.
|
| 00:02:09 | >> In phone calls to his wife
that night, he spoke russian,
which she considered unusual.
|
| 00:02:14 | Michael did not like to speak
russian in front of american
clients.
|
| 00:02:17 | He considered it rude.
|
| 00:02:18 | >> He would only speak russian
in front of some other russian.
|
| 00:02:21 | She just assumed that whoever he
was with was some other russian.
|
| 00:02:29 | >> Narrator: Later, michael
called his boss at home with an
unusual request.
|
| 00:02:35 | >> He was asking for money --
$200,000 that he said he needed
to raise for a client that
night.
|
| 00:02:42 | This, of course, put everyone on
their guard because, to get a
call from a broker at night
seeking $200,000 is highly
unusual.
|
| 00:02:49 | >> Narrator: Michael said his
client was leaving town early
the next day and needed the
money immediately.
|
| 00:02:56 | Naturally, michael's boss said
no.
|
| 00:02:59 | >> He just said, "it's not that
we're unwilling to come up with
the $200,000, but we certainly
aren't gonna be able to come up
"
>> Narrator: And michael's boss
said that he made a strange
reference to a boat.
|
| 00:03:15 | >> What he said was, "didn't you
tell me that your father gave
you $200,000 to buy a boat -- to
"
well, his supervisor hadn't told
him anything like that.
|
| 00:03:26 | And his supervis
concluded, and later told the
police, that he suspected that
michael was trying to send an
alarm of some kind by reminding
him of a conversation that had
>> Narrator: The medical
examiner believes that michael
was killed later that night.
|
| 00:03:42 | >> It's difficult to be precise,
but because he wasn't completely
frozen, I didn't think he'd been
out there longer.
|
| 00:03:50 | >> Narrator: Police found
michael's torso, his legs, and a
piece of
on the tarp with the torso,
black hair.
|
| 00:04:02 | >> It was very f
of a crimped appearance to it
that was not indicative of a
>> Narrator: Microscopic
examination revealed it was a
dog hair.
|
| 00:04:14 | The medulla, or central core ofairs, can
help identify
the breed.
|
| 00:04:20 | In this case, analysts
determined the hair was from a
bernese mountain dog, which is
tricolored and usually very
large.
|
| 00:04:29 | The only other evidence thee that l
to the garbage dump.
|
| 00:04:38 | It looked as if a car had hit it
to force it open.
|
| 00:04:42 | >> There was some brownish paintby a
>> Narrator: And there was a
small plastic
looked like a piece of the car's
ess told police that he
saw michael's blackes-benz in the lake
parking lot next to a small, brown vehicle
similar in color
that the car
possibly could have been a
it looked consistent with a
mazda 626.
|
| 00:05:21 | >> Narrator: This narrowed the
list of suspects considerably.
|
| 00:05:25 | They were looking for someone
driving a brown mazda, who had a
on
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| 00:08:37 | >> Narrator: While investigating
the murder of stockbroker
michael prozumenshikov,
investigators learned he had
many disgruntled customers.
|
| 00:08:47 | He had also been soliciting
investors to build a resort in
reno, nevada, to be managed by a
"
>> quite a bit of money that
investors put into this scheme.
|
| 00:09:01 | And it ended up that act
the address for omni financial
was in the middle of the desert.
|
| 00:09:06 | It was an old, deserted, shabby
motel, vacant -- is really what
the address was where this
resort was supposed to be.
|
| 00:09:15 | >> Narrator: The investment was
a scam, and this created even
more
>> authorities believe that
money was probably the motive
for michael prozumenshikov's
murder.
|
| 00:09:26 | >> Narrator: News of
michael prozumenshikov
generated a number of potential
leads, including one from
employees of a local car wash.
|
| 00:09:37 | They said they had an odd
encounter with a customer the
morning after michael's body was
found.
|
| 00:09:45 | >> A customer requested we get
some hunting blood out of his
trunk, which got us thinking a
little bit -- little, you know,
little strange.
|
| 00:09:55 | >> Narrator: They said it wa
brown mazda, and they gave
police the license number --
the car was registered to
zachary persitz, a 39-year-old
russian émigré who worked as a
dam inspector for the state of
minnesota.
|
| 00:10:14 | He was a friend of michael's.
|
| 00:10:16 | >> When he first met michael, he
was more established than
got into the brokerage
business, and michael's earnings
eclipsed those of za
they didn't know each other in
the old country.
|
| 00:10:27 | Their wives were friends.
|
| 00:10:28 | >> Narrator: Persitz was
married, had two children, and
was well known and respected
within the russian immigrant
community.
|
| 00:10:36 | .
|
| 00:10:39 | Very intelligent.
|
| 00:10:42 | I remember zachary's a good
artist.
|
| 00:10:47 | In the world.
|
| 00:10:48 | He wouldn't hu a flea.
|
| 00:10:51 | great neighbor,
kept to himself, never bothered
anybody.
|
| 00:10:56 | Michael were more than just
friends.
|
| 00:10:59 | Michael was perss financial
advisor.
|
| 00:11:02 | Their relationship was rocky at
best.
|
| 00:11:05 | Investigators discovered that
persitz gave michael $150,000 to
invest, but there were more
losses than profits.
|
| 00:11:14 | Discovered his stock portfolio
was worth less than $30,000.
|
| 00:11:22 | were
suitable for a guy that invested
every nickel he had with
michael.
|
| 00:11:30 | >> Narrator: When questioned by
police, persitz denied any
involvement in michael's murder,
and he willingly took a
lie-detector test arranged by
investigator and cocounsel
had developed a suspicion that
..
|
| 00:11:51 | And had zachary tell them that
he hadn't done it.
|
| 00:11:55 | And he passed.
|
| 00:11:56 | >> Narrator: And forensic
origin of the blood in persitz's
trunk.
|
| 00:12:04 | At the time, dna testing wasn't
as sophisticated as it is today.
|
| 00:12:08 | >> Back then, the dna testing
procedures required dna to be
what's called high molecular
weight.
|
| 00:12:15 | We needed dna that hadn't gone
through any degradation
processes at all.
|
| 00:12:19 | >> Narrator: But investigators
did find some suspicious damage
to perstiz's car.
|
| 00:12:25 | It had damage to the front right
end.
|
| 00:12:28 | The paint was scraped, and the
bumper was broken.
|
| 00:12:32 | The scratches on the bumper had
what appeared to be tiny specks
of orange paint, which were
removed with a small probe.
|
| 00:12:40 | >> The samples that we're
talking about are perhaps the
size of a period or a small dot
with a pencil.
|
| 00:12:47 | So we're talking
microscopic-sized chips of
paint.
|
| 00:12:51 | >> Narrator: The paint sample
was compared to the paint from
the broken gate using a process
called a solubility analysis.
|
| 00:12:59 | >> Chemical solubility tests are
a seriesreagents, solvents,
or reagents that may cause color
reactions or cause it to
dissolve or swell or do
something -- a color change.
|
| 00:13:12 | And if they are similar, that
means that the paints could have
had a common source.
|
| 00:13:17 | >> Narrator: The test showed
that the paint on perstiz's
bumper could have come from the
gate, but the sample was too
small to be conclusive.
|
| 00:13:26 | But the piece of broken bumper
found near the gate was of more
value.
|
| 00:13:32 | The forensic analysis revealed
it could only have come from one
source.
|
| 00:13:38 | >> It was just a perfect match.
|
| 00:13:40 | They were unevenly cracked, so
the odds of the pieces that they
recovered from the compost site
being a perfect, even match to
zachary's car -- the odds of
..
|
| 00:13:55 | So amazing that they just said,
"this had to have come from
"
>> Narrator: And investigators
learned that persitz owned a dog
with long black hair, which
proved to be microscopically
similar to the single dog hair
found with michael's body.
|
| 00:14:16 | Finally investigators sprayed
the inside of persitz's car with
luminol.
|
| 00:14:22 | It revealed evidence of a
gunshot.
|
| 00:14:25 | >> It looked like stars.
|
| 00:14:27 | There were hundreds of spots on
the roof of the headliner of the
car, which would have been
consistent with the
high-velocity mist if someone
gets shot in the head.
|
| 00:18:06 | >> Narrator: Prosecutors
believed that zachary persitz
was enraged by the way his
frieichael prozumenshikov
handled his money.
|
| 00:18:15 | He watched his $150,000 dwindle
to less than $30,000.
|
| 00:18:21 | >> He came upon hard times.
|
| 00:18:23 | He was not gonna be able to pay
the tuition for private school.
|
| 00:18:27 | He was not gonna be able to make
his mortgage payments.
|
| 00:18:31 | And that's where the dynamics of
to stand the
pressure of seeing all of his
dreams vanish.
|
| 00:18:44 | >> Narrator: At the same time,
zach
was living quite well on the
commissions generated from a the stock transactions.
|
| 00:18:56 | >> Zachary's wife oftentimes
would compare their lifestyle to
michael's lifestyle, sayinghoe.
|
| 00:19:04 | Why don't we have a big house?
|
| 00:19:06 | "
and on and on.
|
| 00:19:11 | >> Narrator: Prosecutors
believed persitz wanted revenge.
|
| 00:19:16 | The evidence suggests persitz
set up a meeting with michael
in the parking lot at
lake minnetonka.
|
| 00:19:28 | Once there, persitz threatened
michael with a gun and demanded
his money back with interest.
|
| 00:19:35 | So michael called his boss at
home, asking him for $200,000.
|
| 00:19:40 | But his boss refused.
|
| 00:19:43 | [ Dial tone ]
Persitz handcuffed michael to
the steering wheel of his car
and ordered michael to drive to
..
|
| 00:20:05 | Anthen killed him.
|
| 00:20:07 | [ Gunshot ]
the trunk and drove to the
away.
|
| 00:20:20 | Persitz broke through the gate
small piece behind.
|
| 00:20:27 | After dismembering michael's
body, persitz wrapped the torso
in a tarp.
|
| 00:20:33 | Unbeknownst to him, a single
black hair from his pet dog was
on the tarp.
|
| 00:20:41 | The rest of michael's body and
the gun have never been
recovered.
|
| 00:20:46 | This homicide and not get caught
'cause he had it all planned
out, and he didn't realize how
tough it is to hide trace
evidence, forensic evidence.
|
| 00:20:56 | It's always gonna be there.
|
| 00:20:58 | >> Narrator: Zachary persitz
pled not guilty by reason of
the jury, however, rejected
that and found him guilty of
first-degree murder.
|
| 00:21:10 | He was sentenced to life in
prison.
|
| 00:21:14 | For michael prozumenshikov, the
american dream had turned into a
tragedy.
|
| 00:21:24 | No doubt who was responsible.
|
| 00:21:28 | >> The forensic evidence was the
case.
|
| 00:21:32 | The investigators did an
overwhelming
job.
|
| 00:21:38 | >> The old expression is, "if
you think you know how to commit
the perfect crime, there are 50
ways to [bleep] it up.
|
| 00:21:45 | And you're a genius if you can
"
[ chuckles ]
--Captions by VITAC--
>> Narrator: A wealthy socialite
died after falling down stairs.
|
| 00:21:59 | Was it an accident or was it
murder?
|
| 00:22:03 | The laws of physics and an
accident reconstructionist
provided the answer.
|
| 00:22:35 | The lucas family was well-known
in tyler, te
the family patriarch,
baker lucas, owned a successfulresidential-home
sales.
|
| 00:22:48 | >> He owned a lot of real estate
property.
|
| 00:22:49 | He had a large real estate
business, and he was so
they did ask him to run for the
position of mayor.
|
| 00:22:57 | He accepted, and he was our
mayor from 1970 to 1978.
|
| 00:23:01 | >> Narrator: The famildonated
generously to charity and was so
active socially that bette lucas
was known as the first lady of
tyler.
|
| 00:23:11 | >> She was quite social.
|
| 00:23:12 | She liked parties.
|
| 00:23:14 | Belonged to a garden club and
literary club and symphony
league when it began.
|
| 00:23:19 | She was one of the first
members, I'm sure, that was in
it.
|
| 00:23:22 | >> Narrator: But the family
fortunes changed dramatically in
1985 when baker lucas was killed
in an automobile accident.
|
| 00:23:30 | >> It was a very traumatic time
for her because for bette lucas,
her husband was her life.
|
| 00:23:36 | He was her connection to
everything in tyler.
|
| 00:23:39 | >> He waited on her hand and
foot, and she very much loved
him.
|
| 00:23:44 | She was gonna be by herself,
and that was a real blow because
they'd been together all these
years.
|
| 00:23:51 | >> Narrator: Steven, the lucas'
son, took over the family
business, but things were never
the same.
|
| 00:23:58 | >> In fairness to steve, his
father was such a charismatic,
well-liked person that it would
be very difficult for him to
step fully into his father's
shoes.
|
| 00:24:07 | I think that probably this
is something that was not lost
on him, and he attempted to
manage the business, but not as
well as baker had.
|
| 00:24:16 | >> Narrator: Three years later,
there was more bad news for the
bette lucas fell down a flight
of stairs in her home and was
rushed to the hospital.
|
| 00:24:25 | Sadly, she never regained
consciousness.
|
| 00:24:28 | >> She was in on life support
for at least a day.
|
| 00:24:31 | She was taken off that, and she
died, and she was buried the
next day.
|
| 00:24:35 | It happened very quickly.
|
| 00:24:36 | Even those people who were close
to her did not find out about
the funeral till the last
minute.
|
| 00:24:42 | >> Narrator: At the time, no one
saw the need for an autopsy.
|
| 00:24:47 | >> Nobody would have expected
her to die like that.
|
| 00:24:50 | We'd had plans on what we were
gonna do in the rest home when
we got to the rest home
together.
|
| 00:24:55 | An was such -- just
unbelievable that she would be
gone.
|
| 00:24:58 | >> Narrator: Two people
witnessed bette lucas' fall --
her son, steve, and his
20-year-old daughter, stephanie.
|
| 00:25:08 | Steve said his mother, a frail
woman, started to carry a vcr up
the stairs.
|
| 00:25:13 | He said he tried to carry it for
her, but she wouldn't let him.
|
| 00:25:16 | >> This was one of the early
VCRs, AND IT WAS LARGE AND VERY
Heavy.
|
| 00:25:21 | 32 Pounds is just tremendously
heavier than what we normally
think of now as a vcr.
|
| 00:25:28 | >> Narrator: At the top of the
stairs, steve said he made one
last attempt to carry it.
|
| 00:25:34 | >> And in the process of him
trying to take that from her,
she jerked away, and the motion
of her jerking away propelled
her over the staircase banister.
|
| 00:25:47 | >> Narrator: She landed on the
lower flight of stairs and slid
to the bottom.
|
| 00:25:53 | The vcr left a dent in the
molding, and the painting on
the wall was askew.
|
| 00:26:00 | But after bette's funeral, the
ambulance crew told police t
steve lucas behaved suspiciously
when they arrived at
bette lucas' home.
|
| 00:26:09 | >> They said that steven lucas
was standing outside.
|
| 00:26:12 | He was not even in there with
his mother when they rolled up.
|
| 00:26:16 | So, miss lucas was laying there
on the floor dying, if you will,
all alone.
|
| 00:26:22 | We received several anonymous
calls at the police department
telling us that we needed to
investigate the death of
bette lucas -- that it really
was not an accident and that
perhaps it was a homicide.
|
| 00:26:33 | >> Narrator: So investigators
decided to look further into
bette lucas' death.
|
| 00:26:46 | cream?
|
| 00:26:46 | We got it on rollback.
|
| 00:26:47 | That's what I'm talking about.
|
| 00:26:48 | Blue bunny premium ice cream.
|
| 00:26:51 | I know you want it.
|
| 00:26:52 | [ humming ]
This is my ice cream dance.
|
| 00:26:57 | Ooo, peanut butter.
|
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|
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|
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|
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|
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|
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|
| 00:27:12 | Snatural rhythm with miralax.
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erosion.
|
| 00:27:17 | There's a lotof foods and drinks
that have acids in themthat you might not
know about.
|
| 00:27:21 | Salad dressings, raspberries, strawberries,
grapes -- they all have acid in them.
|
| 00:27:26 | And it's working at your enamel.
|
| 00:27:27 | Once the enamel is gone,it's gone.
|
| 00:27:29 | You can't get it back.
|
| 00:27:30 | I would recommend using pronamelas your regular
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|
| 00:27:34 | Pronamel will helpto reharden the enamel,
help protect your teeth from further acid
erosion.
|
| 00:27:39 | Knowing what I know about pronamel,
I use that every day,twice a day,
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| 00:27:46 | to
you
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|
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|
| 00:27:57 | maybe we should chug on over to mambie
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where maybe we can findence for you.
|
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| 00:28:11 | Geico.
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| 00:28:12 | Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent
or more.
|
| 00:29:22 | >> Narrator: Bette lucas, the
millionaire socialite of tyler,
texas, was dead after a fall
down a flight of stairs.
|
| 00:29:30 | Her son, steve, described the
everyone in the community it.
|
| 00:29:38 | >> A call came in telling the
sheriff's department that they
really
look at the case, because this
person, who was a friend of the
lucas family's, thought that
steve had killed his mother.
|
| 00:29:47 | >> Narrator: Since there had
been no autopsy, investigators
petitioned the court for
permission to exhume bette's
body.
|
| 00:29:55 | >> The fact that they brought
her back out of the ground --oo.
|
| 00:30:01 | But we were happy that they did
if they were gonna find
proof of what had happened.
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| 00:30:07 | >> I think the town very quickly one camp
thought that steve was
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