Within A Hair

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In 1996, a serial rapist preyed on women, young and old, in South Bend, Indiana.

Eventually, three victims identified the same man as the perpetrator.

But what happens when the forensic evidence points to one man while the victims are pointing to another?

Throughout the spring and summer of 1996, police were investigating four sexual assault and burglary cases in the River Park section of South Bend, Indiana.

All of the crimes occurred on weeknights between 8 and 11 p.m., and the descriptions of the assailant were the same.

He was described as a young black male between 16 and 25 years of age, about 5'8 inches tall with a thin build.

One of the homes broken into belonged to this woman who has asked not to be identified.

It had rained, it had stormed, and I was in bed.

She says the perpetrator kicked in the door while she was asleep.

She says she didn't get a good look at him, since during the assault, he covered her eyes with a shirt.

First thing he said to me was, Bitch, I want your money.

In this case, he assaulted her, locked her in a closet, then stole her automobile.

But he was clever and left behind very few clues.

He wore gloves so he wouldn't leave fingerprints, and he wore a hood or mask to conceal his identity.

I just tried to remember, just do what he tells you to do, and you'll be all right.

And I was.

Detectives Sergeant Cindy Eastman and Ann Schellinger were investigating the crimes.

There's nothing more stressful as an investigator than having a serial situation taking place because we know until we solve this, there are going to be more victims.

Although the victims described the assailant similarly, his MO or method of operation in each case was different.

When we're looking at serial offenders, usually they stick with what works for them.

They normally carry the same weapon.

They normally approach the victim in the same manner.

In some of the cases, the perpetrator used a knife.

In others, he used a handgun.

Sometimes he targeted young women on the street.

And other times, he broke into the homes of elderly women.

In terms of forensic evidence, investigators had very little.

In one case, a semen sample.

In another, a pubic hair.

But few other clues.

The River Park rapist's most brazen crime happened in July of 1996.

The victims were a young man and his fiancée.

They were having an argument.

They decided to stop the car, get out, just cool off, talk it out.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the assailant demanded money at gunpoint.

He struck the young man and took off with the woman, sexually assaulting her in a wooded area nearby.

When the police arrived, their canine unit armed with the assailant's scent identified a trail.

The dog walked past the tree line where the assault took place and continued into a field.

At the spot where the dog lost the scent, police noticed bicycle tire impressions in the grass, raising the possibility that he had used a bicycle to make his getaway.

Police staked out the neighborhood, looking for men on bicycles who fit the assailant's description.

It wasn't long before a suspect rode right into their trap.

Scores of police officers in South Bend, Indiana, searched the River Park area in a hunt for the River Park rapist.

They were looking for a young black male living in the general vicinity of the crimes who was using a bicycle as his method of transportation.

During a stakeout three months into the crime spree, a police officer saw a young black man matching the victim's description riding a bicycle just across the street from one of the crime scenes.

The suspect was identified as 31-year-old Richard Alexander.

Although he had previous brushes with the law, Alexander denied he was the River Park rapist.

He claimed he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I ain't did nothing, man.

I'm on the way home.

I'm the only, you know, everybody in the area.

It's a quiet neighborhood, whatever, you know what I'm saying?

I'm the only black going down the street on a brand new mountain bike.

They seen him riding his bike late.

This old ass, like a scapegoat.

They'll go, you know, a black man, let's throw this on him.

A search of Alexander's apartment found a knife, some hoods, and bandanas.

At police headquarters, investigators placed Alexander's picture, along with five others, in a photographic lineup and asked the couple who had been attacked if their assailant was among them.

The woman could not identify a subject.

How about you?

That guy.

But her fiancé did.

I'm absolutely certain.

He looked at the photo array and without hesitation pointed to the picture of Richard Alexander as being the suspect that robbed them and sexually assaulted the victim.

This was the only positive identification the other victims couldn't say for sure.

But soon, they would get a second chance.

Police arranged for another lineup, this time with the suspects in person.

Once again, there were six suspects to choose from.

Number six, step forward and read the lines, please.

The first to step onto the stage was Richard Alexander.

Reportedly, one of the victims gasped when they saw him walk out, perhaps even cried.

Number three, step forward to save your mind.

Each of the suspects was instructed to repeat phrases that the rapist had used during his attacks.

Bitch, I want your money.

Where your car keys at?

Uh,

don't talk.

Number six, that's him.

After hearing his voice, Two female victims identified Alexander as the rapist, bringing the number of identifications to three.

Next, forensic scientists analyzed the pubic hair found at one of the crime scenes.

Since it didn't have a root, it could not be used for DNA testing.

The only option was to compare it to Richard Alexander's hair visually to see if they looked similar.

The comparison was inconclusive.

Scientists also had a semen sample from one of the victims who had been unable to identify Alexander from the police lineup.

When that sample was tested for DNA, it did not match Richard Alexander, so he was not charged for that crime.

But he was charged with rape, confinement, burglary, and theft in the three other cases.

At the trial, The prosecution failed to make their case to the jury.

Barbara Griffin was one of the 12 jurors.

I've been working public servant for since 1967.

So I kind of know, get a feel for people.

And I just, on the first day, I got a feeling that this man didn't do this.

There were nine white and three black.

Nine whites said guilty.

Two blacks said

guilty, but of a lesser sentence, and I said not guilty.

So I was the only hold out

and the jury was hung.

Y'all got the wrong version anyway.

Four months later, Alexander was tried a second time with a jury composed entirely of white men and women.

Based on the three victims' identifications,

Richard Alexander was found guilty of two of the three assaults.

He was sentenced to 70 years in prison.

We were just so devastated and just depressed because we knew in our heart he was innocent.

Barbara Griffin could not believe the news.

I was so angry.

I was just angry.

I felt like this is another black man going to prison.

I felt that way.

Even Officer Eastman had her doubts.

I was sorry and somewhat surprised to to hear that the jury did convict.

I was very conflicted.

I had my doubts, but I could not prove it.

With Alexander behind bars, police assumed the River Park rapes were over, but they were wrong.

Richard Alexander says the first year in prison was the hardest, but the second, third, and fourth years behind bars weren't a lot easier.

I'm afraid they're all gonna get killed.

Y'all seen guys get raped in a shower.

Alexander did what many inmates do.

He wrote letters to everyone he could think of proclaiming his innocence and asking for another trial with no success.

Meanwhile, the burglaries and and sexual assaults continued, this time not in the River Park section, but just a short distance away.

And one of those victims identified Richard Alexander's picture from a photo lineup as the assailant.

You're absolutely certain.

Even though Alexander was in prison.

Detective Ryan Harmon was assigned to investigate these new cases and noticed similarities with with the earlier cases.

I didn't investigate the River Park rapes 1996, so I became a lot more familiar with what happened back then.

The search for the perpetrator took an unexpected turn in April of 2000

when a man called police to say there was a tan Cadillac in his driveway and there was a burglar inside.

When the intruder saw the homeowner, he fled on foot.

In the foyer was a clear foot impression, which was collected for analysis.

In the assailant's car, police found everything they needed.

I found utility bills, some receipts, different pieces of paper that showed Michael Murphy's name on there, as well as a specific address and apartment number.

A background check revealed Michael Murphy had been implicated for sexually assaulting his girlfriend's nine-year-old niece.

Yeah, he touched her.

What actually stopped him from actually

going through with it was

his pager went off, she said.

Detective Harmon interviewed both Murphy's girlfriend and the little girl's mother.

Well, these two girls just went off two hours about all these different types of burglaries he had committed.

Michael thought he was big and bad and thought he was cool or what he was doing and thinking he getting away with what he was doing.

With the search warrant, investigators discovered a pair of shoes in Murphy's closet which matched the shoe impression at the burglary scene.

Murphy's girlfriend gave police some pictures of Murphy with some of the items he had stolen in the burglaries.

When confronted with the evidence, Murphy said little.

He'd say, hey, when I'm all hyped up on cocaine, I need to go out and just, you know, find a girl.

Well, things like that told me that he may be a sex offender.

Harmon then called the first investigator of the River Park rapes to ask whether she had ever heard of Michael Murphy.

He had been arrested by me the month prior.

So we began working together at that point on

Murphy and various other crimes that he had been involved in.

When Cindy Eastman saw the photographs given to police by Murphy's girlfriend, she saw an important clue.

In one of the pictures was a chrome and glass wall clock stolen during a sexual assault in 1997, a crime that Richard Alexander was suspected of committing.

Eastman immediately phoned Murphy's girlfriend.

She immediately said, I know exactly what you're talking about.

I remember when he came home with it, it's hanging on my wall.

Do you want it?

Cindy revisited that victim and asked her, Do you have any photographs that may depict the same clock?

And she had a photograph of her, her son, during the holidays standing in front of this clock.

Both detectives began to suspect that the real River Park rapist wasn't Richard Alexander, but Michael Murphy.

They just needed some way to prove it.

My very last words to her were, I love you.

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During Richard Alexander's trial five years earlier, the pubic hair found on one of the victims could not be tested for DNA since there was no root material on the hair shaft.

But science had changed in the five years since Alexander's conviction.

In 1996, forensic scientists began using a new test to look for DNA in a shaft of hair.

The new test was called mitochondrial DNA.

Mitochondrial DNA has given us tremendous power in forensic casework to solve the casework where no other DNA profile can be obtained.

It exists outside of the cell's nucleus.

Although it is not as precise as nuclear DNA, it still can provide much genetic information.

The mitochondrial DNA from the hair was compared to both Richard Alexander as well as Michael Murphy.

The DNA from the pubic hair did not match Richard Alexander, but it did match Michael Murphy.

We determined that at every place that we tested these two samples at all, on an average 800 bases that we compared, they were identical to each other.

I got the word, and it was just absolutely exhilarating.

We knew then that Richard Alexander was going to be released from prison.

Next, scientists performed DNA testing of the second piece of evidence from the River Park rapes, semen from the rape test kit.

In yet another surprise, the DNA did not match Michael Murphy as investigators assumed it would.

The DNA profile was then entered into the DNA database of convicted sex offenders in the state of Indiana.

And there was another surprise.

It matched a third man, a convicted sex offender, Mark Williams.

It was just unbelievable to get this call from the state police lab.

And there we have it.

We have the two suspects.

And now it all makes sense.

Ironically, Richard Alexander, Michael Murphy, and Mark Williams looked similar.

All three of these pictures showed a male black who appeared to be within a close age range.

All three had similar musculature and statures.

All three of them had similar complexions and bone structure, and

They did resemble each other, which again answered the other mystery in this case.

When confronted with the mitochondrial DNA evidence, Michael Murphy confessed.

He was just doing nothing but burglarizing homes every day throughout the whole city.

Looking back, I think he's in well over 200 to 250 that I know of that he's confessed to.

In the face of this new DNA evidence, Richard Alexander was released from prison after serving five years and four months for crimes he did not commit.

Oh, it was cheers.

Everybody stood up and cheered and hugged him and

we got in the car and went on home.

It was so gratifying to me when afterward he came up to me and I held my hand out, but he hugged me and he thanked me.

And that's all that needed to be said.

It just solidified all the work.

You know, it was like going into that car again when you know you've got a royal flush.

And what's going to be there?

It still hurts.

It still hurts because really ain't nothing been done

since I've been out.

You know what I'm saying?

I wanted to apology and

they apologize, but it ain't really nothing, you know what I'm saying, taking a man's life.

Five and a half years of your life taken from your family, loved ones, kids, all that stuff hurts.

Michael Murphy was convicted of one count of burglary and one count of sexual molestation.

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Mark Williams was convicted of one count of rape and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Richard Alexander was a victim of mistaken identity.

His innocent bicycle ride past a crime scene cost him his freedom.

Now,

science had vindicated him.

Sometimes, one tiny hair can say more about guilt or innocence than a handful of eyewitnesses.