#1 medium post 2- Forensics

Forensic Files- Collection 4, Episode 25

1991, 42 year old Nancy Ludwick worked as a flight attendant. Her husband had been told by another flight attendant that there had been some problems in Detroit and he should come immediately. Nancy had been found dead in her Hotel room near the Detroit airport by stabbing, evidence showed she fought her attacker. Showed extreme defense wounds on her body. Her hands had been bound with gardening/landscaping twine. She had also been sexually assaulted. Her attacker had also left evidence of staying in the hotel room (he bathed and cleaned a bloody wash cloth). Nancy’s personal belongings were missing. Another hotel resident saw a man walking out of the building with Southwest-looking bags into a Monte-Carlo. Investigators later found out a hotel worker’s boyfriend owned a Monte-Carlo and acted suspicious when questioned by officials. She was caught in a lie, she claimed to have told officials that she knew Nancy from previous trips but this was Nancy’s first trip to Detroit. There was also poor security at the hotel. Everyone that had access to the hotel were suspects, 22,000 people were suspected. Nancy’s husband received a letter about a woman who heard about his wife’s murder from the newspapers and told him that it sounded a lot like her mothers murder, 5 years earlier. There was a finger print found on a door knob in the house where the mother, Margaret Ebe, was murdered. Crime scene photographs show that the two murders were almost exactly the same, the wounds, and even the way the body was positioned. All 22,000 suspects were found and were all dead ends. DNA testing revealed the same man murdered Nancy and Margaret. A new finger print system on the computer was used to find out if the finger print found in the Margaret’s house would match any in the country and there was a match in Florida, it matched 39 year old Jeffery Gorton who lived in Flint, Michigan. He owned a Monte-Carlo and lived not that far from Margaret Ebe and works for a water sprinkler company that serviced the water sprinkler that was used in Margaret Ebe’s residence. His DNA was in the database because he had previous attacks on woman. Marie Gagliano was assaulted by Gorton. When she was putting her groceries in her car, she was aggressively thrown to the floor and dragged for 15–20 feet. He ripped her slip off and ran away. Police went undercover and followed Gorton to a roller skating rink, where he took his kids. Officials took the styrofoam cup he used to drink out of and took it to the forensics lab. There, tests were conducted and DNA matched Gorton to the 2 murder cases which was enough for a search warrant for Gorton’s house. Investigators found tons of women’s underwear in boxes and under mattresses. They also had labels of descriptions and names. There was also a video tape. The video tape included Gorton modeling women’s underwear and footage of women he took without their knowledge. Gorton was brought into question and denied all the facts that were laid out in front of him. DNA testing confirmed that Gorton sexually assaulted Nancy and Margaret, and possibly murdered. Gorton also showing interest in a girl in the Jury who matched the description of Nancy and Margaret, he kept looking at her and moving in his seat. He was tried and convicted for the 1st degree murders of Nancy Ludwick and Margaret Ebe, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.