is, of course, probably someone that knows her. now-retired police detectives ron hersburg and tom reeder worked the case. and in the days after the murder, a clear picture of a suspect emerged. an exchange student from iran, a former boyfriend named abbass esfehani. interviewed the parents. and they had had a conversation with their daughter a couple days before this homicide that she did not want to see him anymore. that she was scared of him because of his temper. two critical pieces of evidence linked esfehani to the crime scene. his fingerprint on a rail leading upstairs to the room where the body was found and dark hairs left on cheryl miller s body, found to be similar to those found on a hair brush belonging to esfehani. they were strikingly similar according to the michigan state police. strikingly similar? right. did you get a chance to interview esfehani? we never did get a chance to interview mr. esfehani. it turned out that just days after miller s murder
ron hersburg and tom reeder worked the case. and in the days after the murder, a clear picture of a suspect emerged. an exchange student from iran, a former boyfriend named abbass esfehani. interviewed the parents. and they had had a conversation with their daughter a couple days before this homicide that she did not want to see him anymore. that she was scared of him because of his temper. two critical pieces of evidence linked esfehani to the crime scene. his fingerprint on a rail leading upstairs to the room where the body was found and dark hairs left on cheryl miller s body, found to be similar to those found on a hair brush belonging to esfehani. they were strikingly similar according to the michigan state police. strikingly similar? right. did you get a chance to interview esfehani? we never did get a chance to interview mr. esfehani. it turned out that just days after miller s murder, he had sold his car, left many of his belongings in saginaw, and a week ahead
he had a normal sperm count. could a person with a normal sperm count have raped cheryl miller? almost impossible. only way it could have happened if he had had a vasectomy before 1974 and then had it reversed. the defense called one of the nation s leading experts on male reproduction to back up the claim that ferris could not have been the killer. if he s fertile today, would you expect that in 1974 he would have been infertile at any time? if he s fertile now, he almost certainly would have been fertile then. the original medical examiner had concluded that whoever raped cheryl miller was sterile. the problem with that turned out to be abbass esfehani is not sterile. tony alverez is not sterile. gabe ferris is not sterile. so even of the pool of suspects that the defense argued could have committed this crime, none
okay. it was really it was shocking to me that he could care less. what do you think really happened to cheryl miller? well, i think the most plausible theory, in my opinion, is that abbass esfehani was the one that committed the crime. they were lovers. they had just broken up a week before. she had called her parents this is in police records a very bad blowout. what do you think happened? well, miss miller was not only beautiful, but she was very bold. and mr. esfehani was from a country culturally where men generally dominated and manipulated women. and miss miller dumped mr. esfehani. dumped him? dumped him. and i don t believe he could take that. he was a jilted lover. that has all the ingredients for the recipe of murder. did abbass esfehani get away with murder? he s a very likely suspect. i don t know if he did it. while the facts point to him, and the case ended with him, as the primary suspect. and because of the government
proven that ferris was a man capable of leaving his honeymoon bed on the shores of lake huron and driving 65 miles for a rendezvous with ex-girlfriend, cheryl miller, a meeting that ended in murder. over time, years, evidence keeps pointing to gabe ferris. not tony alvarez. not abbass esfehani. gabe ferris. but the defense disagreed and insisted that the prosecution s theory made no sense. that even though admittedly ferris has been a scoundrel, sleeping with cheryl miller in the days before his wedding to another woman, there was no evidence that he killed her. it s a sleazy thing to do. but it doesn t amount to murder, people. soon the fate of gabriel ferris was in the hands of the jurors. among them, a retired mechanical engineer, a pipe fitter, and a marketing executive. what was that first, two undecided, four not guilty, and six guilty. and you were among those undecided. some wondered how so much of