them, usually a romantic interest. and the husband is often the perpetrator. roger said he left home at 8:00 a.m. and was at work at the time of his wife s murder, around 9:00 a.m. records indicated helena had been on the telephone until 9:00 a.m., about the time a neighbor heard a commotion. one man who lived next door said about 9:00, when he was shaving, he thought he heard a human an abrupt human cry. but who knows. when police confirmed roger was at work, 40 minutes away at that time, he was eliminated as a suspect. helena s murder also meant that she would never testify at the sexual assault trial back in san francisco. got a call from roger franklin who was good greenwood s husband.
found the front gate locked. when he peered over the fence, he saw his wife s body. roger was in total shock. and he first called gen-probe. he didn t call the police. he called gen-probe. that shows how disoriented he was. the crime scene appeared to be staged. it had the earmarks of a robbery, but no money was missing from helena s wallet. you had her purse that was strewn about. they preserved all of that for fingerprints or other evidence, of which, unfortunately, there were none. there was no physical evidence left. obviously, he wore gloves. i mean, one safely can assume that, i guess. and it was clear that helena valiantly fought her attacker. this woman put up a hellacious fight. it was evidenced by the fact that her fingernails, two of them were found at the scene. she had broken off two of her fingernails while scratching
at the preliminary hearing where both helena and frediani were present she was asked if she could identify him and she couldn t. not positively. and out of that arises one of the great mysteries of this whole case. but the fingerprints on the teapot were all the prosecution needed, so the case headed to trial. sadly, helena greenwood didn t live long enough to testify in court.
helena earned a ph.d. in microbiology and was an executive in the biotech industry. she was not only an excellent scientist but she had marketing skills. and those two things often are not concurrent. helena was very forward thinking, especially looking at technology. but she also knew the power that technology by itself doesn t market a product. basically it s the human need. if there s a human need, there s a product. that s required. helena and her husband, roger, a landscape designer, lived in atherton, a quiet suburb outside san francisco. our story begins on a saturday night in april of 1984 when roger was out of town on a business trip.
this person. at the autopsy the medical examiner discovered petechial hemorrhages in helena s eyes, an indication of strangulation. there were no signs of sexual assault. but under helena s fingernails were tiny traces of what appeared to be blood. unfortunately, the sample was too small for forensic analysis. what comes to mind when there s a bizarre murder, strangulation in broad daylight? you think marital trouble. you think crime. you think drugs. i mean, helena never got within a thousand miles of any of those things. and that simply deepened the mystery. helena s husband, roger, was the first person police interviewed. whenever a woman is killed the prime suspect is generally the husband. and statistically, that bears out. most women who are killed are killed by someone well known to