evidence, almost enough. not quite. and then the antique rugs. i was searching the kitchen area and found in the washing machine two small size rugs. and the rugs were still very wet. and they were balled up to one side. but when ralph saw the rugs during a walk-through with the police, he didn t seem to recognize them. i mean, i ve never seen these rugs. the minute we heard he had never seen them, we knew the rugs had importance. we just didn t know how. they sent the rugs to the lab. and months later they heard back. what did you find when you tested them? pam s blood was found on the rugs. they had caught ralph in an obvious lie. he must have put those rugs into the machine himself, hoping to wash away the evidence. finally they had enough. almost nine months after pam s death, officers went to the antique store with an arrest warrant. that s when we learned that
what you re doing and tailors his story to match what he thinks you re finding. exactly. ralph kept explaining, kept offering not less, but more details. about, for example, the drawer pulls in his house, the ones investigators removed to test for fingerprints. in the event that one of the invasion persons touched them. now here s ralph with the police at his house just after pam was murdered. noticing the missing knobs. what happened to all the knobs? he was very upset that they were missing. i don t understand why the knobs are gone. and he would know you re looking for fingerprints of these home invaders. well, yes. but what if they didn t find any fingerprints besides his and pam s? well, in his letter written a few days later, ralph provided a new detail that accounted for that possibility. all of a sudden, now his attackers, he remembered that they wore gloves with l.e.d. lights on them. which would explain why no one
a citizen s tip supplied a possible lead. she brought up individual names that he believed were involved in this homicide. ramon berros and jose nino, known drug users, both had rap sheets, a history of breaking and entering and assault. they were trying to sell jewelry the day after the murders. you have a responsibility to check into that? yeah. pam s daughter shannon found her blaming ralph for not preventing what happened. i was angry at him. in my mind i was like, why didn t you protect my mother. and right about then the biggest scoop of eric mullen s career landed right in the lap of the huerfano world journal. i ve been in news since i was 15 years old. i ve seen a lot of things walk in the newsroom. i had never seen anything like this. in through the front door
the warm morning sun. there was blood on the floor. i touched her cheek. she was cold, cold, cold. and i ran out of the house. and that, said ralph, is when he saw his neighbor and yelled for help. who did it? robbers or someone else? normally said police captain vince suarez. you are always looking as people closest to the victim. in this case, ralph was a victim and clearly wanted to help find the killer or killers. cbi agent jody wright. he was cooperative. absolutely. investigators turned their attention to the spurned ex-husband. jerry palmer. actually the next day when the investigators called me. it was no secret jerry and pam did not get along after the
well, you know, the sucker would rather go out than actually face his destiny that way. suicide attempt, delaying tactic, whatever it was it didn t work. a day later the judge ordered ralph back to court. people versus ralph lee candelario sentencing. and ralph, bandaged up, got another day in the spotlight. your honor, i have maintained that i have been innocent through this whole process. and then a keen observer might almost have heard the jaws drop around the courtroom. pam will be resurrected. we will be able to see her again. we will be able to watch her laugh and sing and do all the things that made her such a special person. and in that regard, i put my hope in that future. but until then, i am going to file an appeal for this particular motion.