leotard was torn or cut and torn with a blunt object. and prosecutor hubbard argued chelsea would never have ripped her costume for any reason. chelsea spent months making this costume. she was so proud of it. we never believed that she would tear that. and look inside the leotard said prosecutors to the jury. the jury had an opportunity to see the bloodstains on the costume. and they were significant. the costume was turned inside out and shown to the jury, and it was very clear that she sustained trauma that caused a significant amount of blood loss. she was therefore obviously wearing the costume when she was beaten and bloodied. the defendant by his own account indicated chelsea was naked during what he claims was a consensual sexual encounter. but clearly what happened was she was beaten and bloodied first and then that costume was forcibly removed from her. and all those strands of
down. nothing panned out. they all had allies? yes. but big mike, neither the detectives could shake the idea this guy was hiding something. coming up, we ask asked for consent to search the house. big mike in the spotlight. and a new weight loss right before she went missing. you went back out to the parking lot of the vehicle you put her in. the parking lot of the vehicle you put her in 90% of women
in fact her own blood was inside the front of the leotard. but someone else s dna was there, too. a man. a mystery man. we entered it into our codis system, and there was no hint. codis, the database basically. they said it s just a matter of time and sooner or later we ll get a match on that. they checked of course the dna of eric who found the costume and harlen bird, and both men were cleared. when we got that information from the dna, it was almost like our investigation kind of shifted gears. we were in recover dna mode. we were trying to collect dna from anybody and everybody we could. so did you go back to the people at the party? we now are going back asking for dna because before we didn t
evidence said the prosecutor from daniel clay s lies to the dna to broken facial bones, the blood inside the costume added up to first degree murder. but daniel s defense attorney russell smith countered, uh-uh, his client killed chelsea, yes, but this was no murder. the tragedy of this young lady is no longer with us. but the facts these two people got together and one of these people passed away is not proof of murder. he argued it was just a horrible accident caused by choking during consensual sex, and he put on his own forensic pathologist to argue that as well. some type of neck compression strangulation. though the expert conceded there was no physical proof of that. but he disagreed with the state s conclusion chelsea was beaten to death. the facial bones by themselves would be an unusual
hurt her. she was breathing when i left her. she got out of the car and walked away. daniel figured detective pregmore was have assumed they found that semen dna so he told that consensual sex story, but then the detective told him a little more. that dna he told daniel wasn t semen, it was skin cells discovered where chelsea s costume has been violently ripped. either something happened where it was intentional, unintentional, accidental. listen to me. now is the time for you to tell us what happened because are you that monster murderer?