susan fassett s murder looked like a professional hit. the killer was apparently lying in wait. and had planned a quick getaway from the scene. i have seen brazen murders in my career, but i have never seen one this brazen that just seemed to vanish. all of susan s personal effects were found in the car indicating that it was not a robbery. susan s husband jeff, a 24-year veteran of the poughkeepsie police department denied any involvement in susan s murder, although he didn t have an alibi. we could not confirm where jeff was when it happened. and jeff s car was similar to the vehicle seen speeding from the crime scene. you look at his record and his record is blemish free.
says, that this is dawn silvernail with her own motive and open motivation, his story doesn t make sense that she would stop and of all people simply dial a pay phone and page him and signal him. the only person that she would do that for is a person who was involved and knew. at fred andros direction, dawn went to the united methodist church on the night of choir practice. she parked next to susan s car and waited. when susan got into her car to go home, dawn fired five shots and sped away. dawn told investigators she left the murder weapon and phony license plates in a prearranged spot. computer forensics revealed that
caliber weapon. we determined that andros didn t have a registered .45 handgun registered nor a vehicle that fit the description of the vehicle leaving the scene. the victim s husband didn t own a .45 caliber weapon either. but the medical examiner discovered one additional clue. susan had intercourse within 48 hours of her murder. when jeff fassett was questioned about this, it was news to him. they test that semen against jeff fassett s dna and it s not a match. police ask fred andros if he had sexual relations with susan fassett before her murder and he said no. he had told us that he hadn t seen her in a month and had never been intimate. andros explained why he was unable to have sexual relations. fred said to us that he was unable to perform sexually due to a medication he was taking.
andros told police he was having an affair with dawn silvernail at the same time he was having an affair with susan fassett. in fact, he said the three of them had five or six sexual encounters together. i told him i had never done anything like that before. and i went to the house and she was there and he introduced me to her, and we talked for a few minutes, and then we went upstairs and we engaged in a threesome with the three of us there that lasted maybe half an hour. fred andros suspected that dawn silvernail and susan fassett started seeing one another alone and perhaps had a lover s quarrel. dawn denied it. i never had any contact with susan fassett unless fred called me and set it up and we met with fred in fred s presence. i never had any independent contact of any type with susan ever.
andros dna matched the dna taken during susan fassett s autopsy. within 48 hours of her death, he had had sexual relations with her. he had told us he hadn t seen her in a month. that s a big lie. it s like a bomb going off. that was something that fred deliberately hid and we wanted to know a good reason why. when faced with the forensic evidence, andros had no choice but to admit he lied, but he claimed he did it to protect the killer. during the course of that interview, after a time, fred andros offered up the name dawn silvernail as the possibility of the one who committed this murder. 50-year-old dawn silvernail was a state employee with no criminal record and was married with one grown son. she s a housewife. she s got a college education, she works with the disabled. she s got a great reputation. she s never, ever been in trouble.