Episode 356

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised Small yeah, I'd take off. I mean if I would have killed her I would have been gone This is season 13 episode 356 of sword and scale show that reveals that the worst monsters are real (upbeat music) - It's an overcast day in March 2018. The winter snow is finally giving way as the weather warms. Kevin and Jean Zimmerman sit in their living room with lights, a camera, and a local reporter staring back at them. - Does time sort of stop for you on that day on April 2nd? - Absolutely. - In 2008, do you feel like you can, you know, that it is 10 years later? - That it is 10 years later? No. - No. - No. - No. - It's quite unbelievable. - That is 10 years already? - It's, you know, completely unbelievable. - They've done countless interviews over the years and are willing to do thousands more. Anything to keep their daughter's case alive. - How often do you think about that day? - Every day, every single day. We thought it was gonna be solved right away. We didn't even consider that this, that we'd be here 10 years later. - Three days after this interview would mark 10 years since their daughter Brittany was killed. In that decade, the case had passed through three police chiefs and four lead detectives. Years of work with little to show for it. Only once did they think they were close. - Why do you think there hasn't been unrest or even seemingly like a person of interest or a major break in the case? - I mean, we thought there was. You know, it was two and a half years ago, chief Koval came to our door on my husband's birthday and said, we believe we have the person responsible for killing your daughter, December 9th. - That moment came in 2016, but two years later, there was still no arrest. All the Zimmermans could do was hold on to hope. - That's all we have is hope, we can hope. - Yeah. - But realistically, I'm not real sure that they're ever gonna solve this. At least not the way it's being handled right now. I just don't believe it. - When parents lose a child, they're powerless to do anything but wait. Justice moves on its own timeline. And in the Zimmermans case, that timeline stretched endlessly. These interviews, these small acts of advocacy, were all they had control over. If speaking publicly could help or speed up catching Brittany's killer, they'd do it every day for the rest of their lives to make that happen. - What would you really tell people about why they should rack their brains? - Why? - Because if it was your child, you'd want everybody in the world to rack their brains for you. - Put yourself in our shoes. Just for a second. - Just for a second. Put yourself in our shoes. - And knowing what this little girl meant to everything to us. And you know, she was never there to hurt anybody. She was always there to help people. - Photos of Brittany still lined every wall of their home. A family scarred by tragedy, frozen in time, clinging to whatever hope remained. And wondering whether the case would ever be solved. Meanwhile, the police department continued to work on their decade-old investigation. - This is not what I would consider been relegated to a cold case. This still has active leaves that are worthy. - The Zimmerman's new little about the leads detectives were chasing. They only knew that two years earlier, the police chief had told them they had the guy. But there had been no rest. They were completely in the dark. - If I had the probable cause based on the totality of the evidence I had, don't you think I would have made an arrest? - It turned out that the chief had spoken too soon. It was one of many missteps in an investigation that had been plagued by setbacks from the start. One of the biggest was losing the long time lead investigator. The emotional toll of the case eventually became too heavy to bear. - He was convulsing at one point. And then I was convulsing. And I realized we can't continue to sign cases this way. - The chief swore that moving forward, a team of investigators would carry the case. He was confident they would solve it eventually. - The old school copy me still hopes now that loops, slips, will sink ships. Someone's gonna say something to somebody about this case in a bar or overheard. - But even if they did, even if the killer was finally behind bars, the Zimmerman's knew it would bring them little comfort. What they wanted most was the one thing that no investigation could return. We would be a doctor right now that she wanted to be. And we would be proud of her. And we could go visit her on our animal farm and everything she wanted because she loved animals. - That's what we wish, you know, that she could live her life the way she wanted to. - They had thought the case would be solved quickly. By 2018, they simply hoped it would be solved at all. Their nightmare started on April 2nd, 2008, when their daughter was attacked inside her apartment in the middle of the day. The mistake started almost immediately. And to understand how this case remained open for a decade, you have to go back to the start. - Monday will mark 10 years since a brutal murder that rocked downtown Madison. - It's been five years since Bernie Zimmerman was killed here on a Dodist street. - Friday will mark the two-year anniversary of the Madison murder of Brittany Zimmerman. - It's April 2nd, 2008. Jordan Garnering hops on his moped and heads towards the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. His fiance Brittany is already in class. She had a big test that morning. He rides a short distance to campus from their apartment and join the sun. It wouldn't feel so cold if it weren't for the wind, he thinks to himself. He gets back to campus at around 1130. He goes out on one of the balconies of the Van Highs building and scans the quad for Brittany. She turns her phone off in class, but he knows she'll be coming out of the bacteriology building. Then he spots her. She stands out with her golden hair and the collar of her lime green pea coat, pulled up around her neck. He calls her name. She looks around for a moment before looking up to the balcony. A smile spreads across her face when she sees Jordan. He points to his phone and she remembers her phone is off. She turns it on and it rings instantly. Jordan asks her how her parasitology test went. She sighs, but says it went fine. They have a quick conversation, just touching base before their dinner plans that night. They finish their phone call and Jordan starts heading to his Russian literature class, which starts at 1205. After class ends at 1255, Jordan walks back to his mopet and hops on. He weaves through the campus and onto his street. He gets home, parks his bike on the side of the house and walks to the front door like he always does. Then he stops. The lock on the outside security door is busted. It looks like somebody kicked it in. You can't remember if it was always like this. He stares at it for a moment, thinking. But dismisses it and starts to go inside. He reaches to open the closed door and notices it's unlocked. He thinks that's weird. But he also knows their landlord was supposed to show the apartment that day. So he assumes that's why. Thanks for watching. Biden takes off his backpack, his jacket, and his shoes. Usually there are three cats who would greet him at the door, but today, they were nowhere to be found. Jordan takes a few steps towards the back of the small apartment and freezes. On the floor in the bedroom is Brittany. Just for a second he thinks she's pranking him. But as soon as he inches close, he sees blood. Jordan would call 911 at 108 PM. His phone barely holds a connection. He manages to give the address on West Dodie Street before the call cuts out. The dispatcher tries again. Revoices break in and out, tangled and static. Up to this point in his life, the most serious thing Jordan has faced was final exams. Now he's kneeling beside the woman he planned to marry, trying to save her life. The dispatcher checks to make sure the attacker is no longer there, all while relaying information to officers already in route. Brittany isn't breathing. Her airway is filled with blood and she has no pulse. The dispatcher talks Jordan through CPR but she knows it might already be too late. And when Jordan rolls Brittany on her back, he notices something he cannot make sense of. The dispatcher stays with him, guiding him, reassuring him, while also coordinating the incoming police units. He switches between comforting Jordan and delivering updates to officers racing towards the scene. She has to jump right back into the fray with Jordan. She tells him help is coming, but in moments like this, seconds stretch into hours. Finally officers arrive and usher Jordan inside. Police reach the apartment at 110 pm, less than two minutes after dispatch. They check on Jordan, then clear the house, room by room. Upstairs and downstairs, making sure the attacker isn't still inside. Only then do they move toward Brittany. That was too late to help her. The officers informed dispatch that the victim was deceased and the call became a homicide investigation. When detectives arrived at the scene, they were confused. There was forced entry but nothing was stolen. Brittany most likely was working on her computer, filing out federal grant forms, when someone interrupted her. Her desk was messy with tax documents. From the doorway of their bedroom, detectives saw blood on the bed and the floor. Further checking revealed her cell phone. The battery was missing and it looked like someone had deliberately damaged it. They found it hidden under other garbage in the trash can. Who would want a 21-year-old microbiology student dead? And why? It was a broad daylight murder with no clear motive and it would take 12 years for Madison police to uncover the truth. The midday murder of their only daughter had a devastating effect on the Zimmerman's. They wouldn't see her graduate or get married. She would never have a career, a family, or a life. The date of her death would replace her birthday for her parents and they would spend the next 12 years fighting for justice for Brittany. Her fiance Jordan found her lifeless body on their bedroom floor and called 911. The police made a mad dash to the crime scene. When it was determined that Brittany was deceased, the investigation started. The entire street from intersection to intersection was cordoned off. Officers secured the scene. They started to make contact with the neighbors and left dash cams running to capture anyone walking in the area. Stephen had just seen her at 11.30. What could have happened in the last hour and a half? They hoped whoever killed her was still in the area so they started canvassing. Quickly dispatched and covered some investigation that might have been related. I was just calling to report a suspicious incident that just happened at my house because I thought I should tell someone just in case something happened. What was the incident? Some day I walked into my house and just opened our door and came in and was asking me for money and he came up our stairs. Okay. The caller lived on West Washington Avenue to blocks away and a straight shot down an alley from Brittany's apartment at Dodie Street. Okay. And you don't know who this person was? No. I have no idea. He said that him and his wife had a flat tire on East Washington Ave and that he needed $40 via tire. Okay. Did he walk into your apartment? Yes. Okay. The possibility that this man with a flat tire could be involved couldn't be overlooked. With no idea who killed Brittany, anyone was a possible suspect, especially a middle-aged man going from door to door or asking for money. For units on this channel, this is really just information for you. I don't know if it has anything to do with your call or not. 525 West Washington Avenue 525 West or caller there says that about 10 minutes ago a complete stranger walked into the house without any permission answered for money for a flat tire white nail 50s, gray hair, gray t-shirts, red sweatshirt tied around his waist. That call would give a new theory on who killed Brittany. While she was an extraordinary person, her life was otherwise rather unremarkable. Aside from her academic achievements, she didn't have enemies wanting revenge or jealous friends. She didn't know anyone money and didn't have any to steal. She hadn't wronged anyone in any serious way. But considering the other 911 calls in the area, the idea that the murderer was committed by a stranger at Rand became very likely. Then there was another 9-1-1 call. 9-1-1 with the others emergency. I'm sorry, the personnel emergency. I don't know if you can translate that not emergency line or if I should tell you. This is fine. What's the problem? My neighbor is directly across the street. There's some kind of old men I think drinking from a bag sitting on the porch and looking in the window. And I was just worried that there might be a insulated burglarier or something like a bomb those ones. This caller was a college student like Brittany and Jordan. He was waiting for the bus to take him to school when he noticed some suspicious activity. How many people were there? I think they're just taking a break or something but I think it was worried they were looking at the bail box or something like that too. To be clear, this call was about two other men. Not the men with a flat tire begging for money. These two men were sharing a drink from a paper bag while looking through windows and rifling through mailboxes. It was certainly suspicious and with the early theory that a stranger murdered Brittany it was even more so. But to understand the obstacles in the investigation into Brittany's death, you have to know about the neighborhood she lived in. She lived on West Doty Street just off South Bassett Street in the Bassett neighborhood. Is it Bassett or Bassett? I guess it's the same difference between Boudet and Boudet who gives a shit. This area was sometimes called the student triangle because of the proximity to the university campus only six blocks away. The neighborhood was a mix of students and apartments, families and small houses, and a few long-term low-income tenants. Oh and transient foot traffic. The downtown area had homeless shelters, drop-in shelters, and a bustypo. With a mix of college students and transients, the area had a high-call volume so the police were there often. At the same time, there were roughly 1,400 service calls a year, and one-third of those were for panhandling and other loitering complaints. So when all the evidence at the scene of the crime pointed to a random person murdering Brittany, the police knew they had a difficult investigation on their hands. But the man with the flat tire entering people's homes and invited was their first possible lead. What was the time, friends, of when she called, and when we had done the call, the five one's done it? I was about a five minute last between the call, so it's exactly about 15 all together. 15 all together. Yeah, that description for second detailers. I want you to check in the area. I want a couple of you to go down to the stage three, check around that area, and then just, you know, three, four, five block area, third goal area looking for that party. Once you're done doing that then I hate folks to respond down to passes and stories. And police work coincidences are rare. So the idea of a man walking into someone's home within 15 minutes of a home invasion and murder set off alarm bells. The police would quickly locate the man with the flat tire. He was known to the department as an active panhandler. David Call would walk around the neighborhood asking people for money at random with some made up story to elicit sympathy. Turns out this homeless guy had exhausted his entire friends and family list for help. They had all had enough of them and said no thanks. And now society was left to deal with them. By the time they had an official interview, he was already in jail on a probation violation, 50, WI Valley or registered because I was homeless at the time. Okay, I'm addressed. Okay. All right. And I was good to have to do with the houses downtown. That's my thing. No, that was. I was brought money like for businesses and stuff. Okay. That's the same thing. Oh, okay. All right. Call had a lengthy criminal record stretching over 16 years at this point. He had a couple of counts of manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance in 92 and 93 was charged with theft and second degree sexual assault. In 2002, he was charged with possession of THC. In 2006, he was charged with failure to register as a sex offender. Are you exhausted yet? Because it's getting old. Anyway, a few days after that, he was charged with his fifth. Oh, WI or operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. That kills people, you know. But after learning about his history and talking to his parole officer, they didn't see him as a suspect. They saw him as a suspect. Source for some reason. Thank you, Wilson. I investigated a number of different things. Okay. And we're not. We're not here to jam me up any further than we should already are. Okay. That's not our that's not our purpose in life and with this interview. Okay. I already know, you know, I know all the downtown stuff, you know, going to the houses and that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. As well, like I said, it's okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. David Call shifted in a seat with a blank expression. He was 42. But his white stubble beard and quickly graying hair made him look older than he was. His receding hairline didn't help matters either. He was a average height, but a little on the thin side. He grew up on his parents dairy farm and considered himself a farmer. But he never graduated high school. And since 1992, when he was 26, he'd been in trouble with the law and spent several stints in prison. It didn't sound like he was much of a farmer. But he was a perfect informant. What I'd like to do, if it's okay with you, just use some photographs and you tell me if you know, at least people and how you know that. Okay. We're talking about, we're talking about people that we're doing, you know, we're all in the street like you were, you know, maybe with some scams, maybe going into houses and things like that over the course of time. He looked at each picture of the officers showed him. They were all people who frequented the area around Brittany's home. Some he recognized, but didn't know or couldn't place. House, he didn't know at all. The next photograph is here, number 9-00-698-96. Again, 9-00-698-96. That's Dawn. I know her. Yeah. Where did you, where you know Dawn from? I was walking out with her the other day. Okay. So, with the police contact you or before, before the police contact, were they telling you to come about three o'clock? I was with her then. Finally, he recognized some. He said that the day Brittany was murdered, he was with a woman named Dawn. Together, they teamed up and started going door to door asking for money. The police had already talked to Dawn, but she couldn't or wouldn't cooperate. Which was fine because police were more interested in the other two men they crossed paths with. That day. Can you describe to me the couple of gays that were with her? Those were supposedly Mitchell or Michael and then Hank. So, Mitchell or Michael and Hank. Yeah, those are the guys that gave him the script to them. Okay. Yeah, and can you, just in one more time for us, can you describe Mitchell or Michael for us? Mitchell has on one hair ponytail. He's tied back. He's got a scott on the right cheek. And a curtain double is dimple right here. Okay. And so, then can you describe Hank to us? Hank is black. Okay. Short, real short curly hair. It's even got like, it's not even like an apple of me. It's, you know, a short curly, but it's like spaces in between it. Okay. So, all of a sudden, you think it's whole spinning or where you're doing this thin, thinning, okay? The reason they were so interested in these two men was that while calls M.O. was to ask for money for a flat tire, they had other methods. Those guys went like, we're open windows climbing to an end up like that. Like an alley or walking between two houses that windows open now. Okay. That's their kind of scheme. Okay. So, just looking for home in one dust. Oh, for the most nice $9. And I don't know what there also was. Mine was like a safer flat tire. But I remember earlier that day, me and Don walked down, you know, it was W and the street order. There was like two different girls down there. And I remember her telling them guys because I got my $40. I have a girl with a girl who had a lot of money. And I remember she'd tell them guys As a section set you're dressed on there to make out more of mine. Call said the other two men were in the habit of burgling people. They would knock on the door and, if no one answered, look for open windows. Once inside they would steal everything worth money, laptops, cameras, cash, anything. The police started to wonder if these two men entered Brittany's home without realizing she was inside, and then the worst happened. He was incredibly forthcoming, sharing everything he did and everywhere he went that day. Even openly admitted to any petty crimes he committed. Call had an easygoing demeanor with detectives. He was extremely polite, and even all the people he panhandled from described him as such. He reviewed all the pictures the police provided and helped create a timeline of his movements that day to determine where other transients were and when. You know, you've been honest with us here today, you're certainly not suspecting any of those cases. Well, we'll try to drum up Mitchell and Hank, and if you hear anything in here, when you get back into population, about other people that might know them or whatever, and you can give us a tip on that. The interview ended with Call providing a buckle swap for DNA testing. The detectives left with a new direction, finding Mitchell or Mark, the man with the ponytail and the Kurt Douglas dimple, and Hank, the black guy with thinning hair. They would search for months with no luck. But these guys were responsible, they were lying low, April faded, and May turned into June. Before detectives realized it was July. In September, when there was still no arrest, Brittany's mother even used money set aside for her wedding in Hawaii to help fund a reward. During that time, a crime lab was processing DNA from the scene. Now, this is 2008, when DNA testing wasn't as advanced as it is today. The samples taken from Brittany's crime scene were mixed, meaning they included two or more DNA profiles. Even so, they quickly found a match. The bad news was that it matched a DNA profile from an unsolved burglary at the Blue Moon Bar and Grill, back in June. A link to another unsolved crime didn't help, and it only made the theory of a transient stranger committing the murder even stronger. So, they went back to talk to Karl. Again. "Nothing has changed in the day. I can't be more explicit with you. Okay. We're not considering any other charges against you no matter what you tell me or tell me in Sam today in the scenario regarding the personal stuff about what you were doing. You don't care about that. Our focus is who killed Brittany." "I thought you'd block it yet." "No, that was on the marina one, the guy that was on resture that got killed like in January. We did catch it." "Somebody would say it's something on the news, you saw that they already caught the guy or something." "I found that guy. This is the girl." "I thought they had DNA too or something on a knife or something." "That was from the marina case that they got killed back in January a couple months before the one we're working on." "Okay. Because they also found DNA or whatever and supposedly arrested somebody on them." "Yeah. That was my case." Cole seemed even more eager to talk with detectives than last time. He casually talked about the case even cracking jokes. He'd been in jail for a few months by now. He had plenty of time to think about that day to remember. "Do you have a container if you remember what I'm telling you?" "Murning." "Do you remember seeing a house that where you lived in?" "Yeah. At some point earlier that day or any of the time that he knocked at that door, I have no idea." "Okay." "No recollection because I was bouncing from street to street, house to house." "Do you remember how many houses on her street that day, day, you might have made contact?" "Probably almost all of them." "I have all of them. Do you have any recollection of how many you might have had people hold that came to the door and didn't have to ring?" "There wasn't a whole lot of people home." The conversation turned to Hank and the other guy. He was brought in a new set of photos to see if Cole recognized any of them. He didn't. Then the conversation turned to Don. "Is she any help at all?" "Yeah." "I mean, it's dizzy. I know that. But I mean. " "What can we use against her to get her to be my boyfriend if she wasn't being my partner?" "I don't know." "Anything that. " "You have to have something in the charges or something out of the car." "The charges would help you." "Okay." "There's no chance that Hank and your two are in that book." "No." "Absolutely not." "No. I know their faces yet." "Okay." "Yeah. It's your shirt." "Yeah." "I tell you. Because I'd rather have you talk to him." "Mm-hmm. I keep bothering you." "If they didn't do something like that. Like I say, they did mention about Robin a few people at night points." Strangely engaged, Cole was asking more questions than the detectives. "Was she raped at all?" "I can't tell you that." "All right. What if that?" "I just didn't tell you." "I just didn't tell you." "I just didn't tell you." The police were aware of this very early on but didn't inform the public. They said the state of the phone systems at the E-911 center made it so that the operator did not hear the screen. in the recording it was Clearly a woman screaming, then they heard what sounded like someone saying "Stop!" along with the sounds of what could only be an assault. Then the line disconnected. Her protocol, the operator called the number back. But this forced transparency caused outrage. Not only were two men on the recording, but Brittany called 911 nearly an hour before her fiancé, Jordan, found her. This revelation would lead to the Zimmerman's filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the city in 2009. They would settle the suit the following year and put all the money towards a scholarship fund in Brittany's name. They said it wasn't about the money. It was about not letting this happen to anyone else. The E-911 center would undergo many equipment upgrades and dispatcher training. A lot of "covering your ass" after the damage is done. But while the police were dodging the public outrage, they received an anonymous letter in late 2009. The letter was from the Fox Lake Correctional Facility. It claimed an inmate with the initials of FR and his friends, killed Brittany. The detectives investigated this anonymous tip, but nothing came out of it. Around this time, the case also lost its first lead detective, who transferred out of the department. With his departure, the next detective would have to start all over again. The new detective revisited all the evidence, including the DNA. They resubmitted the samples and they reprocessed them. By 2011, the mixed samples were degraded, but the technology had improved. When they got the results back, they knew they needed to speak with David Call, yet again. You were going door-to-door in Brittany's neighborhood that day, right? Yeah. Okay. Me and Don and the other guys. Other guys, me and these two guys were talking about it. Okay. There's some evidence. I mentioned you some evidence that came up. As you can imagine, the homicide, we had the crime, we had the process, everything. The DNA was developed, some things that Brittany had on at the time she was killed. That's the main reason Detective Luke, you know what I'm just going to talk to you today. That DNA is consistently your DNA, and that was just developed recently. When you explain why your DNA would be on in your house even, I mean, no idea if it was one of the houses that we would break into that day. How many houses did you break into? Well, me and them guys, let me see, we'd go in there and we'd break in. You know, go through stuff, look into the dirt, buy a toss. Okay. While Call's story had been consistent for years, this time he revealed more. And he had been with two other men helping him burgle homes for items to sell. He offered this up as a possible explanation to how his DNA could have even ended up at Brittany's house. The DNA that we have could not have gotten there by you being in superhero apartments in order that it's there because he touched her, she touched you, okay? Yeah, that's what I'm saying to you. Well, might be in charge with anything yet? No. No. Absolutely not. I mean, I don't know what to say to you, I mean, you know, I cooperated all the way with you guys. You have. And we appreciate that. That's why we get you to come back here. No, you guys didn't get me and any from me. I mean, we're trying to figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. So I best talk to the lawyer. I mean, when you approach me, you know, you can get there into my touch there or something. So that's pretty fucked up right there. I mean, whether I shook her hand that big, like I say, I remember her now because of the pictures and the faces, you know what I mean, being on the news, but at that day, when everything happened, I didn't remember if that was fun for people that are out there. He said maybe he did ask Brittany for money that day, but he didn't recall it. If he did, maybe he shook her hand or gave her a hug. But after that, he thought it wise to consult a lawyer. The reason he wasn't being charged then and there is that police were hoping for a confession. The reprocessing of DNA didn't provide a match. Call wasn't a perfect match, but he couldn't be excluded either. Remember DNA samples were mixed and degraded. This is the best a lab could do. The District Attorney's Office wouldn't prosecute with so little evidence. Without a confession and call loyering up, the case started to stall. The next year in 2012, another detective took over the case. It continued to drift. In 2014, the department got a new chief. With the regime change, the department underwent restructuring. 2015 provided no new leads either. Then in 2016, a tip came in. A man named Skoles said that call confessed to him while in prison together. This would have cinched the conviction except that Skoles was leveraging this information to obtain a pardon. Fail house snitches with a motive are rarely credible. This claim wasn't immediately considered a reliable lead. It got stuck in internal administrative channels before ever going to detectives. That same year, the new detective met with call. The interview lasted only two-and-a-half minutes before he politely shut it down. A few times is an understatement. Call had spent the eight years since the death of Brittany in and out of jail for various charges. He knew the routine. And with the lingering fear of DNA and now the claim by Skoles, call wasn't willing to cooperate. Having these rights in mind, you wish to talk to us now. You know what. With Andrew Skoles, call me a rat, telling him out of the boss and why he's been trying to make a deal with you guys or something, so bolsterly. So I, whatever, I have a main talent. He said he was trying to pin it out of somebody and anybody that you can get you to pay them. So I'm done operating. We are only interested in the truth. Another attempt at getting a confession from a man who consistently claimed he wasn't involved. The always polite call chose to remain silent. 2016 would end, and 2017 would start. After the new year came yet another new detective, a full review of the case started yet again. But before the claims of Andrew Skoles could be vetted or verified, he died in a motorcycle accident. By the time anyone considered the tip a viable lead, he was already gone. This brought investigators to the 10th anniversary of Brittany's death in 2018. Her family was still waiting for answers after 10 years. The community had largely moved on. The case had survived longer than the people assigned to it. What no one realized yet was that the pace of evidence that would finally break the case had been sitting in a storage locker for nearly a decade. [Music] The DNA, but not the kind that gives answers. The samples from Britney's apartment were mixed. Our DNA was everywhere. Whatever the attacker left behind was tangled up with it. The testing could only rule people out, but it couldn't point to exactly one person. David Call could not be excluded. It could not be charged either. As the years passed and technology improved, detectives kept trying. The results stayed the same. Too much doubt, not enough proof. Hell of a system. Until one day in 2020, something finally changed. But before moving forward, police returned to the one man they had never been able to rule out. David Call. How much do you know about Britney? She was murdered. She was a college kid. She loved animals. She wanted to go to a vet school. She was her major. She was a little boy. The guy she was engaged to, and I'm not trying to pull the different strengths here. It's just not explaining to you why this is a serious case that the Mass and Police Department in our office is looking at, for many years, your story, over time, is different. I don't know how much you remember of different times, you've said things, and it's changed to a little bit in today's world. Sometimes I was drunk. Right. And I get that. Yeah. And your DNA does, based on how today science works is telling us that it's very likely that it's your DNA on Britney's sleeves, as well as especially her jeans, okay? It had been 12 years since Britney's murder, and Call had aged quite a bit. He was now 53 years old and looked every bit of it. He had gained weight, and what little hair he had left was even more gray. But he had been confronted with DNA evidence before, so he remained calm as he heard the detective out. Do you know more about what happened to her? And what you're worried about is that you're the person, all the evidence points out, but you still are the most coldable person in terms of what actually happened to her. We're just trying to figure out if there are other people involved. Is there anything else you can think of that you can tell us, or something that you have on to talk about, that you feel some part that we don't know what happened? Not just for really safe, but for your own sake in terms of, I was there, something happened, but I'm not the person who strangled her and stabbed her. She basically died of a really miserable death. Detective Nale reminded Call that he had previously admitted he was involved in burglaries that day. Call said he didn't remember that at all. 12 years is a long time to remember every detail of a story he gave, especially when it's just a story and not something that actually happened. If you guys had entered this place and maybe she came home and found you or you guys surprised her, again, I need to, I mean, that's what I need to know. Yeah. I wasn't in there. I borrowed money from her. I used to have a bathroom, I believe I had a glass of water, and then I left. You do remember being in Brittany's place, though? Yup. Okay. Yup. Suddenly, for the first time, he remembered being in Brittany's apartment. He even remembered specific details about using the bathroom and drinking a glass of water. Where was all this recollection all these years ago? I was thinking, even getting a glass of water and using the bathroom, I'm not sure how that gets your DNA on her pants. Even with flaws in his claims pointed out, call stuck to it. He wasn't involved in Brittany's death, but the evidence said otherwise. After all these years, the detectives just wanted to put the Zimmerman's mind at ease. Detective told him they believed they had enough evidence to implicate him, but they wanted to know whether anyone else was involved. Call, though, never cracked. He stuck to his newest version of events. He never confessed to anything. On April 2, 2008, almost 12 years ago, Brittany Zimmerman was killed in her downtown Madison apartment. Today, I can announce that criminal chargers have been filed in her death. David Call, a 53-year-old male, has been charged in Dane County Circuit Court with first degree intentional homicide as a party to a crime and with a dangerous weapon. In the years that have passed, her case never went cold and was never anything but a priority for MP, investigators worked tirelessly over the years following leads, conducting hundreds of interviews, processing countless pieces of evidence, and producing thousands of pages of police reports. Brittany's parents, Kevin and Jean, have remained heavily invested in the case over the years. They met regularly with MPD investigators and MPD leadership. They're asking for privacy during this difficult time. Call is currently incarcerated in the Wisconsin prison system on unrelated charges. At some point, he'll be transported to Dane County for proceedings and connection with this case. This was truly a senseless crime, taking the life of a young woman with a bright future. Nothing we do can change that, but my hope is that what happens today will be a significant step in the process to do justice for Brittany and for her family. Thank you. Finally, David Call was charged with first degree murder and intentional homicide. When Detective Nail took over Brittany Zimmerman's case in 2017, he didn't start with suspects. He started with boxes, evidence bags, old reports, things that hadn't been touched in years. He didn't just review it, he re-evaluated it. That's when he saw it. The anonymous letter from 2009 implicating an inmate by the initials FR. The contents of the letter had been deemed unreliable and it was filed away in a box. That Detective Nail was thorough and sent the letter and its envelope for DNA testing. The test results proved that the letter had been penned, licked, and sealed by David Call. The DNA on Brittany and in her apartment wasn't a perfect match, but the DNA on the envelope was without a doubt a match. The Zimmermans were beside themselves, with relief and the odd sense that the emotions they had been dealing with for over a decade would soon be gone. During Call's arrangement, he stood silent and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. But two years later, in 2022, he would agree to a plea deal and plead guilty. To count one, first degree, intentional homicide, what is your plea? Guilty, your honor. Are you pleading guilty because you did intentionally cause the death of Brittany Zimmerman? Yes, your honor. Call admitted he killed Brittany. He saw her getting home from school and followed her, breaking into her apartment. He likely gave the usual spiel about needing money for a flat tire. You know, the excuses you hear just outside Panera Bread. From the homeless man who you're going to assign a Disney-like storyline to, whereas he's closer to a virus, a plague, on society. Having that rots it from within. But you do you, and you can be as generous as you like with your spare change. His family wasn't, his friends aren't, if he has any. But you can go ahead and think the best and hand over a couple quarters. Go right ahead. Enjoy. Brittany didn't fall for it though. She refused to give him any money, and started to call 911. That's when he snapped and attacked her. She fought back. Furniture was knocked around in the struggle, so he wrapped his sweatshirt around her neck and pulled it tight. He got up on top of her and stabbed her 19 times in the chest. Then, he fled and spent the next 14 years pretending it never happened. Homeless people don't get homeless by accident, you know? It's rarely ever the sob story he hear, on publicly supported airwaves. Anyway, during the sentencing, Brittany's aunt addressed the court. We, as a family, have nothing but pain. We have nothing but daily reminders, and we've had nothing but torture for 14 and a half years, while he did his soul-searching to decide to come clean. I think it takes a lot of audacity for someone in custody to request a transfer from the county jail to the state prison, because he thinks he will get better medical care after he has stripped my family of an incredibly loved and amazing human who wanted to do nothing but good things in this world. Baton David Call addressed the court and the family with an apology that was anything but sincere. I would like to apologize to everybody, especially the Zimmerman family. I took away Brittany's 21-year-old life family that she could have had, I just feel horrible. The apology fell short of giving the Zimmerman's any comfort. David Call just seemed like an old man at the end of a rope. At the time, Call was seriously ill. His years of hard-living had finally caught up with him. His plea agreement seemed to be more self-serving than anything else. In prison, he would get better medical care being the parasite he was. You did finally take responsibility for you, and you did plead guilty. And as I say, you did spare her family and friends the agony of going through a public trial. But it does not negate the years of your obfuscation and obstruction regarding the investigation. In this case, there is such a sense of loss and sadness and pain there in the weight of almost 15 years to get to this moment was excruciating. It just was excruciating. So many lives have been tragically altered by your actions, Mr. Call. I do conclude, Mr. Call, that you must be removed from society for the rest of your life. The magnitude of your crime demands it, your character demands it, and the protection of the public demands it, it is the just and right thing to do. Mr. David Call was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. After sentencing, the Zimmerman family held a press conference. We knew in between basically that he was going, that he had asked to stay there forever. Our thoughts on that were it was self-serving. As Kim had said, he only did it so that his family and his mother specifically would not have to hear the gruesome details of what he did to our daughter. That is our belief. I guess I can't talk for him, but that is my belief in why he did what he did. I don't think he had a come to Jesus moment, why he confessed all of a sudden 14 1/2 year later, and he had to get it off his chest. I think he was scared to death. He knew it was that the walls were closing in. He had no choice. After years of suffering and wondering if their daughter's killer would ever be brought to justice, the Zimmermans could finally relax. But in Brittany's death, they found their voice, a voice to fight against injustice. What he did was unspeakable and to not have the person responsible for that behind bars, if it was unacceptable to us, so we were willing and we did whatever we had to do. Our family has been our number one supporters. I mean, my sister's been at every single solitary thing with us. She is our speaker. This was every step, the loss from to the 9-1-1 center, etc. It was never about money. It was about doing the right thing for everyone else. So it was to make sure that there wasn't another parent who was going to lose their child to a dropped call. It was always about trying to do the right thing, which was what her entire life was doing the right thing. And that's in part what is so heartbreaking about the events of her murder is that she did everything right and that wasn't that by people doing the right thing for her. And so it's been the irony and the heartbreak of all of it. Justice didn't give the Zimmerman's their daughter back. It didn't give them the years they spent waiting or the milestones they'll never get to see. What it did, give them was an ending and the knowledge that they never stopped doing the right thing. Over the years, that choice has cost them more than time. Britney's mother used the money that had been set aside for her wedding to help fund the reward for information about her killer. They gave interviews. They relived the worst day of their lives over and over again and again. They refused to let the case and Britney's voice go quiet. And because of cases like Britney something did change. Wisconsin law was updated to expand the circumstances under which DNA is collected from people in the criminal justice system. A shift meant to prevent evidence from sitting in limbo as it did in this case. It didn't come soon enough for Britney, but it may mean answers come sooner for someone else. And isn't that all we can do on this rock? On this spin around the sun. Just make it slightly better for the next person. If you're homeless, you may not give a fuck, but if you care about the future of this thing, we are humanity. Then you might want to do just that. That's going to do it for another episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you for joining us. If you have a technical issue, you can reach us at [email protected]. And if you have a complaint about our content and what I say, you can send that to our complaints department in your local trash bin, otherwise you can find everything else you'll want on our website and app at swordandscale.com for more info. And we'll see you next week. Why don't you go and stay safe, until then. Bye. Bye. (upbeat music)