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00:07a dead body in a church is this man trying to send us a message a gruesome car accident you
00:15have a massive amount of blood and a family shattered by betrayal it was completely
00:22despicable what was going on every violent crime leaves a trace blood evidence doesn't lie a
00:29forensic trail that can lead to the truth and justice for the wronged this is a lot of
00:34coincidences the violence had already happened someplace else it's the linchpin to show intent
00:40to kill every crime scene tells a story it starts in readers a small town on the edge of the
00:53Pocono
00:53mountains in Pennsylvania with a 9-1-1 call from a local church 9-1-1 where's your emergency the
01:019-1-1
01:01came in to the Pennsylvania State Police and it indicated that there was an individual found
01:07deceased in the readers United Methodist Church it's very old church right in our readers it plays
01:14a very important role in the fabric of the community one of the secretaries had come in
01:20to start her day of work and discovered the victim in the pastor's office a man dead with an apparent
01:31gunshot wound who was seated behind the pastor's desk the victim was a fellow named Joseph Massanti he
01:39was a maintenance guy a handyman and he was the husband of one of the other secretaries that worked
01:46in the church lead CSI Phil Barletto and lead investigator Bill Maynard of the Pennsylvania State
01:53Police are called to the scene I was working a day shift and it was what my first call of
01:59the day I
02:01have never been inside of a church on a death investigation so this was unique in that manner
02:06the fact that that happened in the church in my opinion that's very weird so initially I'm just
02:14told a death investigation I generally find out more when I get to the scene it could be a suicide
02:20it could be a homicide it could be a natural death my approach to a crime scene is to treat
02:25everything
02:26as a homicide when I get to it work with that in your mind work out the possibility that it's
02:33a murder
02:34that you're dealing with and if you can't then you know you got to keep investigating I'm thinking of
02:42how I'm gonna process this crime scene I begin outside the building and I start working in and
02:47as I'm outside the building I notice a door that has a window that's broken inward so someone broke
02:54the window from the outside in and gain entry to the building from there I could see where someone had
03:03walked through the shards of glass and tracked that glass down the rug hallway ultimately it leads right
03:11to Reverend Shermer's office my first goal is to look at the victim and make determinations about the
03:18victim the victim was seated behind the desk it was explained to me that mr. Musante actually built
03:25that desk and had given it's the pastor of the church when we examined mr. Musante I found broken
03:35glass embedded in his shoes so that indicated to us right away mr. Musante was the one who broke the
03:43window to gain access to the building walked through the glass and made it down the hallway to the office
03:51mr. Musante is kind of slumped over in pooling blood dripping onto the floor and there is a weapon
03:59laying on the floor directly behind the desk adjacent to his right side some of the signs we would look
04:06for for someone admitting homicide here indications of a struggle a fight mr. Musante wasn't disheveled no
04:15defensive wounds nothing that was visible to us at all at the scene nothing was disturbed in the office
04:22no papers thrown around nothing on the floor nothing out of the ordinary that would indicate
04:27any type of struggle at all from looking at the evidence that we have the victim had an intraoral
04:34gunshot wound interoral gunshot wound is simply placing the weapon in your mouth and pulling the
04:39trigger it was obvious that nobody held him down Joe was a bigger man mr. Musante would have
04:44put up a huge fight and it would have been difficult to put a weapon inside of his mouth and
04:49pull the
04:49trigger difficult to impossible I saw no signs that anyone else other than mr. Musante had done this
04:59it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound and nothing but a self-inflicted gunshot wound
05:06when you finish processing the scene you have to ask yourself why did he do this in the pastor's office
05:14why did you do it in the church it's unusual for somebody to go out of their own home and
05:20do it or out of their own
05:20comfort zone I've seen people kill themselves a lot of folks do it in front of a mirror where they
05:28want to watch
05:29themselves do it I've seen people do it in peaceful locations where they want a beautiful view of a valley
05:35or a mountain range
05:37this just felt like a message to me why would you break into a church go into the pastor's office
05:43and end your life this is not a random occurrence by someone who had given up hope this is meant
05:51to
05:52direct us what Joe did sent quite a message to police police attempt to decode that message we started
06:01conducting interviews after talking to people we realized that the victim's wife was having any
06:07relationship with the pastor that pastor is Arthur Burton Schirmer Joe's friend and spiritual guide and his
06:16wife's boss the night before the suicide Joe Musante found text messages between the two of them so he left
06:27their home with a firearm his original impulse was more likely homicidal he came there looking for
06:36Schirmer and he was gonna kill him but Joe's wife called up Schirmer and said Joe's gone and the gun
06:44is
06:44missing he was afraid for his life so that was the tip-off that led Schirmer to go to a
06:52hotel and spend the night
06:55there this raises more questions for investigators is the pastor married what's going on in his own
07:02life why would he be having an affair with a parishioner and then we learned of his wife dying only
07:09a few
07:09months prior to this event pastor AB Schirmer's wife Betty had died just three months earlier the story was that
07:20she
07:20she was going to the hospital with her husband driving the vehicle left the roadway and crashed
07:25into a guide rail Betty was a family person loved her children her son and her grandson it was a
07:34fatal
07:35motor vehicle accident there's no prosecution and the case was closed the pastor was heartbroken
07:42his recent loss he claimed kind of pushed him towards Joe's wife and they became closer and
07:47closer as time went on Joe's message now seems clear he made a conscious effort to kill himself in a
07:55location that was inextricably tied to the antagonist in his life and that was Schirmer
08:03police closed the file the affair wasn't something that was going to change our investigation
08:10it was determined that yes it was tragic but it was just a suicide once it's confirmed it's on to
08:19the
08:20next case the tight-knit community of readers doesn't move on as quickly as the police
08:27three days later they mourn Joe Musante at his funeral he leaves behind his wife and family
08:34they had two children a daughter and a son the children are devastated especially the daughter
08:40she was very devastated by it the service is held at the very church where Joe died he was a
08:48parishioner who would come in and fix things that might break Joseph was a devout Christian and a
08:54committed member of that church at the funeral there's quiet talk about the affair AB Schirmer
09:01and the deaths that surround him the parishioners the community they started asking questions shortly
09:09after the suicide we got a call from Joe Musante's sister Rose and she just wanted some more of the
09:14details for her own sake to know that nobody did something to Joe I assured her that as unfortunate it
09:21was there was no foul play involved in that she felt that the cause of her brother committing suicide
09:26was pastor Schirmer the very pastor of Joe's church and that he not be allowed to get away with it
09:33not
09:34everyone believes the rumors about Schirmer that close-knit community was divided a lot of folks were
09:41thinking that there's nothing to see here you know Schirmer is not that kind of guy AB Schirmer is a
09:47beloved
09:47figure in the community articulate well-spoken and a devoted pastor you have the people he surrounds
09:55himself with and those folks only think the best of him they look up to him oh that's AB Schirmer
10:01no
10:02he's a good guy he's the church guy at the United Methodist Church Rose also has questions about
10:09Betty's death she just went to confirm there's any foul play involved and just asked investigators to take
10:14another look at the car accident I mean there's a suicide there may be some improper motivations
10:20here and now this guy has his wife dying in an accident then Joe's sister drops another bombshell
10:29she also indicated that Schirmer's first wife passed away under unusual circumstances there was a rumor that
10:37the first wife of Arthur Burton Schirmer died in some kind of mysterious fall in her own home in 1999
10:44that
10:46would have been of keen interest to the investigators because you know lightning striking twice a man
10:53commits suicide at your desk at a church your first wife dies from a fall down a flight of steps
10:59and
10:59then your second wife is the victim in a motor vehicle accident something's going on this was a
11:09horrible tragic suicide it turned into uncovering the deep dark secrets of what people do it was almost
11:17like a calling from the dead with Joe it called us to look into one death and then a second
11:24death
11:25police begin by revisiting the affair between Joe's wife and the pastor when did it really start was
11:32it just emotional or not were there other women that Arthur Schirmer was involved with what was the true
11:40nature of the relationship we first spoke with mr. Schirmer he's very articulate he acknowledged what he
11:47was doing with the victim's wife he acknowledged that the relationship you know wasn't the best thing to do
11:54and that it probably led to what happened to Joe at this point we began to ask our own questions
12:03the first question is there more to the car accident that killed Betty three months earlier it was
12:10treated as a horrible accident and it stayed that way until Joseph Missanti took his life behind
12:16uh Schirmer's desk CSI Phil Barletto is asked to examine the accident report on Betty's death the
12:25accident report explains mr. Schirmer side of the accident because he's the only witness to this
12:31accident at this point the report says in the middle of the night on July 15 2008 a B Schirmer
12:38was driving
12:39his wife Betty to the hospital he was woken up by Betty and she was experiencing a lot of jaw
12:45pain
12:46and they felt it was urgent enough at two o'clock in the morning to go to the hospital so
12:51they're
12:51traveling down route 715 which is a 45 mile an hour zone and mr. Schirmer's doing 50 to 55 miles
12:57an
12:58hour because he was trying to get his wife to the hospital she wasn't feeling comfortable so she took her
13:02seat belt off but as soon as she does unbelt herself this deer runs right at the car he swerves
13:11to avoid it and collides with the guardrail a B Schirmer is unhurt but Betty is gravely injured
13:22it was a passer-byer that called 911 mr. Schirmer and Betty were known by the responding officers and
13:32firemen and they sympathized with him and helped him Schirmer was treated and released without any
13:39injuries noted but Betty was quickly shuttled down to the Lehigh Valley Medical Center Trauma Center
13:46she had a severe brain injury there were skull fractures and bleeding on the brain and she was
13:52an imminent pearl Betty suffered extensive injuries to the point where it cracked her skull Betty dies the
14:01next day of massive head trauma it was a terrible thing and she never regained consciousness they
14:10don't do an autopsy and she's cremated the next day it's a tragic story but it seems straightforward
14:18until trooper Barletto takes a look at the photographs of the crash scene typically if you
14:31was a serious injury crash and there was a lot of blood they had taken a series of photographs
14:38from what I'm seeing initially in looking at the crash report in the crash photographs nothing matches
14:44up there CSI Barletto realizes something is off right away I didn't see any tire marks in the roadway if
14:52you're driving 50 55 miles an hour a deer jumps out in front of you you're gonna take evasive action
14:58and
14:58you'll have you all marks on the roadway or skid marks we didn't see any of that and that was
15:04very
15:04alarming that's not the only thing that's alarming there was no airbag deployment on photos airbags deploy
15:14off of rapid deceleration there is a sensor and when the sensor is pushed forward on rapid decelerations
15:23then you'll have that airbag deployment but in this case there was no rapid deceleration
15:30meaning you're dealing with a slow impact into the guardrail I don't look at the interior of the
15:39vehicle really until the very end the one thing that jumped off the page at me initially it was a
15:44red flag there's a lot of blood that was shed from Betty it seems like a lot of blood for
15:51a crash that
15:51wasn't violent enough to trigger the airbags why was this woman bleeding profusely as I looked
15:59further into it I can see a variety of blood stains which jump off the page at me so my
16:05curiosity right
16:06away was how do these drip stains get on a seat where she's seated in the seat it doesn't make
16:13sense
16:13to me at all if she's sitting in that seat there shouldn't be blood underneath her meaning the blood
16:21was there before she sat down why was she bleeding before the accident we come to the conclusion that
16:28she was in fact injured before the crash something happened other than a crash here
16:36this accident didn't happen the way it was originally purported it's still a death investigation it
16:43hasn't transitioned to a homicide yet there's a lot of layers there to peel back why was one individual
16:50severely injured and died and why did the other person walk away and why wasn't it investigated at
16:58the time when you have a traumatic scene like that you have a lot of different players each have their
17:03own lane right so you have the police that came to the scene none of them were detectives it was
17:09looked
17:09at as a single vehicle accident and the focus was getting Betty to the hospital they didn't see
17:16anything that strike them as foul play in the car accident scenario they also did know who Shermer
17:23was they knew that he was the reverend of the local church there a lot of them are his parishioners
17:30and they're blinded by the fact that it's mr. Shermer the next step for investigators is to
17:39convince the local district attorney to open a murder investigation they came to see me with the
17:44photographs and they laid them out and they had very concerned looks on their face and I said guys
17:49I agree with you we've got to figure this one out it won't be easy we have an issue with
17:55the cause of
17:56death the official death certificate had it down as an accident we had to get the coroner to change the
18:05death certificate without a death certificate ruling it as a homicide we couldn't proceed it's not easy to get the
18:11matter of death change these are done after extensive reinvestigation and it's the coroner's obligation
18:19to determine whether that additional information warrants a change this means getting recognized
18:28experts to re-examine every aspect of the accident we would be on thin ice charging someone without
18:35scientific proof it was murder without that proof Shermer could very easily get away with Betty's death
18:44police are determined to stop that from happening after that we had a large meeting and we discussed
18:50the case we start to make a game plan what are we going to do to proceed with this investigation
18:54we
18:55realized that we needed to talk to Arthur Shermer and we really need to look into Jules death we have
19:02to get to the bottom of Jules death as much as we got to get to the bottom of Betty's
19:06death how are these two cases
19:08similar or are they similar at all the other thing that really didn't make sense to us at that meeting
19:13was the
19:14amount of injury that Betty Shermer had we needed to determine exactly how fast they were going if a forensic
19:22pathologist is gonna say these injuries didn't come from a car crash that's huge to us
19:30vehicle collision analyst lieutenant Doug shook is brought in to investigate if you look at the evidence
19:37long enough it will tell you what happened
19:43so these are the exterior photographs of the car at 55 miles an hour the car probably would have traveled
19:51directly through the guide rail we kept finding more and more inconsistencies especially with the speed
19:58that he was saying he was going at the time of the crash versus the damage to the vehicle as
20:05you can
20:05see here very little displacement from the guide rail being pushed back there's very little damage to
20:13the front leading components of the car even the plastic grille is still intact which is one of the first
20:19things to break you're talking about a fatal car crash and yet there's hardly any damage to the front
20:26of the car he did not blow through the guide rail and travel over this embankment so it was not
20:34a
20:34significant impact at all we knew by looking at it that the speeds were low now scientifically to be
20:42able to prove that the speeds were low was another hurdle to get over police ask computer modelers at Penn
20:49State University to simulate the accident the crash is reconstructed digitally at different speeds
20:56this is a simulated 35 mile an hour impact of what would have happened between the PT cruiser and the
21:04guide rail based upon the data of simulation and you can see how the vehicle travels completely through
21:10the guide rail and you can see how that guide rail post gets completely ripped from the ground and this
21:16is a computer simulation that was completed for a 15 mile an hour impact but looking at the photographs
21:24it looks like there's a little bit more damage than what is depicted at 15 so that's what leads into
21:31the
21:31speed estimate for this collision to be between 18 and 22 miles an hour no one should have sustained
21:39fatal injuries from that crash there's no violence in that crash that would result in the violent injuries
21:47that she sustained there's no violence on the car the only violence in this whole entire thing is on Betty
21:53Jean that car crash was a staged event to try to cover up the injuries that she sustained prior to
22:00the crash
22:03investigators move on to the next step in their plan seven weeks after Joe Moussante's suicide
22:10A.B. Schirmer is invited down to the station for an interview led by investigator Sean Williams and trooper Bill
22:17Maynard
22:20we were going to talk about the suicide of Joe Moussante we were going to ease into Betty's death
22:25and we wanted to talk about Jules death and see if there were any similarities between her death and Betty's
22:33death
22:33we really just wanted to get him to talk and hear his version of events we were letting him speak
22:39a lot
22:40sometimes you let people feel they're in control of something just so they speak more he suggested to
22:45us hey you guys would you mind calling me A.B. that's what all my friends call me that struck
22:50me quickly that he is trying to ultimately manipulate us
22:56this was a intelligent adversary we knew that he was going to have an answer for a lot of things
23:02whether
23:03they're lies or not we didn't know but we knew he would have an answer for everything initially we
23:08discussed Joe's suicide and then we transitioned to the car accident so we asked him how did the blood
23:15get on the seat where she would have been sitting which is very hard to explain he told us that
23:19in no
23:20way shape or form was Betty bleeding prior to getting in that vehicle and I don't want to say
23:27at that point he started to be squirming but you could see he was starting to get uncomfortable
23:34A.B. Shermer sticks to the story in the accident report but investigators keep pressing
23:42some of the odd things that we tried to get an answer for him was you had a cell phone
23:46with you at the time of the crash
23:47Why didn't you use it? Why didn't you call?
23:51It was a passerby that called 9-1-1
23:54They see the car on the side of the highway and when they approach Mr. Shermer rolls down his window
24:00and they said are you okay?
24:02Yeah, I'm fine, but my wife's hurt over here
24:08She is seriously seriously injured and you're not calling 9-1-1 they had no answer why he didn't call
24:139-1-1
24:14Next Williams and Maynard tackle his first wife Jewel's death nine years earlier
24:19He told us about Jewel how he met Jewel and they were married for over two decades they had three
24:26children together
24:26Jewel had also suffered fatal head injuries in an accident
24:31It was a fall down a flight of steps
24:35We just simply said hey, you know, this is a lot of coincidences
24:38We're not believing him at all about Betty Shermer the way she died
24:42Not at all
24:43So it's not a far stretch to think he's covering up that first death as well
24:48And you could see him starting to try to think what can I say to make them believe me?
24:55Williams and Maynard then inform Shermer they're searching his home
25:00Simultaneously while we're conducting these interviews
25:03We thought it would be a great idea to have the search warrant served at the parsonage
25:08Their job was to do a deep dive into finding any evidence that Betty may have been killed or fatally
25:14wounded
25:15There as opposed to out in the road
25:17At the parsonage investigators have free reign
25:21Shermer was out of the parsonage because they were gonna axe him
25:24They were gonna kick him out of the church
25:28The church board was upset about Shermer's affair with Joe's wife
25:32And that on the night of Joe's suicide
25:34Shermer fled believing that Joe was coming for him
25:38He didn't notify law enforcement
25:40He didn't notify his staff
25:42So he really endangered everybody at that point
25:46And then we started posing more harder questions to him
25:49We posed the question was there ever any blood in the parsonage
25:53And he said no, no blood in the house
25:56One of the first things investigators notice is a set of rust colored stains in the garage
26:01A lot of this stain was present on the floor
26:05I looked down and I said these stains look a little different than the other stains do
26:10They were a little darker
26:12Started swabbing that up and it was swabbing up like blood now
26:15And we go through and we start using the luminol
26:18And there was a significant amount of blood that luminesced with the luminol chemical reagent
26:26Blood was found that made sense with the narrative of
26:30Betty Shermer was bleeding before she got into that vehicle
26:33And we didn't know whose blood it was
26:35But we were gonna put this before A.B. Shermer and see what he said
26:43Once confronted with there is blood
26:45He came back with a story about moving firewood from inside the residence outside
26:51He said, oh yeah, now I know what that is
26:55That's Betty and I were moving a pile of wood
26:58And the pile of wood fell down and she cut herself
27:01Wood's not sharp
27:02You might get a splinter, you might get a scratch
27:05I don't think you're gonna get a large laceration from it
27:09That doesn't make sense
27:11Once we started posing those hard questions about the blood on the garage floor
27:16That's when you could see the change in A.B. Shermer
27:18It had changed from that guy that came in all confident
27:21Well-spoken in the beginning of our interview
27:25Now he couldn't get out of there quickly enough
27:27Police terminate the interview
27:30In the search of the parsonage in this interview
27:34We're really starting to put together a nice case against Shermer
27:37Shermer's statements at the interview trigger another search warrant
27:42This time for the exterior of the parsonage
27:44This allows investigators to check the woodpile
27:48Now in the backyard
27:50Investigators looked through that woodpile meticulously
27:52Well, what we found we didn't expect
27:55We found a newspaper dated from September of 2008
27:59This accident occurred in July of 2008
28:03So that woodpile would have been moved after Betty's death
28:07That story didn't hold any water
28:11Investigators are one step closer to proving Shermer killed Betty
28:15It all pointed to him
28:17We knew what we had, we were excited about it
28:20But they don't have enough evidence yet
28:22To take to the coroner to change the death certificate
28:25Let alone arrest Shermer
28:27We want to be completely thorough
28:30And by arresting him right there on the spot
28:34We didn't feel like our investigation was complete
28:37We don't know for a fact whose blood it was
28:40And how do you even figure that out when you don't have a body to get DNA off?
28:43That's because Betty was cremated the day after the accident
28:47So they have no access to her DNA
28:49We knew we were going to have to go after some non-traditional ways of getting her DNA
28:53So we actually secured DNA from her son, her mother, and a sibling of hers
29:00If that blood on the floor comes back to Betty's, that's going to be a nail in the coffin
29:07While investigators wait for the DNA test results, they begin looking at the death of Shermer's first wife, Jewel, nine
29:15years earlier in nearby Lebanon County
29:17We needed to get with investigators from Lebanon County
29:21We need to share what we have with them and get them on board
29:25It's always awkward when you have a law enforcement agency that you're saying, hey, are you sure about this case
29:32that you did it right?
29:33You have potentially now two fatal injuries occurring to two different wives, both in their homes
29:38And he's the common factor
29:40So Lebanon County reignites their investigation
29:45If investigators can prove Shermer killed Jewel, they can show he has a pattern of violent, lethal behavior
29:52Making it harder to argue that Betty's death was accidental
29:57The district attorney, Mike Mancuso, really wanted to sure that case up before we prosecuted our case
30:06As the investigation into Jewel's death gets underway, police dig deeper into the reverend's background
30:14When we looked at the employment records, there were complaints
30:17He kind of got moved around a little bit because of inappropriate interactions within his congregations
30:23He gets pushed from parish to parish, always for the same reason
30:28It would have determined that he had multiple affairs
30:32Usually with women to whom he was providing counseling
30:35When you're seeing that in black and white, you get the impression he's a liar
30:40He's not this person that he says he is
30:43Police not only think Shermer's a liar, but when results of the DNA tests come in
30:49They're convinced he's a murderer too
30:51It's Betty's blood on the garage floor
30:58Investigators intensify their examination of Jewel's death
31:02There isn't much to work with
31:04This case was not investigated by law enforcement
31:08Generally, ambulance calls, police are not involved in those investigations
31:13The only people at the scene were EMTs
31:17So police interviewed the man who treated Jewel Shermer, retired paramedic Joel Wood
31:22And it was a powerful moment because Joel, when I spoke to him, said
31:26I've been waiting years for you guys to come talk to me about this
31:30Like I told them, what took you ten years?
31:34Yes, I remembered it immediately
31:36It was gloomy, cloudy, overcast, misty day
31:40And when I pulled up to the residence
31:42A gentleman met me out to the driveway and walked me in
31:46Mr. Shermer met them right there
31:48He had a very calming demeanor about him
31:51They're thinking as they're meeting with Mr. Shermer
31:54That this is a minor incident
31:56And as they say, hey, where is your wife anyway?
31:59They're thinking she's sitting on a chair with a bandage on her head or something
32:03And he said, oh, well she's laying at the bottom of the stairs
32:06And they look over and there she is, in a pool of blood
32:12When I got down to her, I realized this was serious
32:16Her feet were up on the second to the bottom step
32:19And there was an extension cord around her feet
32:23She was bleeding from the head
32:25To Joel Wood, something didn't look right
32:29I have not seen a lot of people fall down steps with vacuums
32:32But it could have been real
32:34But what made his blood run cold was the behavior of A.B. Shermer
32:40He wasn't upset
32:41Besides walking us into the garage
32:43We didn't see him the whole call
32:45I mean, if somebody's laying unconscious
32:48You'd be around to see what's going on, asking questions
32:52And he was not around
32:55We had to go to a trauma center
32:57And A.B. did not ride in the ambulance with us
33:00Despite his gut feeling about the case
33:03Joel hesitated to reach out to police
33:06You have definite proof that something was wrong
33:09You do call the police
33:11But I had no proof that anything was done wrong here
33:16But Joel wasn't the only one who suspected foul play
33:21Joel's brother was convinced his sister had been murdered
33:24He insisted on an autopsy to prove it
33:28It was performed by the renowned specialist in injury causation
33:32Pathologist Dr. Wayne Ross
33:36Focusing mainly on Joel's head injuries
33:38He finds they could have been caused by a blunt object
33:42Joel had over 50 blunt force injuries to her body
33:45And I believe 14 of them were centered all around the head
33:49Dr. Ross wasn't confident in a fall down a flight of stairs
33:53Based on what he was seeing with her injuries
33:56Dr. Wayne Ross had thought that there should be some follow-up on this case
34:02Dr. Ross sent a fax to the DA down in that county
34:06And said treat this as a homicide
34:08Go back to the scene
34:10Do blood spatter analysis
34:12Interview the husband and anyone else with knowledge
34:15But that doesn't happen
34:17Because when the coroner tried to figure out what caused Joel's death
34:20He looked at her hospital records
34:23They showed elevated levels of enzymes in her blood
34:27As well as heart damage as measured by an EKG or electrocardiogram
34:32So the coroner's office kind of implied that Joel Shermer had a cardiac related event
34:39And that's what led to her falling down the flight of stairs and succumbing to her injuries
34:45And that was the end of the investigation
34:49I think the biggest factor here that we were fighting from the beginning
34:54Was the fact that he was a pastor of a church for Joel's death as well
35:00It's a similarity in both of these cases
35:04As Phil Barletto scrutinizes the decade-old autopsy report
35:08He spots something
35:10Jewel was an organ donor
35:12And her organs were harvested after her death
35:16In my mind, I have a simple mind and I'm thinking
35:18Why are you harvesting her heart from someone who just took a heart attack?
35:23That didn't make sense to me
35:27Barletto traces Jewel's heart to a medical facility in Georgia
35:33So I'm able to track down a report from a forensic pathologist in Atlanta
35:40Who had the opportunity to examine the heart of Jewel
35:43And indicated that the heart was in pristine condition
35:46Meaning she did not die of a heart attack
35:51Jewel is athletic in nature
35:54She is a runner
35:55And that's kind of one of the things that caught me off guard here
35:59Is when I heard that she may have taken a heart attack
36:02So how did the coroner's office get to a heart attack?
36:05Was my next question on that
36:08Barletto learns that Jewel's EKG reading and elevated enzyme levels
36:12Could have arisen from CPR compressions
36:16What they didn't factor in
36:18Is that these two tests were conducted directly after CPR was conducted
36:23That was like a false reading
36:25It probably was caused by CPR
36:27CPR will give you that same effect that this person just took a heart attack
36:33As they're piecing together what happened to Jewel
36:37Investigators continue to do their due diligence in Betty's death
36:40I know this case is going to go before a jury
36:43I know that people are going to scrutinize this
36:46Defense attorneys are going to look at this
36:48We brought a PT cruiser in
36:51And parked it in the garage to do further analysis
36:54So this is the PT cruiser inside the garage
36:57If Betty only started bleeding after the crash
37:01As Shermer insists
37:03Why was her blood on the garage floor?
37:05This is how Reverend Shermer parked his car every day in the garage
37:09Looking at the rear of the car
37:11We can start seeing blood stains on the right
37:14Now we'll see a number of placards out
37:16And they represent stained areas that we collected and eventually analyzed
37:21Now we follow the blood stains from one, two, three, on back to four and five
37:26And four and five line up with the passenger side of the car
37:32What the stains suggest to Barletto is movement
37:36It was a slow move towards the car
37:39And that's the directionality those stains were pointing us to
37:44Pennsylvania State Investigators' next stop
37:46Is to meet with Dr. Ross, who performed Jewel's autopsy
37:50So we went down to see Dr. Ross in Lancaster
37:54And this guy's, you know, top-notch
37:57They want to talk about Jewel, but he's one step ahead of them
38:00He says, by the way, do you want to see the digital autopsy that I did of Betty Shermer?
38:08I said, what are you talking about?
38:10Dr. Ross, still troubled by the failure to follow up on Jewel's death
38:14And knowing that police are looking into Betty's accident
38:17Had requested a copy of her file
38:20From CAT scans done before her death
38:23Dr. Ross determines that Betty was killed in the same manner as Jewel
38:27Both of their skulls were fractured on the right side
38:31He's telling me what the probable weapon was like
38:35The cylindrical object
38:37Probably a crowbar, maybe with a beveled kind of surface to it
38:41Not a fall, not an accident
38:45Jewel's death was very much like Betty's
38:47And Betty's was very much like Jewel's
38:50Police now believe they know what happened
38:54Simply, the motive was to move from one wife to the next wife
39:00And to do it in a methodical way where he wasn't going to get caught at moving on
39:07I extrapolate from my interview with him
39:10He's a very narcissistic individual
39:12He's super into himself
39:14I imagine that some of this had to go with the embarrassment of a divorce
39:19Because let's face it, a divorced pastor isn't a good look
39:24You know, you're kind of killing your provocation there
39:28He lived to be a reverend
39:30And maybe both of these women are going to take that away from him
39:35When Jewel and Betty each confronted Shermer about his infidelity
39:39He attacked them to save his own neck
39:43Betty Shermer was killed at a different location
39:47Somewhere in or near the residence
39:49Betty is guided to the vehicle
39:54Placed in the vehicle
39:56And then run into the guardrail
39:58And make it look like an accident
40:01Plain and simple
40:02He was waiting for her to die
40:04On the side of the road
40:05And somebody came by and called 911
40:07Jewel met with the same demise
40:10She was assaulted someplace in the residence
40:16Left for dead at the bottom of the stairs
40:20Authorities finally feel they have enough
40:22We had gone to the scene
40:24We had the opportunity to interview Shermer
40:27We were able to do a deep dive into his habits, his motivations
40:32And at the end of that process
40:34The coroner was able to amend the death certificate
40:39To change the manner of death from accident to homicide
40:42All right, so that's the best I was going to do at that point
40:45And I knew it was enough to get the case to trial
40:50Almost two years after Joe Massante's suicide
40:55A.B. Shermer is arrested
40:57At the home he's now sharing with Joe's wife
41:00She had A.B. Shermer in her house
41:03With Joe Massante's two children
41:07That's very warped to me
41:09I would always refer to her as number three
41:11Because in my opinion
41:13If he could do that to his first two
41:15Mr. Massante's wife would have been next
41:18Listen, I won't mix words
41:20A.B. Shermer is a sociopath
41:22A.B. Shermer is as evil as they come
41:26To actually go and arrest him
41:28To get him off the street
41:29Was a good feeling
41:34The trial begins on January 7, 2013
41:38Heading into court
41:40Arthur Shermer appeared calm
41:41And stayed silent
41:42But once on the stand on Friday
41:44He unequivocally denied any role
41:46In the death of his second wife Betty
41:48Back in 2008
41:49I didn't stage an event
41:51He softly told the jury
41:53The jury is not convinced
41:55After more than two weeks of trial
41:57And just 90 minutes of deliberation
41:5964 year old Arthur Shermer
42:01Is guilty of first degree murder
42:03And tampering with evidence
42:04While Shermer kept a straight face
42:06His attorney appeared emotional
42:07I think the admission of the first wife's
42:10Circumstances surrounding the death of Jules Shermer
42:13We really did prejudice the case
42:17It's one of those bittersweet feelings
42:19Because you're very, very happy
42:21For the family
42:22That you were able to do this for them
42:24But it doesn't bring Betty back
42:25I just want to thank everyone involved
42:27With bringing my mom's killer to justice
42:32And today she can finally rest in peace
42:3518 months later
42:37Shermer pleads no contest
42:39To the third degree murder of Jules
42:41His combined sentence is more than 40 years
42:45We are thankful and blessed
42:48That we have these photographs
42:49Because without these photographs
42:50This case is never seen again
42:54I feel that justice was served for Betty
42:57And for Jules
42:58And for Joe
43:00And I pray for their families
43:03I hope somehow they find peace too
43:07I hope somehow they find peace too
43:39I hope at all
43:40And after the children's propia
43:41The children's coming
43:42They're all over
43:42For people toproper
43:42The children's coming
43:42The children's coming
43:42The children's coming
43:42They're all over
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