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Bloodline Detectives - Season 6 Episode 14 -Bloodshed engsub watchfull🔥🍿🍿 Secret Engagement
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00:02Portland, Oregon, 1999.
00:04Police responding to a welfare check uncover evidence of a violent struggle.
00:10Mark Driven is in his early 40s.
00:12He had a house out on East Portland, closer to the airport.
00:15He worked as a cargo worker for PDX,
00:19a major airport here in Portland where everybody pretty much flies in and out of.
00:24It was unusual that Mr. Driven didn't show up for work
00:27and that caused alarm for his co-workers.
00:30They discovered a lot of blood spatter on the walls, in the living room.
00:35There was evidence of blood in the garage.
00:39Detectives suspect foul play
00:41and launch a missing persons inquiry to locate Mark.
00:45One of the theories, of course, was that he met somebody at a bar.
00:49They returned back to his residence and he was robbed.
00:51But we couldn't explain why he wasn't at the residence.
00:54It's unusual to kidnap an adult male.
00:58Despite an extensive investigation, the case goes cold.
01:03If they are able to locate the victim's body,
01:06there can be as high as 90% in terms of conviction rate.
01:10If it's a no-body homicide case, that's immediately cut by 40%.
01:18Then, in 2021, new advancements in DNA technology lead a cold case team to reopen the case.
01:26Mark's case was solvable.
01:29We were at a dead end because the DNA didn't come back to anybody.
01:34Criminals who have hidden in the shadows for years find there's no escaping science and their own family DNA.
01:40Welcome to Bloodline Detectives.
01:46CREDITS
01:52CREDITS
02:06CREDITS
02:12Portland, Oregon, a liberal city located in the Pacific Northwest,
02:16known for its progressive attitude towards alternative lifestyles.
02:22Portland is the Rose City.
02:28We have the Rose Gardens downtown here.
02:31That's representative of the city and the culture.
02:34It's like the big, big town that desperately wants to be a city.
02:41It's kept that reputation and expanded upon it a bit.
02:45Very blue collar all the way through really the 80s.
02:54And then that's really when it became much more progressive.
02:59Portland is a very accepting city.
03:05People are really open to accepting and experiencing other people's culture.
03:13Portland is home to 42-year-old Mark Dribbin.
03:17On July the 6th, 1999, friends of his raise the alarm when he fails to show up for work after
03:23the holiday weekend.
03:26He was last at work on the 1st of July.
03:29He was supposed to work the 2nd, but he called in and requested the night off.
03:34That area of Northeast 137th Avenue, 3,000 block area, the residential area where Mark lived, it was a very
03:41nice, clean neighborhood.
03:43Well-manicured yards.
03:46The neighbor thought they saw him on the 2nd, spoke to him, but they couldn't be sure on the 2nd
03:49or 3rd.
03:50And then from that point, nobody had heard from him.
03:53He was expected to meet with his family to celebrate the 4th of July celebration.
03:59He didn't show up.
04:00He didn't call.
04:01He wasn't responding to his phone calls.
04:03And his family became very concerned.
04:07On the 5th, his boss sent a co-worker over to Mark's house to take a look at things.
04:12He came back and recorded that everything seemed to be okay, but he didn't see Mark.
04:17The area where Mr. Dribbon lived, the city of Gresham, is very close to the airport.
04:26It's kind of a bedroom community of Portland.
04:29They report him missing to the Port of Portland police.
04:32The Port of Portland monitors the airport and a couple different areas involved with shipping.
04:37Their jurisdiction is very small.
04:39There was a welfare check.
04:41It was initiated by the family requesting that they check on Mark's well-being.
04:46When they conduct the welfare check, they don't find signs of forced entry in the home,
04:51but they do see pretty clear signs that there's been some type of a struggle.
04:57It was clear from the condition of the residence that a violent crime had occurred there.
05:01More likely than not, harm had come to Mr. Dribbon.
05:04It wasn't like he was missing intentionally, like he ran away.
05:08They thought foul play had happened to Mark at this point, especially with all the blood evidence suggesting that.
05:15A high-risk missing persons investigation is launched, and Mark's apartment is declared a crime scene.
05:23They process the crime scene.
05:25They find evidence that there's somebody else in the house besides Mark.
05:29Cigarette butts with strong DNA.
05:31There is a mixture of blood, vomit in the sink, and his car is missing.
05:38Mark's car, a Ford Explorer SUV that was missing, used to park in the garage, and it wasn't there.
05:44It also appeared to the investigators at that time, it looked like whoever was involved in the situation
05:51made an attempt to clean up some of that disturbance.
05:55Couldn't see it unless you used some of the alternate light sources that the forensic specialists used to look for
06:01blood stain.
06:02But it was very clear that blood had been cleaned up throughout the master bedroom and into the garage.
06:09Investigators need to learn more about Mark's life and his movements in the days leading up to his disappearance.
06:16Mark wasn't openly out about being gay, but he interacted with the gay community from Portland
06:23and liked to frequent some of the popular gay bars in the city.
06:27It was really common at this point in time, even in a really progressive city,
06:33for people to not quite feel confident coming out.
06:37Especially in the 90s, there were a lot of related hate crimes.
06:42He looked like a closeted life.
06:44It wasn't as easy to meet people, and he had to find places to do that,
06:49and probably not the most ideal spots.
06:53Investigators began to do a thorough canvas of witnesses.
06:58They canvassed employees at the airport where he worked at United Airlines.
07:03His supervisor, his family, of course, friends, associates.
07:09They start out with people that are closest to them, people that have the most contact with them,
07:14to try to build a timeline for when the time the last person has seen the missing individual
07:19up until no one has seen him.
07:22So it kind of gives us a good idea of how to start an investigation.
07:26Through that canvassing and follow-up, they learned that Mark had last been seen
07:30at the Eagle Bar downtown, on Southwest 13th Avenue.
07:35The Eagle was mentioned because the bartender of the Eagle believed he saw him
07:39within a night or two of him going missing.
07:42No one saw him actually specifically leaving that night, whether he was alone,
07:47if he was with someone else, and maybe headed to another bar, or just heading home for the night.
07:55Mark's father makes the journey to Portland to assist police in their search for his missing son.
08:02The whole family was pretty shattered when Mark went missing.
08:05His father came up here for press conferences and put up a lot of money for information
08:09and reward lines and things like that.
08:12The Portland Police Bureau coordinated this press conference
08:16to try to develop any kind of leads from the public
08:19by giving some information about the case.
08:22And the media, the family supported that and was involved in that endeavor as well.
08:28Two weeks after Mark's disappearance, investigators uncover vital evidence
08:32in a neighborhood across town.
08:36Two weeks after Mark went missing,
08:38the vehicle was found by a patrol officer
08:41that was working in the area of Southeast Division Street and 43rd Avenue.
08:48It was parked in an open parking lot that was part of a drug rehab facility.
08:54Officers just had been driving through the parking lot, running the license plates.
08:57At that point, they had reclassified this based on what they found in that house.
09:01So the car got towed to a forensic processing facility.
09:08They find cigarette butts in the car.
09:10Mark doesn't smoke.
09:11He wouldn't smoke in his car.
09:12They find a paper towel and it has great DNA on it.
09:16And then in the back, there's blood.
09:17So they process all that.
09:19And over time, that blood comes back to Mark Drippen.
09:22The other person just comes back to a male.
09:26There was a cigarette butt found inside the house.
09:28And then in the garage, there were another three cigarette butts and then two cigarette butts in the car.
09:34All of those cigarette butts have the same unknown DNA profile.
09:38Crime scene investigators understood what it took to preserve evidence for DNA.
09:43But at the time, you know, you could only do as much as they could.
09:47The DNA won't match necessarily unless you upload a specific standard that you get from a potential suspect.
09:54Pretty much everyone that knew Mark or that they could track down at any connection to Mark was swabbed and
10:02compared to that DNA sample.
10:05Swabs of that evidence were taken and collected and preserved.
10:10Those were then sent on to our Oregon State Police Crime Lab to have forensic scientists analyze it.
10:15There were no matches in the CODIS database.
10:22Police soon have a lead in the case after observing the bizarre behavior of one of Mark's friends during their
10:28interviews.
10:30One of Mark's co-workers was also a gay man.
10:33It was reported by some friends that, you know, he had wanted a relationship with Mark that Mark didn't want.
10:38He became a significant focus of the case for quite a while also.
10:43He's very, very emotional and maybe a little dramatic.
10:46You look at it from kind of a crime scene perspective.
10:48He's already in there before the police had been in there and washed his hands.
10:51And the detective, I think, starts to look at him.
10:55He had access to Mark's house because he knew where Mark hit his key.
10:59He had reported to the officers that he had been in and out of Mark's house after he was missing.
11:04And they believed he was almost getting a certain excitement about being a suspect, which, of course, is a little
11:13uncharacteristic.
11:15They have him do a polygraph as well.
11:18And they get all the results of the DNA back.
11:21You know, his DNA isn't associated to the vehicle or the house or anything they're looking at,
11:25which, you know, puts the detectives back at square one.
11:31The police investigation continues into the unexplained disappearance.
11:35But with each passing month, any hopes of finding Mark alive begin to fade.
11:53Portland Police Bureau are investigating the disappearance of 42-year-old Mark Dribbin in July of 1999.
12:02Blood spatter was found in his house, where it's assumed a violent struggle occurred.
12:09They learned Mark's last known location was a gay bar he attended over Independence Day weekend.
12:16With Mark being seen last at the Eagle Bar on July 3rd and then missing the next day from his
12:22family function,
12:23investigators started to speculate that maybe he had an interaction at the bar.
12:27Maybe he met somebody.
12:29Maybe that person accompanied Mark back home to his house.
12:35Crime scene investigators recover an unknown male suspect's DNA from Mark's house and his car,
12:41but are unable to generate any substantial leads from it.
12:47Investigators have to come up with some kind of a theory and speculate
12:50and try to come up with what happened here, right, and trying to really dissect that.
12:56The problem is that Mark has a lot of encounters with people that nobody knows about.
13:00All these other people that the detective will never know about and can't interview.
13:05They started the missing person investigation, maybe a homicide investigation,
13:09and ultimately it ended up being a homicide investigation.
13:14Knowing what we did about Mark, he was an active, younger male.
13:19He looked like he was in pretty good shape.
13:22Physically, it leads investigators to believe that whoever was involved in this situation with Mark
13:27must have been pretty powerful to overcome Mark.
13:32Mark's family offers a reward in the hope that someone with knowledge of the crime
13:37will come forward with fresh information.
13:41At that point, Mark's father flew up here and did a press conference for a number of news stations,
13:48set up funds for reward money.
13:51They distributed a whole bunch of flyers and searched for any sort of information
13:56that potentially could be helpful.
13:59Mr. Driven's family, particularly his father, were very involved in the investigation
14:03and they were very concerned, obviously, and they never stopped wanting to find the person
14:09that took their son.
14:11If you're putting up a reward, you're holding a press conference,
14:14you're doing what you can to try to garner, like, public sympathy,
14:19it's tough because people want the help.
14:23In 2000, Portland Police Bureau issued a presumptive death certificate for Mark Driven.
14:31Based on all the information from the family, the friends, his employer,
14:35this is totally out of characteristic for him to just disappear.
14:39He would never do that.
14:40They concluded at that point that he has to be deceased.
14:45Within days of a body being dumped in the woods, wild animals have gotten to it
14:51and the remains will be scattered all over.
14:53It's very rare that, you know, you will find an intact set of human remains
14:58unless there's some other outside factor, like it was buried or hidden somewhere.
15:04Despite the best efforts of investigators and multiple public appeals from Mark's family,
15:09the case goes cold.
15:11There was a time frame where there just were no developments,
15:15no new leads that were occurring.
15:19There was nothing that developed in this case until we picked it up in 2019.
15:25The detectives ran things to the end and were busy with other cases
15:28and they took all the steps that they could take at the time.
15:33There's always an investigator usually that's assigned to the case,
15:37whether it be the initial primary homicide detective,
15:40at least until they retire, or a cold case unit.
15:45This was only 1999 and so at least DNA was known about
15:48and we were doing things with DNA at the time.
15:50So the idea of swabbing things and collecting it and preserving it was there.
15:56When Portland started their cold case unit 25 years ago,
16:00it was all based on DNA.
16:01They were to view these cases and they would rank them based on solvability
16:06and it was usually based on the evidence available.
16:09New advances in DNA technology lead the cold case team to reopen the case.
16:17DNA being a forensic science, it's developed very rapidly.
16:22Fortunately for this case, detectives and the investigators realized
16:26that the preservation was essential.
16:29In the house, in the car, only two DNA profiles were ever found,
16:33one of them being Mark's.
16:35And the very circumstances of the cigarette butts being found in the car
16:39that was used to transport Mark's body away,
16:41it was very clear that that DNA profile represented the killer.
16:47The early 2000s, things really started to evolve in DNA technology
16:52and what laboratories could actually do with genealogy.
16:56And this would be associated with the ancestral databases
17:00that are common in the United States and worldwide now.
17:06In March 2019, the team submit the DNA profile
17:10of the unknown male suspect to a private laboratory.
17:15It was Bode Technologies that actually conducted the analysis
17:20and they were able to use DNA evidence
17:23that had been preserved from Mark's car and his home.
17:29Evidentiary DNA, we compare what's called
17:32a short tandem repeat profile of DNA at STR.
17:35We look at very specific locations on the DNA.
17:38The genetic genealogy work looks at DNA completely differently
17:44and looks at something called SNP,
17:46single nucleotide polymorphisms,
17:48where over hundreds of thousands of individual locations on the DNA,
17:53they look for changes.
17:54But it's a very different way of looking at DNA.
17:58They had found pretty convincing evidence
18:02that the DNA swabs they had tested
18:05were consistent with several brothers
18:08that reside here in the Portland, Oregon area.
18:12Chris, Jesse, and Nicholas Lovren.
18:16Detective McGuire contacted the family
18:18and learned that one of the brothers was adopted.
18:20So it kind of narrowed his scope down
18:22to the two remaining brothers.
18:24It was determined that Nicholas was adopted
18:27and so he was ruled out from that scenario.
18:30Jesse and Chris were the two
18:32that we're still in play in terms of possibilities
18:35or potential contributors to this evidence.
18:39The team now have a definite line of inquiry
18:41to follow up on.
18:44Jesse had zero criminal history at all,
18:47so I basically just called up Jesse,
18:49just met with him,
18:49told him exactly what we were doing.
18:52Brendan approaches the squeaky clean brother,
18:54who's a very successful,
18:55a very kind and decent man,
18:57and asked him for a sample.
19:01Jesse was helpful to Detective McGuire,
19:04but wasn't overly so,
19:05because he realized that
19:07if it's going to be one of the two of them,
19:08it's probably going to be his brother, Christopher.
19:11His response was something to the effect of,
19:13I would help,
19:14but I am worried that I might be implicating my brother.
19:18The fact that he wasn't willing to turn over a sample
19:21so that he could be eliminated,
19:23that was a red flag for them.
19:28Detectives now focus in on Christopher Lovren
19:30as their chief suspect
19:32and attempt to obtain a DNA sample
19:34to confirm their theory.
19:37He had a troubled childhood.
19:40He was in trouble a lot with law enforcement,
19:43did some prison time.
19:46We decided to follow Chris
19:48because he had a very significant criminal history
19:50from the 90s of being involved
19:52in methamphetamine, burglaries, stolen cars.
19:56At least there was some indication
19:58that the theft angle or robbery was maybe involved,
20:01so we decided that Christopher would be
20:04at least the first one
20:05we would try and collect DNA from.
20:09We conducted a surveillance on Christopher.
20:11He was employed, paid his bills,
20:13he owned a home,
20:14he worked 40 hours a week.
20:16By all appearances,
20:17he appeared to be an upstanding citizen.
20:20We followed him from his workplace
20:22all the way back to his house.
20:25We as law enforcement in most states
20:27can collect garbage that people have thrown away.
20:30You've gotten rid of it,
20:31you don't want it anymore,
20:32you don't have your rights to it.
20:33That's not the case in Oregon.
20:34We have to secure a search warrant
20:36to collect someone's garbage,
20:37to do what they call a trash pull.
20:39At that point,
20:39we did not have enough evidence
20:41to support getting a search warrant for that.
20:44Then investigators receive
20:46an important phone call
20:47from Chris's brother, Jesse.
20:50He calls them and says,
20:52hey, I'd like to meet with you,
20:55me and my brother
20:55at a neutral spot at this pub.
20:58And Brendan is like, for sure,
21:00yeah, we'll definitely meet you
21:01and your brother there.
21:03They set up an appointment
21:04to meet with both Jesse and Chris Levern
21:07at the Horse Press Bar.
21:08They met with them
21:09and started to talk to them about the case.
21:12They also asked some investigative questions
21:14about the victim.
21:16That was why they were contacting them
21:17at this point
21:18and directly asked them,
21:20would you be willing to give us
21:21your DNA standards
21:22so we can rule you out
21:24if that's the case?
21:27I was very open
21:28about exactly what was going on,
21:29what we were doing
21:29and asked if we could collect
21:31either their DNA
21:33and I said no
21:34and both adamantly denied
21:36any involvement.
21:37After about half hour
21:38of talking with them,
21:39I left.
21:41But the team have another trick
21:43up their sleeves.
21:45We had a team of three detectives
21:47a couple of tables away
21:49who stayed and watched
21:51as Jesse and Chris
21:53spent another three or so hours
21:55in the pub.
21:57There was a sign
21:59that Detective McGuire gave to them
22:01and the sign was basically
22:02that they got up
22:03and they left.
22:04They were going to try
22:05to recover evidence
22:06from the table,
22:07from glasses
22:08that 11 brothers
22:10were drinking from,
22:11to try to collect that
22:12and preserve it as evidence
22:13to test for DNA
22:14and swab for DNA
22:15from the rim of the glass.
22:18Once the brothers left,
22:20one of the detectives
22:21obtained the beer glasses
22:23that Jesse and Christopher used.
22:26The samples taken
22:28from the glass in the bar
22:29are immediately sent
22:30to the lab
22:30for DNA analysis.
22:33The results
22:34from the Oregon State Police
22:35Crime Lab
22:36came back positive
22:37to Chris Leveron,
22:39conclusive to him
22:40being the contributor
22:41of the DNA evidence
22:42that they had tested
22:43from the crime scene
22:44from Mark's residence.
22:48Investigators now
22:49have the evidence
22:50they need
22:50to secure a warrant
22:51for an oral swab
22:52directly from Christopher Leveron,
22:54which will confirm
22:55if he is their killer.
23:09The 1999 disappearance
23:11of 42-year-old Mark Drebben
23:13in Portland, Oregon
23:14remains a mystery,
23:16but the police bureau
23:17refused to give up.
23:20In 2019,
23:21a cold case team
23:22utilized forensic genetic genealogy
23:24to narrow the suspect pool
23:26down to a family of brothers
23:27in the Portland area.
23:33Investigators collect DNA
23:34from a bar glass
23:35used by one of the brothers,
23:36Christopher Leveron,
23:37which comes back
23:38as a hit to the DNA recovered
23:40in Mark's house and car.
23:43Now they have a warrant
23:44to obtain a sample
23:45directly from Christopher
23:47to confirm he is the killer.
23:52The glass is a secondary sample,
23:54so they say,
23:55oh, okay, yeah,
23:56that's probably him.
23:56We need a direct
23:57confirmation swab.
24:00We met him at his home
24:02after work one day
24:03and collected his DNA sample.
24:04To secure a very clean,
24:08definitive,
24:08matchable DNA sample,
24:10we used all that information
24:11for it and wrote
24:12a search warrant,
24:13basically walk up to Chris
24:15and take swabs
24:16directly from his mouth.
24:17So we had a direct chain
24:20of custody
24:20from his mouth
24:21to the crime lab.
24:24The results come back
24:26as a direct match.
24:28On May 4, 2020,
24:30Christopher Leveron
24:31is arrested
24:31for the 1999 murder
24:33of Mark Driven.
24:37U.S. Marshals assisted
24:39in taking him into custody.
24:41They saw him come out
24:42of his house
24:43at about approximately
24:445.30 in the morning.
24:45It appeared he might have been
24:46getting ready to go to work
24:47and they contacted him
24:49and took him into custody
24:50without incident
24:51on his property
24:51that morning.
24:54After we arrested him,
24:56we searched the house.
24:58We did find a safe
24:59with a whole bunch
25:00of firearms in it,
25:01which, as a convicted felon,
25:03he was prohibited
25:04from owning.
25:06One of the areas
25:07I searched extensively
25:08was the living room area
25:09on the main floor,
25:11the bedrooms
25:11in the southeast corner
25:13of the residence.
25:14I recall in the living room
25:15finding, actually attached
25:17to the wall,
25:18a samurai sword
25:19in a sheath
25:20kind of hanging
25:20on the wall.
25:22He had art
25:24around the walls,
25:25one of them being
25:25a pencil drawing
25:26of a zipper fly open
25:29and a demon's head
25:30coming out
25:30of the crotch
25:31of a pair of pants.
25:33It was a single story,
25:35but I recall there being
25:36a finished basement
25:37as well.
25:39As soon as you come
25:40down to the basement,
25:41there was a rug
25:42with a big skull on it.
25:44And the walls
25:46were completely lined
25:48with axes and swords
25:51and edged weapons
25:53on mounts
25:53and displayed knives.
25:56And there was another skull rug
25:58in the main area.
26:02There were several investigators
26:04in there conducting the search,
26:06so it was very methodical
26:07and thorough.
26:10None of it was collected
26:11for two reasons.
26:12One, we didn't know
26:13how Mark died technically,
26:14if there was a weapon involved
26:16or what weapon.
26:17And B, it was 20-some-odd years ago,
26:19so there was nothing connecting
26:20any of those knives
26:21or swords or implements
26:22to that crime.
26:25From his prison cell
26:27in the Multnomah County Jail,
26:28Christopher Lovren
26:29makes a series
26:30of phone calls.
26:34Chris Lovren,
26:35while in custody
26:36after being arrested
26:37for the murder
26:38of Mark Driven,
26:40was making frequent
26:41jail phone calls
26:42to his family members,
26:43especially his brothers
26:44and sisters,
26:45and a lot of phone calls
26:46to his brother, Jesse.
26:49On May 13th,
26:50there was a jail call
26:51that Detective Brendan McGuire
26:53located and listened to.
26:56In our jail system,
26:58all phone calls
26:59from inmates are recorded.
27:01And Detective McGuire
27:02was reviewing those recordings,
27:03and he came across
27:04a recording
27:05where Christopher was
27:06on the phone
27:07with his brother, Jesse,
27:08about Jesse liquidating
27:10Christopher's assets
27:11in an attempt to,
27:12you know,
27:12gain some funds
27:13to fund his defense
27:14on this murder charge.
27:16Chris was talking to Jesse
27:18about how he was just
27:19going to plea out
27:20to this case.
27:21He didn't want to
27:22go through the trial,
27:25he just wanted
27:25to go right to prison.
27:26He had seen the father
27:28of the victim
27:28and the brother
27:29of the victim,
27:29and he just didn't want
27:30any part of this.
27:31And he started to tell Jesse
27:33that, hey, you guys,
27:34take whatever you want
27:35from the house.
27:36Everything is free
27:37for you guys to take.
27:39Just take it all,
27:40and I just want
27:41to be done with this.
27:43Jesse was informing Christopher,
27:45you know,
27:45we're going to have
27:46the realtor come over,
27:47and they're going to
27:48assess the house
27:49and try to determine
27:50a value.
27:51And I believe Jesse
27:52was talking to Christopher
27:53about this shit
27:54that was in the back,
27:55part of his property.
27:58Chris started to talk
27:59about the locations
28:00of property
28:01at his residence,
28:04in his yard,
28:05things of that nature.
28:06And Jesse asked
28:07specifically about
28:08the shed,
28:09a detached shed
28:10that was on the property
28:11of Chris Leveron's house.
28:13What about the shed?
28:14It's locked.
28:15How do I get in there?
28:16And Chris Leveron's reaction
28:19on a jail call
28:19was very dramatic,
28:21and he just blurted,
28:22no, no.
28:24And every time
28:25Jesse asked about the shed,
28:27he would yell, no.
28:29This, of course,
28:30made us very curious.
28:32And within a day or two,
28:34I got a call
28:35from Chris's attorney,
28:36and he said that
28:37Chris wants me
28:38to go open the shed.
28:41He's talking to his attorney,
28:42and he's speaking
28:43about himself
28:44kind of like
28:45there's a monster inside me,
28:47this thing
28:47that makes me do stuff.
28:49Brennan's ultimately
28:49gets approached
28:50by the man's attorney
28:52who says
28:53you might want
28:53to take the hazmat team
28:55into the shed
28:55and out back
28:56when you go there.
28:59And when I asked
29:00more about that,
29:01he wouldn't tell me.
29:01He said,
29:02I don't think
29:03you're going to be
29:03in any danger,
29:04but be prepared
29:05for what you're going
29:06to find.
29:07Knowing his history,
29:08it could be
29:08chemicals from a meth lab,
29:10it could be
29:11any number of things.
29:14Investigators
29:15obtain a search warrant
29:16and return
29:17to the property.
29:20It was about
29:21five o'clock
29:21in the afternoon.
29:22Detective McGuire
29:23and I,
29:24and the supervisor
29:25at the time,
29:25went to
29:26Mr. Lovren's property,
29:28looked at the shed,
29:29and we opened the shed,
29:31and as soon as we opened
29:32the shed,
29:32you could smell
29:33the odor
29:33of decomposition.
29:35So it was pretty clear
29:36what we were going
29:37to find there.
29:40As soon as the shed opened,
29:42I could smell
29:43there was something
29:44decaying in there.
29:45inside the shed,
29:47there was three big
29:49plastic bins
29:50stacked on each other,
29:51and they were closed
29:53and had along the rim
29:55screws screwing them
29:56shut also.
29:58Investigators called
29:59for assistance
30:00from the criminalists
30:01who were supporting us
30:02with the search warrant
30:03by documenting everything
30:04with video and cameras,
30:06photos.
30:07So the criminalists
30:08went over and several of us
30:09walked over to see
30:10if we could help out.
30:13When we pulled
30:14those bins out,
30:16we took one
30:17and opened it up,
30:18and there was the bin,
30:21and then a canvas-like
30:22duffel bag,
30:23which I unzipped.
30:25Inside of that
30:25was a plastic,
30:26heavy-duty,
30:27like, garbage bag
30:28to cut through,
30:29and then there was
30:29another plastic,
30:30heavy-duty garbage bag
30:31and cut through that,
30:32and then in that
30:33particular bin,
30:34there was a human torso.
30:38And what was apparent
30:39was the torso
30:41appeared to have
30:42obvious male genitalia
30:44that was observable.
30:45This could not be
30:46mark-driven
30:47not this many years later.
30:50The body looked
30:51too intact,
30:52pristine,
30:54so it was believed
30:56that this was
30:56another person
30:57that had been deceased.
31:00They realized
31:00that this is
31:01a whole other
31:02potential investigation
31:03that we're looking at now.
31:06At that point,
31:07we stopped
31:07doing anything
31:09and had the
31:09medical examiners
31:10folks come in
31:11and take over
31:12from there
31:12with the remains.
31:15We took precautions
31:17in order to
31:17retain this evidence
31:18and potentially
31:19preserve
31:20whatever physical
31:21evidence is there
31:22to identify
31:22those body parts
31:23as well as
31:24link them
31:24to Mr. Lovren.
31:27The shocking discovery
31:29of dismembered body parts
31:30in Lovren's shed
31:31completely changes
31:32the direction
31:33of the investigation.
31:37This is the last
31:38thing they expected
31:38and they have
31:39to stop now
31:39and they have
31:40to assign us
31:41homicide
31:41and they have
31:42to find out
31:42who this person is.
31:43They took
31:44all the containers
31:45and had those
31:47transported
31:47to the Oregon
31:48State Police
31:49Crime Lab
31:50for further
31:50investigation.
31:53Homicide detectives
31:54search through
31:55recent missing
31:55person reports
31:56hoping to identify
31:57the remains.
32:00They soon have
32:01a name
32:01for the unfortunate
32:02victim.
32:05This person's name
32:06was Kenneth Griffin.
32:08He's an African
32:09American male
32:10from the Portland
32:10area.
32:11He lived off
32:12Northeast Mallory
32:13Street in inner
32:14Northeast Portland.
32:16We were pretty
32:17sure within a couple
32:19of days because
32:19of some mail
32:21and personal items
32:23found with
32:24the remains
32:25in those totes
32:26but it was
32:27a couple
32:28of days
32:28before that
32:29was confirmed
32:30via fingerprints
32:31from the crime
32:32lab.
32:33Based on police
32:34reports that were
32:35made by his
32:36mother from
32:36that Northeast
32:37Mallory address
32:38that he had
32:38gone missing
32:39in February
32:40of that year
32:402020.
32:42So just a couple
32:43months prior
32:44to this search
32:45warrant.
32:46Then the
32:47investigation was
32:48all about
32:48who was Kenneth
32:49Griffin,
32:50when was he
32:50last seen,
32:51when did he
32:52go missing,
32:52what were the
32:53circumstances,
32:54talk to his
32:54family about him,
32:56look for his
32:56phone records,
32:57you know,
32:58when's the last
32:58calls he made,
32:59where was he
33:00last seen.
33:02Mr. Griffin
33:03had had some
33:04sort of disability,
33:04he didn't function
33:05at the adult level,
33:06he was overly
33:07trusting,
33:07you could easily
33:08manipulate him.
33:09The results
33:10of the autopsy
33:11with Mr. Griffin
33:12showed and revealed
33:14that he had
33:14extensive trauma
33:16to his upper
33:17neck and head
33:17area that was
33:18likely responsible
33:19for his death.
33:22The cold case
33:23team searches
33:24the property
33:24again for any
33:25new clues.
33:27We don't know
33:28what's next,
33:29are there going
33:29to be multiple
33:30bodies in there,
33:31what else is here,
33:32what else have we
33:33not found,
33:34wait till we go
33:34into the house
33:35to execute the
33:36remaining of the
33:37search warrant.
33:38When we went
33:39back into the house
33:40under a second
33:40search warrant
33:41after finding the
33:42shed,
33:43those knives and
33:43swords and weapons,
33:44none of that was
33:45there the second
33:46time we went in,
33:46now that we actually
33:47had a reason to
33:48perhaps collect
33:49something.
33:50All that stuff
33:50had been cleared
33:51out by the family
33:52preparing the house
33:54to be rented.
33:57Investigators
33:57carefully examine
33:58the garage attached
33:59to the house
34:00and make some
34:01chilling discoveries.
34:04The garage attached
34:05to the house
34:06had on the floor
34:08of the garage
34:08two big heavy
34:09rubber mats.
34:10At the point
34:11where the two mats
34:13met each other,
34:14we found
34:15Kenneth Griffin's blood
34:17in that seam
34:19and then two other
34:21unidentified DNA
34:23samples that were
34:24all mixed together,
34:25one female for sure
34:26and one unknown.
34:28We tried a lot
34:30to try and hatch
34:31up missing persons
34:32reports,
34:32all that kind of stuff
34:33and couldn't come up
34:34with anything definitive.
34:36He probably did this
34:38in between times.
34:39If anybody were
34:40to have information
34:41or any kind of
34:43suspicions that
34:44Lovren could be involved
34:45in any other type
34:46of disappearance,
34:47that'd be something
34:47that the police
34:47would want to know.
34:50It looks like
34:51we have potentially
34:52a serial killer
34:53in this case
34:54and the gravity
34:56of that I think
34:57kind of weighed
34:57on everybody.
35:10In 2020,
35:12Portland police
35:12used forensic
35:13genetic genealogy
35:14to identify Christopher
35:16Lovren as the killer
35:17of 42-year-old
35:18Mark Dribbin
35:19who vanished in 1999
35:21and whose body
35:22has never been found.
35:27A search of Lovren's home
35:29uncovered dismembered
35:30remains in a shed,
35:31later identified
35:32as 53-year-old
35:34Kenneth Griffin,
35:35missing since
35:36earlier that year.
35:38The evidence
35:39reveals Lovren
35:40is a serial killer
35:41who is responsible
35:42for at least
35:43two murders.
35:48There's a very
35:49strong possibility
35:49that there are
35:50other victims,
35:52how he's meeting
35:52and picking up
35:54these other victims.
35:56Pretty awful
35:56to prey on someone
35:58who is really
35:59ultimately seeking out
36:00connection with someone else,
36:02whether that's just
36:02as a friend
36:03or romantic or not.
36:06Chris Lovren as a consequence
36:09of this new investigation
36:10was charged also
36:11with murder
36:12in the second degree
36:13of Kenneth Griffin.
36:17On March 10, 2021,
36:20Christopher Lovren
36:20was reindicted
36:21in Multnomah County Circuit
36:23Court on two counts
36:24of second-degree murder,
36:26one count of first-degree
36:27abuse of a corpse,
36:29and six counts
36:30of felony possession
36:31of a firearm.
36:34The cases were joined
36:35as one,
36:36and within a few months
36:38they were separated
36:39into two separate cases.
36:41later in this investigation
36:43as things began
36:45to get adjudicated
36:46at the Multnomah County
36:47Courthouse
36:47with the District Attorney's Office,
36:49Lovren decided
36:50to take a plea
36:52for Mark Driven's homicide.
36:55He pled out
36:56to manslaughter
36:56in the first degree.
37:00On January 12, 2024,
37:03Christopher Lovren
37:03accepted a plea deal
37:04in the 1999 murder
37:06of Mark Driven
37:07and was sentenced
37:07to 20 years in prison
37:09for first-degree manslaughter.
37:14Mr Lovren decided
37:16to challenge
37:17the murder
37:18in the second degree
37:19of Mr Griffin,
37:20and he took that to trial.
37:25In April 2024,
37:27Lovren goes on trial
37:28for the murder
37:29of Kenneth Griffin.
37:32During that trial,
37:33my involvement
37:34with that case
37:35was to support
37:36the prosecutors
37:36as well as
37:37the investigators.
37:38in collecting jail calls,
37:41contacting witnesses
37:42and personally
37:43serving them for trial.
37:44Family members,
37:45including Jesse Lovren
37:47and personally serve him,
37:49Chris Lovren's employer,
37:50various other people
37:51that had some sort
37:53of perspective
37:53from that time frame.
37:57Lovren claims
37:58he was acting
37:58in self-defense
37:59when he killed
38:00when he killed Kenneth Griffin
38:01in February 2020.
38:04Chris Lovren testified
38:06in front of a grand jury.
38:08He admitted
38:09that he had met Mr Griffin
38:11at a bar,
38:12I believe it's called
38:12the 82nd Street Bar.
38:15They met and just
38:16struck up a conversation
38:18and he said
38:19that Kenneth had mentioned
38:20an interest in dogs,
38:22Christopher had some dogs,
38:23so Kenneth came over
38:26to Christopher's house
38:26to meet the dogs.
38:29Once Mr Griffin
38:31arrived there,
38:32he gave Mr Griffin
38:32his credit card
38:33to order some pizza
38:35for both of them
38:36to eat.
38:38He said that
38:40Kenneth ordered the pizza
38:42using his credit card
38:43and didn't return it,
38:44which caused a fight
38:46and he kicked Kenneth
38:48out of the house.
38:49Kenneth left
38:50and he said
38:51that he continued
38:52to drink
38:53for any number of hours
38:55and passed out
38:55in his basement
38:56and woke up
38:57at some point
38:57with his dogs barking
38:58and Kenneth had returned
39:00and was coming down
39:01the stairs
39:02into the basement
39:03bringing a case of beer.
39:05Christopher said
39:06that he tried
39:07to get him to leave
39:08and they started
39:09fighting again.
39:10There was a verbal argument
39:12and at some point
39:15during this verbal argument
39:16Mr Lovren testified
39:18that he shot
39:21Mr Griffin
39:21in the head
39:22and neck area
39:23several times
39:24with a compound bow.
39:26They continued fighting
39:27and he shot him
39:28several more times
39:29and then grabbed
39:30a hatchet off the wall
39:31and hit him with that
39:33until he died.
39:34The autopsy
39:36did not identify
39:38any puncture wounds.
39:40That discrepancy
39:41has always been a question.
39:44He said he then
39:46left Mr Griffin's body
39:47in that condition
39:48at his house
39:49came back
39:50a few days later
39:51and he testified
39:52that that was
39:52when he dismembered
39:53Mr Griffin's body.
39:55Initially he said
39:56he dismembered it
39:57with a saw
39:58in the basement
40:00and put it
40:01in those garbage bags
40:02and it wasn't
40:03until a handful
40:03of days later
40:04that he went
40:05and purchased
40:05the totes
40:06and moved it
40:07out to the shed
40:08with the intention
40:09of dumping
40:10the totes
40:11in the river.
40:12During that trial
40:13Chris Lovren
40:14was convicted
40:15of murder
40:15in a second degree
40:16and abuse
40:17of a corpse.
40:18And then
40:19he had a third trial
40:22for the gun case.
40:24That trial
40:24was more just
40:25out of spite.
40:26He was very much
40:27angry that he did
40:28not get found
40:29not guilty
40:30for the murder
40:30of Kenneth Griffin
40:31in the second trial
40:32and he was also
40:34found guilty.
40:36On April 26, 2024
40:39Christopher Lovren
40:40is sentenced
40:40at the Multnomah County
40:41Court.
40:44He was sentenced
40:45to 20 years
40:47for the plea
40:49he took
40:49for Mark Driven's murder
40:51of manslaughter
40:52in the first degree
40:53and I know
40:53with the conviction
40:54for Mr Griffin's murder
40:55that he received
40:5625 years to life
40:58for the murder
40:58in the second degree.
41:01I believe
41:02another year
41:03was tacked on
41:04for the abuse
41:05of a corpse
41:05so he was
41:07sentenced
41:08essentially
41:09with 46 years
41:10in prison
41:10before he would
41:11ever get a chance
41:13at parole
41:13and at his age
41:15it's highly unlikely
41:16that he'll
41:17live through
41:17that time frame.
41:20Following
41:21the guilty verdicts
41:22Lovren refuses
41:23to help investigators
41:24any further
41:25in their search
41:26for Mark Driven.
41:28He has told us
41:30that he
41:31drove Mark's body
41:33up into the woods
41:35while the trials
41:36were going on
41:37he told us
41:38that once all
41:38the trials
41:39were done
41:39he would tell us
41:40where that was
41:41and he changed
41:42his mind.
41:44We do know
41:45he was transported
41:46to the woods
41:47to an area
41:48at least
41:48called Large Mountain
41:50that doesn't
41:50narrow it down
41:51nearly enough
41:51to find him.
41:56Investigators
41:56believe there
41:57may have been
41:57other victims
41:58of Christopher Lovren.
42:02Clearly
42:03Lovren
42:04killed somebody
42:04in 1989
42:05and he killed
42:06somebody in 2020
42:07and we
42:09as investigators
42:10always look
42:11at the intermediary
42:12time.
42:14There's certainly
42:15reason to think
42:16there were other
42:17victims in between
42:18there.
42:18Certainly there
42:19is something
42:20to be said
42:20about two murders
42:2120 years apart
42:22one very disorganized
42:25and messy
42:25and one
42:26very clean
42:28and organized
42:28and very thoughtful
42:30in the planning
42:31of disposal
42:33and everything
42:34as if there's been
42:35learning going on
42:36over these 20 years.
42:39He obviously
42:40had more control
42:41over the second body
42:43than he did Mark's
42:43because Mark was
42:44in his own home.
42:45Clearly Mark put up
42:46quite a fight
42:48given the scene.
42:49The second gentleman
42:50I don't know.
42:51I mean I think
42:52he controlled the
42:52circumstances
42:53a little bit better
42:54which leads me
42:54to believe
42:55he probably
42:55learned from
42:56his mistakes
42:57the first time.
43:00With Mr. Driven
43:02never being located
43:04never being found
43:05Chris Leverin
43:06based on what
43:07we found
43:08at that house
43:09the level
43:09of sophistication
43:11with how he stored
43:12Mr. Griffin's body
43:14in these containers
43:14and how he secured them
43:16I feel like
43:17Mr. Leverin
43:18likely is responsible
43:20for other crimes
43:21that we don't know about
43:22that have not been
43:22detected yet.
43:24The family of Mark Driven
43:26are still left wondering
43:27about the fate
43:28of their loved one.
43:30The big question
43:31for any investigator
43:32any family member
43:33in this case
43:34is will Mark Driven
43:37will he be located
43:38at some point?
43:40I hope he is found
43:41someday
43:42but I really don't know
43:43if that will occur.
43:44It's possible
43:45it might not.
43:47I've seen other cases
43:48where you know
43:49people thought
43:50oh this person
43:50is never going to be found
43:51and sure enough
43:52people are hiking
43:53and they end up
43:54finding something
43:55or somebody digs
43:56something up on a property
43:56I hope in this case
43:58that happens
43:58but I think more than anything
44:01at least we know
44:01who's responsible.
44:04With Leverin
44:05now finally behind bars
44:07investigators reflect
44:08on the case
44:09and how it was
44:10ultimately solved.
44:14This is someone's
44:15family member
44:15and it's important
44:16and it's important
44:17to do a good job.
44:18Maybe the case
44:18will get solved
44:19long after I'm passed away
44:20but I at least
44:21want my work
44:22to be representative
44:23of the effort
44:24that I made
44:25as well as assist
44:26in hopefully holding
44:27someone responsible
44:28in the future.
44:29Towards the end
44:30of the case
44:30Brendan goes through
44:31the box again
44:32and he finds a letter
44:33and it was dated
44:34I think sometime
44:35in May of 2000
44:36and it was from Mark's dad
44:38and in it
44:39it says
44:40hey I found this
44:41in Mark's house
44:42don't know if it's useful
44:43and it's a piece of paper
44:44that has Chris Leverin
44:46and two phone numbers.
44:48If you go back
44:49and you run
44:49Chris Leverin's name
44:50and pull up
44:51his old addresses
44:51one of the addresses
44:52is the 4100 block
44:54of Division
44:56100 feet away
44:57from that car.
44:58This was solvable
44:5920 years ago.
45:00If someone had run
45:01that name
45:01they would have
45:02made the connection
45:03and there would have
45:03been something
45:04to move on.
45:07But without
45:08forensic genetic genealogy
45:09this case may never
45:11have been solved.
45:15With forensic genetic
45:17genealogy
45:18I feel that
45:19the sky's the limit.
45:21I feel like
45:21the way technology
45:23has evolved
45:24over the years
45:25I don't see why
45:26it will stop.
45:31I'm excited
45:31to see how the next
45:33advancement will be
45:33because it's just
45:34going to get better
45:35and better and better
45:36as time goes on
45:37and technology goes on.
45:39I hope it goes
45:40faster than this
45:42initial wave
45:43because these cases
45:44they almost age out.
45:46The suspects pass away
45:48the witnesses pass away
45:49and unfortunately
45:50the family members
45:51pass away.
45:52It's good
45:52particularly in cases
45:53like this
45:54to be able to show
45:54the family that
45:55we never forgot
45:56and we never stopped
45:57trying
45:58and it at least
45:59gives them some answers.
46:00the news
46:01and we'll be
46:35Transcription by CastingWords
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