A Mind For
Murder
(Page 1 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
|
|
(CBS) When they talk about Carmin, the oldest of their
four daughters, Danny and Judy Ross are never at a loss
for words.
"She's bubbly, she's fun to be around. She makes the
room warm. She's the sunshine," recalls Judy Ross, who
even put together a list of words that come to her mind
when she thinks of Carmin.
"Brilliant, empathetic, thoughtful, spiritual, patient,
political, loving, peaceful, delightful, silly, playful,
courageous," reads Judy Ross. "Full of life -- daughter
of our youth."
Looking back, Danny and Judy Ross say Carmin's 1985
wedding to her sweetheart, Tom Murray, was one of the
best days they ever had. "Both of them wrote their
wedding vows," says Danny Ross. "I stood there and cried
through the whole thing."
Carmin met Murray at Ohio State University, but it
wasn't a typical college romance. Carmin was a junior,
and Murray was her English professor.
"I was hesitant, because I didn't know why a professor
would be interested in one of his students," recalls
Judy Ross.
Murray was only 27, a first-year professor. But once
Judy Ross met him, she says she was impressed: "He was
very easy to talk to. Very proper. Good manners.
Everything."
Carmin’s three little sisters, Samantha, April and
Heather, never had a brother, but they were delighted to
have a brother-in-law.
"He was attending church with us. He didn't drink
excessively. He didn't smoke. He exercised," says Danny
Ross. "He was polite all the time, around everyone, and
I said, 'Tom, you're too good to be true.'"
In 1988, after Carmin graduated from law school, the
couple moved to Manhattan, Kan., where Murray took a job
teaching linguistics at Kansas State University. His
colleague, Lyman Baker, says Murray made an immediate
impression.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 2 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
"A very gentle guy. A very good, very sharp mind," says
Baker. "Personal, reasonable, good listener. He was
serious, did his work. People really appreciated having
a colleague like that."
But while Murray was on the academic fast track, Carmin
was struggling to find her place in the world. She gave
up on law after just a few years, and she became a
mediator.
During this time, the Murrays were searching for a
solution to their own problem. They couldn’t decide
whether to have a child.
"When they first got married they were gonna have
children. Tom wanted a bunch," says Judy Ross. "Then
they were married for 13 years, and now Tom doesn't want
any children. And she's now changed careers, and now she
wants children."
In 1998, despite their disagreement, Carmin became
pregnant, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ciara, that
December.
"He was angry, I think, with Carmin being pregnant,"
says her sister, Samantha. "And he never treated her the
same after that. I think he punished her."
Carmin stopped working. She loved being a mother, but
felt she was raising Ciara alone. Murray’s indifference
to the baby also led Carmin to question other parts of
her life.
Her best friend, Angela Hays, says, "She felt as if she
was living a life that just didn't fit very well with
how she felt about things and how she believed."
"It sounds cliché, but she wanted so much to help
people," adds Hays. "And she felt as if she wasn’t doing
that in the way that her life was playing out."
Carmin, however, was about to make a momentous decision.
When Ciara was still a toddler, Carmin changed careers
again and became a healer.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 3 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
"She was in an apprentice program where she was
physically doing treatment of people in the local area,"
says Danny Ross. "And of lot of people made fun of it
because they didn’t understand it. Perhaps even her
husband."
Carmin was practicing “consegrity,” a spiritual approach
to medicine that claims to teach the body to heal
itself. In September 2002, she went to a consegrity
conference in Wichita. That’s where she met Larry Lima,
a social worker living in San Diego. Shortly after they
met, the couple began an affair.
"It hurt me because she was acting in ways that a lot of
people in the world act who don't have respect for their
spouse -- and just are out living for their own
self-gratification," says Danny Ross.
But after years of living what Carmin considered an
unfulfilled life, her friends thought change was good
for her. "She was extremely happy. And not only had I
never seen her that happy, I had never seen anybody that
happy," says Hays. "She felt that her life was unfolding
as it should, or as she’d always wanted her life to be."
And it wasn’t long before Carmin decided she no longer
wanted to be married to Murray. "She tried to get him to
go to counseling," says Danny Ross. "She tried to make
it work. And she eventually just said, 'It isn't going
to work.'"
But the trouble was only just beginning, because Carmin
had not only decided to leave Murray -- she decided to
take their daughter with her.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lima still remembers the first time Carmin caught his
eye.
"We met at a workshop in Wichita, Kan. She had this
plate, and I walked by, and she just very kindly asked
if I wanted a piece of watermelon," says Lima. "And I
grabbed a watermelon seed and ate it, and walked away,
and she just kind of raised her eyebrows. And said
afterwards, she knew that that was the moment."
Lima lived in San Diego, and by the fall of 2002, Carmin
was flying to see him as often as possible. She confided
to Lima that her marriage to Murray was ending.
"Something had kind of died inside," says Lima. "She had
worked very hard and been unhappy for a very, very long
time in her marriage."
In June 2003, after Murray grudgingly agreed to divorce
Carmin, she began making plans to move to California.
But Murray was not about to let go of their daughter,
Ciara.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 4 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
"We had hoped to work out some sort of an agreement that
would be best for Ciara to go back and forth, and
clearly it wasn't gonna be feasible," says Lima, who
adds that Carmin wanted Ciara to have both parents in
her life.
So Carmin left Manhattan and moved to Lawrence, Kan.,
about an hour-and-a-half away from Murray. Lima planned
to move there as well. Carmin and Murray were
temporarily sharing custody of Ciara, but they were
meeting with a mediator to work out a permanent
agreement. According to her parents, Carmin was
determined to work things out.
"She didn't want to hurt him. Even though she was
leaving him, she still wanted to be friends with him,"
says Danny Ross.
But while Carmin was trying to bridge their differences,
Murray was busy burning bridges.
"Clearly he was angry. And certainly sent emails and
phone calls that upset her," says Lima.
Judy Ross, however, says she wasn't surprised that
Murray was putting up such a fight: "He wanted to win.
He's a winner."
But this time, Carmin was determined to win. On Nov. 11,
2003, she arrived at the mediation session, and put her
foot down. Lima says Carmin told Murray that she wanted
Ciara to live with her, and that Lima was moving there,
too.
"I think, in the midst of feeling anxious and a bit
afraid, that there was also a sense of relief," says
Lima. "She had done it, but she was clearly saddened,
and afraid of how it was gonna turn out."
By the next night, when Lima called from San Diego,
Carmin was feeling better. It was the last conversation
they ever had.
"I hadn't talked to her in over a day," says Lima. "And
we spoke many times a day. And I just really think
something was wrong."
On Friday afternoon, Lima frantically called the Douglas
County Sheriff’s Department. Det. Doug Woods went to
Carmin's house to investigate.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 5 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
"Blood on the floor. Blood on the walls. Blood on the
ceiling," recalls Woods. "Furniture had been turned
over, potted plants and stuff broken against the
fireplace. It was quite a struggle in there. There was a
great degree of brutality."
In the middle of the room, Carmin Ross, 40, lay dead.
Carmin’s house was now a crime scene – and one that
promised a wealth of physical evidence. As crime scene
investigators combed the house for clues, Woods drove to
Manhattan to tell Murray that his ex-wife was dead.
"I told Mr. Murray that his ex-wife, Carmin, had died
and that we needed to speak to him about that," says
Woods. "Murray asked me if we had to do it right now."
Murray agreed to go with Woods to a nearby police
station, and Woods said he didn't have to convince
Murray to talk: "He was free to go."
Woods: You're here of your own free will and you're
agreeing to stay.
Murray: You don't have to keep repeating that stuff. You
haven't been mean to me, and you're not holding me
against my will.
In fact, it turned out that Murray couldn't stop
talking. He sat with Woods and others from 8:30 p.m.
that night, until 6 a.m. the next morning – without a
lawyer.
When the interrogation began, all Murray had been told
is that his ex-wife had died. Yet, says Woods, "He never
asked me how she died."
Murray: If I were you, I'd look at me. I think you
should.
Woods: So in my mind then, tell me what a great guy you
are. Tell me why I shouldn't be pointing the finger at
you a little bit right now.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 6 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
Murray: Oh, you gotta know me. I'm sort of the original
Boy Scout. I've always been the straightest arrow in the
quiver.
"He could explain away everything that we would bring at
him," says Woods.
Murray's right hand, which he appeared to be hiding
during the interview, had small cuts. Both of his wrists
were also bruised.
Murray vehemently denied killing Carmin, and it
continued all night. But if Murray was guilty, he wasn't
getting caught that night. At 6 a.m., Murray headed
home. "I was upset with myself because I didn't push the
right button or ask the right question, or go into the
right direction to get him to confess," says Woods.
Murray talked so much that he was now the No. 1 suspect
in the case, but police had nothing against him but a
lot of talk. They waited for evidence from the crime
scene and finally found nothing. "We never found any
bloody clothing. We never found the murder weapon. It
just didn’t exist," says Woods.
Murray continued to teach and to raise Ciara over the
following weeks and months. Danny Ross feared the murder
would never be solved, though he was growing suspicious
of the son-in-law he once loved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nearly one year after Carmin’s brutal murder in November
2003, police still had not arrested anyone.
Then, last October, detectives Woods, Pat Pollock and
Lyle Hagenbush decided they would have to take a chance
on a circumstantial case, and they arrested Murray,
their No. 1 suspect.
The case was handed over to assistant district attorney
Angela Wilson, who had never prosecuted a murder before.
"That just petrified me," says Danny Ross. Kansas has an
unusual law that allows victims to pay for a special
prosecutor to help the district attorney's office. So
the Ross family hired Tom Bath to be part of the
prosecution team.
Murray hired two of the Kansas’ best criminal attorneys,
Pedro Irogonegaray and Bob Eye, to take on his case.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 7 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
In February, the Ross family came to Lawrence,
determined to win two things: a guilty verdict, and
custody of Carmin and Tom's daughter, Ciara, who had
been living with them since Murray's arrest.
After investigating for more than a year, the best piece
of evidence against Murray is still his 10-hour
videotaped interview with the police.
Investigators ask Murray about the day of Carmin's
murder. He was seen at 8:30 when he dropped his daughter
off at the babysitters and again around noon when he got
her back. No one saw him in between and detectives
believe that's when he drove 90 miles to Lawrence to
kill Carmin.
Murray: In my mind, I can't get there and back inside
the time I have available.
But Hagenbush says Murray could, because he did it: "We
were able to show that Tom Murray could drive from
Manhattan to Lawrence, have plenty of time to kill
Carmin Ross, and return to Manhattan.
Detectives think it took Murray just a few minutes to
kill Carmin – first by beating her, and then stabbing
her with a knife they believe he got from her kitchen.
When the defense gets a chance to speak, Irogonegaray
says even though the questioning lasted 10 hours,
Murray's statement proves nothing. In fact, the state's
own forensic experts, who prosecutors hope will link
Murray to the crime, actually help the defense team make
its case. They say that there was no DNA found at the
crime scene – and only one fingerprint matching
Murray's.
Then, the defense says, the evidence suggests there was
more than one person at the crime scene. Police found
what looked like two bloody shoeprints.
Faced with a lack of forensic evidence, the prosecution
argues that Murray is the only person with a motive to
kill Carmin. They believe he exploded after a mediation
session just two days before the murder. Prosecutors
also say that Murray had another motive – jealousy,
because Lima was about to move to Lawrence.
As the state methodically works through weeks of
testimony, the trial is long, and at times, difficult.
"It's a numb feeling," says Danny Ross. "Because as I
sit there, and I saw all the pictures, it makes me think
thoughts that I don't think a human being should have to
think."
Prosecutors say Murray carefully planned and cleaned up
after Carmin's murder – and they next present some
startling evidence explaining how an English professor
could possibly know so much about murder.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After weeks of testimony, Murray's attorneys say things
are going their way –and that Murray was not at the
scene of the crime.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 8 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
That's just what Danny Ross is worried about: "If, in
fact, the worst case happens and he is acquitted, then
the jury is going to put him back with my
granddaughter."
Three generations of the Ross family, from five
different states, have moved to Lawrence, Kan., for the
duration of the trial. But the routine is becoming a
grind. "Is he going to get the justice he really
deserves?" asks Danny Ross.
The prosecution started strongly – playing Murray's
revealing police interview. But now, the trial has
settled into a grueling, sometimes plodding marathon.
But things are starting to look up for the prosecution
and the Ross family. The jury is about to hear the most
powerful forensic evidence yet, and it's got nothing to
do with blood or DNA.
Investigators could not have imagined what they'd
discover when they confiscated Murray's computers. It
turns out, the professor wasn't just researching
linguistics, although there is a word for the kind of
searches he was doing online: suspicious.
Forensic computer expert Dean Brown dug around in the
recesses of Murray's computers and found a Yahoo! search
for "murder for hire," "how to hire an assassin," "how
to make a bomb," and "how to murder someone and not get
caught."
Investigators were thrilled with the secrets Murray's
computers revealed, especially when they learned the
searches were conducted just as the custody battle the
Murrays were having was getting nasty.
But the defense has an explanation. They say that Murray
was interested in possibly writing an episode for a
CSI-type program. The computers, however, offer up more
bad news for Murray, including emails that show his
anger with Carmin was growing: "I'm increasingly coming
to feel like an animal that's been backed into a
corner."
The prosecution rests. Now, Murray's defense will make
three main points. First, a custody attorney told Murray
that he had no reason to fear that Carmin would take
Ciara away. Next, the defense says that, according to
mediator Nancy Hughes, Murray was still committed to
working with Carmin, even though he expressed his anger
in emails.
And finally, the defense argues, there is a mystery
bloodstain on Carmin's sink that suggests someone else
was at Carmin's house. But the prosecution attacks the
defense's expert, saying the expert did not have any
certification in the area of bloodstain analysis.
Murray never takes the stand. Instead, the defense pins
its hopes on reasonable doubt – and they argue that
there is plenty of it.
A Mind For Murder
(Page 9 of 9)
May 15, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Thomas Murray (CBS)
(CBS)
For the Ross family, however, waiting for the jury to
decide is one of the hardest parts of the trial. "If he
is found innocent, then my heart will be broken again,"
says Danny Ross. "Because we'll have to give our
granddaughter to him."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's been nearly two years since Carmin was murdered –
and the fate of the accused murderer now rests with the
jury. They jury has only circumstantial evidence to
consider against Murray. There's no wiggle room for the
jurors –either they have to convict Murray of
first-degree murder or set him free.
But Murray's life is not the only one at stake. If he's
acquitted, the Ross family would have to give him Ciara.
It's the worst-case scenario the Rosses hope they'll
never face.
"My daughter was killed, and we can't bring her back,"
says Danny Ross. "But having my granddaughter raised in
a proper environment is what my daughter would have
wanted. And that's the most important thing to our
family."
It took five weeks to present all the evidence, and the
jury is taking its time going through it all. After
three days of deliberation, a verdict is reached on St.
Patrick's Day. Murray is found guilty of murder in the
first degree.
Carmin's family is overwhelmed. "For so long, it has
been all about this process, coming to an end today,"
says Carmin's sister, April. "And that we have Ciara.
She's safe. Now, I can really mourn for Carmin."
It's also an emotional victory for the prosecution.
"There was just so much emotion around this case, and
around the family," says Wilson. "It's been very good to
be included in the family fold. I joked early on that I
was an honorary Ross girl."
"I'm convinced that this is a domestic violence-related
homicide," says Lima, who remembers Carmin by
volunteering with domestic violence victims at the
Family Justice Center in San Diego.
However, it will be a little harder for the Ross family,
who once considered Murray a son and a brother. "It's a
very confusing, conflicting feeling," says April.
"Because I have no doubt it was his hands that hurt her.
But I don't know what happened to his head."
She adds: "How am I supposed to explain to my kids, when
I don't get it – and to his daughter?"
There will be no explanation from Murray, who insisted
he was innocent, even at his sentencing last week: "I
have never raised my hand in anger against anyone – not
ever."
He also showed a rare display of emotion for his
daughter: "Since I can't be with you, I'm glad you're
living with people who love you very much."
Ciara is now 6, and she will live with the Ross family
at home in Indiana. "I asked her, 'Are you worried about
who's going to take care of you?'" asks Carmin's sister,
Heather. "And she said, 'No, I'm glad I have my family
to take care of me.' She's got an entire family that
adores her, and would do anything for her. We'll take
care of her. Together, we will take care of her."
|