The Confession Pt II: Telltale Stains

A month before the trial was to begin, the judge threw out most of Michael's statement to the police, and all of Aaron Hauser's statements.

But part of Josh Treadway's second interrogation, a detailed account of the plot to kill Stephanie, was ruled admissible.

With the prosecution's case weakened but not destroyed, defense attorney Attridge began trying to prove that someone else had killed Stephanie.

She said that the murderer was Richard Tuite, a then-29-year-old paranoid schizophrenic transient who had once been arrested for stabbing another transient with a knife. He said he had been defending himself, and the charges were dropped when the victim failed to show up in court.

Tuite had been seen in the neighborhood that night, knocking on strangers' doors. When people answered the door, Tuite, who had a history of drug use, asked if a woman named Tracy was there. Tracy Chafin, Tuite's old girlfriend, once rented a house in the neighborhood.

In fact, Tuite came to the door of the Crowes' next door neighbor, a minister named Gary West. When West answered the door, Tuite told him he was looking for "a girl." Tuite left, but West was worried enough to call 911.

The morning of the murder, the police went looking for Tuite and found him at a local laundromat. They say he was disoriented and filthy, but they found no blood on him. After questioning him twice they let him go, concluding he was mentally incapable of committing the murder.

How, police ask, could such a man manage to enter a house quietly, commit such a crime and then get out, leaving no evidence behind? For her part, Chafin, who used to take drugs with Tuite, says that while he sometimes acted paranoid, she can't imagine him killing anyone.

Attridge wasn't convinced. When she asked to examine his clothing one more time, she saw something. "I first noticed there was stuff on Richard Tuite's shirt," she says. "I didn't know what it was."

Police had run DNA tests on his white T-shirt but not on his red sweatshirt. On a hunch, Attridge insisted the sweatshirt be sent to an independent DNA lab for analysis, and the prosecution agreed. One day into jury selection for Josh's trial, the lab called back and said that it had found three spots of Stephanie's blood on the sweatshirt.

Says Attridge: "The phone call came in, and I hung up and I just started to cry. It was great. It was fabulous....I thought, 'This is it. This is the slam dunk. This is you know, lock him away.' Richard Tuite killed Stephanie Crowe. Absolutely no doubt about it."

Furthermore, Attridge noted, the blood had been spattered on the shirt, not spilled or dripped. A spatter stain is only caused when blood hits something at a high speed, as would happen when someone is stabbed.

The three boys and their families were ecstatic. At the same time, the D.A.'s office tried to explain the oversight: "The shirt is heavily stained," said prosecutor Summer Stehan. "It's a transient's shirt. It has stains everywhere."

The prosecution did not concede, however. It decided to investigate other theories to explain this new evidence - like police contamination. Stephan didn't stop there: "Other possibilities would be whether this transient, who digs through garbage cans, came upon some bloody items that maybe were discarded by the real killers. Or that this transient had contact with the three young men that night."

As for Tuite, he was already in custody, about to be sentenced for a burglary he tried to commit a few weeks after Stephanie's murder. He had tried to pick a lock with a black plastic fish. Soon after, he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Finally, six weeks after the "Perry Mason moment," as one newspaper called it, the D.A. dropped the charges against all three boys. But because the case is dismissed "without prejudice," the three could be recharged for the murder at any time.

July 2002 Update:

In a case with many twists and turns, there has recently been a startling new development.

Two years ago, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department took the case from the Escondido City Police. Last June the State Attorney General stepped in for the District Attorney. They saw the case in a different light, and in May arrested Richard Tuite, now 33, for Stephanie's murder. The Attorney General also said publicly that Michael, Aaron and Josh "did not commit this crime."

"Finally, they're going in the right direction," says Steve Crowe.

"I was happy that they finally have taken the next step in the process and we might finally get some justice here," says Michael.

Tuite pled not guilty, and will be put on trial. The case against Tuite is based on a two-and-a-half year re-examination of the evidence by Sheriff's detectives. Among that evidence: Stephanie's blood found on Tuite's sweatshirt.

Sheriff's detectives believe those blood stains were a result of spatter from the crime scene, not contamination after the fact. But this case is far from closed.

"The determining factor in this case is going to be the overwhelming evidence that shows that the three boys committed the crime," says Brad Patton, Tuite's lawyer. Patton hopes to generate reasonable doubt by trying to use the boys' confession tapes.

Michael says that he thinks he will testify.

It has been four years since Stephanie's murder, and the Crowes have continued to face tragedy. Cheryl's mother died; Cheryl was diagnosed with cancer; Steve has had stress-related vision problems.

There have also been personal triumphs. Michael is now in college. He is still friends with Aaron and Josh, and is engaged to be married.

Nothing will ever make up for the loss of Stephanie.

Says Michael: "I hold the memory of her very dear."