Page 3 - Margarette Eby News Today

Lot on the night of nancy ludwigs murder. and there was another surprise. gorton worked for a water sprinkler company that serviced the sprinkler system in margarette ebys yard. >> that same company had been to margarette ebys residence several days before her death in order for them to blow out the sprinkler lines for the season. >> but that could have been easily explained why his fingerprint would have been inside ebys home. >> youre working with metal sprinkler equipment and maybe theres a s...

Known criminal offenders in the national database. >> the dna match didnt tell us who that person was. that was our job, to find him. >> but it wouldnt be easy. margarette ebys murder took place many years earlier, and nancy ludwig was murdered in detroit, over 75 miles away from flint. but investigators suspected that the killer drove a monte carlo automobile and had access to twine, used by landscapers. the hotel employees boyfriend who owned the monte carlo had an alibi for the night of nancy...

Others in michigan and the search turned up no matches. but improvements in computer technology led to the creation of an automated fingerprint identification system that compares thousands of fingerprints in seconds. when the print from the water faucet was placed into the new nationwide fingerprint database, the computer identified a matching print in florida. it matched the right thumbprint of 39-year-old jeffrey gorton, who was now living in a suburb of flint, michigan. >> he was a married m...

>> gorton denied he was ever inside margarette ebys home. when he did, investigators confronted him with fingerprint evidence. >> do you know where that fingerprint came from? >> no. >> it came from the bathroom in the upstairs bedroom where margarette eby was found. >> mm-hmm. >> the house that you said you had never been in. so, right now, jeff, theres no question that youre the person thats responsible. the question that needs to be answered is why and what can we do to help you? >> well, the...

Feet. i was screaming, i mean, blood-curdling screams. he ripped my slip off and he started running. >> after that assault, police found hundreds of pieces of womens underwear in his home. >> this is a dangerous guy. hes knocking women down, hes dragging them into bushes, hes stealing their clothes, hes breaking into their houses. this is someone whos pretty much out of control. >> gorton served some prison time for these assaults in florida before moving back to michigan. since both murder vict...

Shortly after his wife was brutally murdered in a detroit hotel room, art ludwig received a curious letter. it was from a man who had read about nancys murder in the newspaper and said her death sounded strikingly similar to his own mothers murder five years earlier. >> and i read the letter, and yes, it did seem like there were some similarities. insofar, they were both women about the same size, same appearance, so on and so forth. >> the victim was 55-year-old margarette eby, a music

Conduct in the first degree. >> jeffrey gorton was tried and convicted for the first-degree murder of both nancy ludwig and margarette eby. he will spend the rest of his life in prison. >> im afraid of him. im glad hes locked up for the rest of his life. he is the absolutely most frightening person that ive ever encountered because he was random, because he was so secretive, because he was so ordinary. >> walter tom henderson wrote about this case in "blood justice" and thinks there are other vi...

Supposed to be gated, but the gate was usually open. no guard there. >> there were no signs of forced entry, and no valuables were missing. margarette eby had a habit of leaving her doors unlocked and had no curtains on her windows. >> the estate had a number of people who came on regularly to do work, lawn care people, electricians, painters. >> after her murder, investigators found a partial fingerprint on her bathroom faucet, but it didnt match any known criminal offenders in the michigan dat...

>> no. >> it came from the bathroom in the upstairs bedroom where margarette eby was found. >> mm-hmm. >> the house that you said you had never been in. so, right now, jeff, theres no question that youre the person thats responsible. the question that needs to be answered is why and what can we do to help you? >> well, there is no why, cause i didnt do it. i just need to see an attorney now, because i know i didnt do anything, and i need to -- >> when gorton asked for a lawyer, the interview sto...

Tracked down in one way or another. and all were dead ends. margarette ebys family, as well as nancy ludwigs, were losing faith in the idea that the killer would be apprehended. >> after ten years, i guess i thought we had done just about everything we could. to this day, it remains a mystery to me why -- why it didnt work. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home... the...