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It was obvious a life and death struggle had taken place. >> there was also a hole punch that was discovered in close proximity to mr. north's body that was bent. that would lead me or any other investigator to believe that either mr. north may have been struck with that hole punch or mr. north may have struck his assailant with that hole punch. >> there was a trail of blood from the filing cabinet to darrell's body. then, to a desk. on top, police found a machete, the type used to clear brush from construction sites. it was perfectly clean. >> it actually wasn't blood-soaked, but we didn't kn...

Pope snapped and attacked darrell with a knife. darrell was caught off guard, and struck pope in the face with a paper punch, causing the nosebleed. pope stabbed darrell over 40 times. as he lay dying on the floor, a drop of blood from pope's nose fell on to darrell's pants. >> there's no way he could have explained away how his blood was dripped on to darrell north's pants. >> we knew we had eliminated any possible innocent explanation for his blood being at the scene, and we felt like we had him. >> curtis pope was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. he posted bail, but on the fir...

Noticed something they hadn't seen before. some bruising under his eye. >> there was no cut, but it was a slight bruising. >> a background check revealed pope's business was faltering. >> he had a reputation of just not being very good at what he did, as far as the construction of the swimming pools. >> pope's business records indicated he was deeply in debt, wasn't able to pay his suppliers, and the only big client he had left was darrell north. if darrell fired pope during their meeting, it would have been the end of pope's company. >> pope's finances were in terrible shape. he was on the fi...

>> the extra wounds on the back of the head, which almost decapitated him, indicated a tremendous desire to make sure that the person was deceased. >> darrell's wallet was still in his pocket. nothing had been stolen. there was no sign of forced entry. this and the level of violence indicated a very personal crime. >> out of the 40 cases that i've worked, this was the only one that had that type of rage exhibited. >> darrell hired many contractors, so his decisions could either make or break some of them. someone's anger had spiraled out of control. but police and darrell's family had no idea ...

Time looking for the person that did. >> pope was distraught over darrell's murder. >> he came through the receiving line crying, and i thought he was so touched by darrell's death. and he said, i loved darrell. he was better to me than my own father. >> pope was 40 years old, married, with a young daughter. he did, however, have a police record consisting of arrests for petty theft. since he was the last known person to see darrell alive, he was automatically considered a suspect. pope agreed to take a polygraph examination and passed. >> it is not likely that somebody could come in and inten...