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with very little evidence against michael bryant for the murder of ann haynes, investigators got a warrant to search his home. they seized his computer, and analyzed his hard drive. on it was a wealth of information. >> we were able to see that in the days prior to the scheduled polygraph that he didn't take, he was looking at websites on how to beat a polygraph. then he didn't take the polygraph. >> they also searched the storage spaces. >> when i went into that attic, things just kind of got eerie from there. basically, what i saw was similar to an altar for what i would certainly think was satanic worship with a pentagram, candles, and burned items. >> in the garage, investigators
examiner expected to find evidence of smoke inhalation. instead he found no soot or debris in her trachea. and her hyoid bone in her neck was broken, which usually indicates strangulation. >> i've never seen a situation where a bone in a person's throat has been crushed by accident unless there's been in traumatic car wreck or some other explanation. >> the medical examiner also found marks on the outer part of her neck. >> they were consistent with fingernail marks. whatever happened before she died was very, very violent because there was evidence of blunt force trauma. >> the autopsy concluded edith ann haynes was dead before the fire started, but who wanted her dead and why. ironically until three days
entire mobile home is completely engulfed. >> it took ten minutes for firefighters to bring the blaze under control. when they did, they found the home owner, edith ann haynes dead in the bathroom. >> she became overwhelmed by the smoke and the heat and was unable to escape the fire and died inside. >> edith ann haynes known to friends as ann, was divorced and was on disability from her job at the kendall company makers of surgical dressings. a preliminary investigation indicated the fire started in a spare bedroom used as a storage space. officially the cause of the blaze was ruled undetermined. but it was believed to be an electrical fire. >> it was around the time the weather started to get a little cool and there might have been some heat on and that might have started the fire. >> at the autopsy the medical
they left at 6:41, then went to a 7:00 movie. around 7:30, the device bryant set in ann haynes' home started the fire, while he and his wife were in the movie theater, surrounded by witnesses. despite his well-laid plans, michael made one huge mistake. while walking out of the theater, his friend called to tell him that the haynes' mobile home was destroyed in a fire. >> are you serious? >> michael reacted inappropriately, given the fact the caller said nothing about ann having been involved in the fire, let alone killed. the fire didn't eliminate everything. as in most arsons, it actually created more evidence than it destroyed.
>> lane put debris from the fire into air-tight containers and sent them to the lab. but the larger questions facing investigators were who wanted edith ann haynes dead and why. >> she didn't have a real big social life. she would casually go out with friends maybe and have a drink or two after work. when it's a murder so off the wall and no real logic behind why it had to happen. why, you know. >> the most logical suspect was 31-year-old michael bryant, haynes' co-worker at the kendall company. bryant bought ann's old home as an investment. >> she agreed to sell him this house where she had spent, you know, like 20 years, whatever, you know, her whole adult life. the deal was he would pay the mortgage which was left on it, which was not much. and he would pay her $25,000 in cash and help her out a little bit with her new place. >> when questioned by police,
earlier haynes had lived in a larger house about eight miles away. >> she was in a financial situation where she needed to sell her house. >> steve culverson, haynes' nephew, and the administrator of her estate, looked through the rubble to find her financial records. >> i felt there had to be more evidence there. we took everything out of the cabinets and just searched for stuff. there was no evidence of where her keys were, her wallet. >> and he and the investigators found something suspicious. >> one of those was a signed contract between ann haynes and a man by the name of michael bryant. >> miss haynes sold her home to mr. bryant and already transferred the deed, but for some reason hadn't received the proceeds from the sale. >> that was a perry mason moment. he was going to pay her a sum of $25,000. >> she was selling her house off to pay her bills off and
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strip. >> a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer analyzed the samples and compared them to a database of over 750 known reference samples. >> it is like a doctor looking at an ekg. i have to be able to visually recognize what it is that i'm looking at. the sample that was removed from the threshold was positive for gasoline. >> now investigators wanted to know who was the last person inside ann's home on the day of the fire. interestingly, neighbors saw michael bryant's truck at ann's home around 3 p.m., but the truck was gone by 5:00 p.m. the fire didn't start until two hours later. >> michael bryant and his wife were at the restaurant where he went, and the movie theater was in evans, which is a suburb of augusta, another good 15, 20 minutes to get there. so he was, you know, at least a
$25,000, the balance of the purchase price. >> so he had written a check to ann haynes for $25,000, asking her to hold the check, not cash it, until he could put the funds in the account. this kept getting delayed continually by him. and on the day of the fire, she indicated that she was going to cash that check, whether he wanted to or not. >> she may have realized that bryant had no intention of paying her since she had already signed the deed and didn't yet have the $25,000 he owed her. prosecutors believe bryant went to haynes' mobile home on the day of the murder to ask her again to delay cashing his check for the $25,000. >> i just want you to leave. >> no one knows what took place. but the evidence shows bryant