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nobody is perfect. no marriage ideal. sometimes with a little distance you see things. >> we weren't friends. we were neighbors. that's how i look to put it. >> right next door to the creamers, no more than a couple of track house walls and a strip of grass apart, lived a man who saw the creamers through a less rosy lens. this is randall howes, retired naval officer, and it was something about the chemistry with anna wasn't good. especially an altercation about his dogs. >> she said the dogs barked, barked. she really got mad. i said, okay, anna we're not having this conversation right now. i turned and walked away. and that really made her mad. after that, i never spoke to her. >> so there was tension across that strip of grass. and then howes got the idea that maybe ken had some trouble with anna's temper too, since ken gave howes the cold shoulder
and how did it land? >> we did have the weapon in our jury room, and some of the men tried to get a feel for how it loaded up and then it takes a lot of strength to load that. >> but as they looked at the evidence and how the arrow that killed the woman, it went in straight. >> as they re-read ken creamer's testimony, his memory of the careless toss, the bag hitting the fridge, the loaded crossbow going off -- >> it physically was not possible. the physics of it disallowed it. >> then there was the neighbor, randall howes, whose memory suggested that creamer staged the scene, to make it look more like an accident. >> what persuaded you he was a credible can witness? >> his character on the witness stand. >> just an upright good man. >> yes. >> could he have been mistaken, do you think? >> no, i don't think there was any doubt. he told the truth. >> still, creamer said the
i need an ambulance right now, 3089 polk drive. 3089 polk drive. please hurry. >> what has happened? sir? don't hang up with me. what's happened? sir? sir? >> there is a surreal quality to events so carved in memory, when lives unalterably change. odd, then, how completely those memories can and do diverge. it was no disagreement about this. a sunday morning when it happened. >> i was on my way to church. >> here's what the next-door neighbor, the retired navy commander, randall howes remembers. >> i was walking out through the garage, and i heard the dogs barking and someone was at the front door. i went around the corner of the garage. >> there was the 11-year-old neighbor boy. >> he was in his pajamas and he said, mr. randy, we need your help. >> he asked what are you saying?
>> i saw anna laying there facedown with an arrow square in her back. >> but the true star of the case against ken creamer was the next-door neighbor. that retired naval commander, randall howes. >> ken is just kind of babbling, making noise or whatever, and saying, we need help, we need help now. >> remember, howes told us he saw something in the garage that jumped out at him much later. a detail about to assume a huge importance. as he stood there near anna's body, he testified, he was scanning the room, looking for that crossbow. >> on the far side of the refrigerator there was a cardboard box, and sitting on top of the cardboard box was the crossbow. i could see the front of it. >> mr. howes, i would like you to take a very careful look at that picture. you see a blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator in that picture, sir? >> yes, i do. >> was that blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator, as it is in that picture, when you went into the garage with mr. creamer? >> no, it wasn't.
paper, the far side of the refrigerator. that's what howes remembered. the rest of us might have missed it. here's what else he saw. >> he was beside himself. he was very, very, very upset, agitated, and i'll say this. my impression was if you were standing on the edge of hell, when i walked in and i saw her laying down with the arrow in her back, it was -- my first impression was, it was a dead kill shot, because it looked like it went right through the heart. if it wasn't, it was very, very close, but it was dead on. i mean, 90 degrees, straight in. >> that's what you told the police? >> that's what i told the police. so if it had gone off by accident, it would have had to have hit that fridge, somehow hit at such an angle that the arrow -- >> that's right. >> -- in a strange coincidence, came out perfectly, but it would have been --
involuntary residence here in the virginia beach county jail. it was more than a year later when police, still preparing their case, mind you, asked neighbor randall howes for another interview. >> they had the pictures, crime scene photographs that i had not seen. >> but now he saw something very disturbing. and right then and there randall howes knew he was about to play another important role in ken creamer's life. >> so i went, uh-oh. this means probably that my testimony will be key. >> and randall howes was absolutely right. a trial begins and the prosecution tries to prove that what happened to this young wife and mother was no accident. >> i determined that the manner of death in this case was homicide. >> when "the crossbow incident" continues.
>> and there it was. the gotcha in the prosecution's case. here was an extremely credible witness, a military officer, whose memory strongly suggested that when howes stepped outside the garage that day to talk to the police, ken creamer still inside, moved that crossbow, staged the scene to make it look more like an accident. powerful evidence. assuming the jury would decide to trust neighbor howes' military-trained memory and that forensic firearm's expert's evaluation of the crossbow. but would they? ken creamer takes the stand. would jurors trust him? >> i heard a poof sound, and i turned around quick and my wife was already on the floor. >> when "the crossbow incident" continues.
found no reason why it would fire without a pull of the trigger. >> in other words, the arrow that went through anna creamer must have been fired on purpose. >> i saw anna laying there facedown with an arrow square in her back. >> but the true star of the case against ken creamer was the next-door neighbor. that retired naval commander, randall howes. >> ken is kind of just babbling, making noise or whatever and saying, we need help, we need help now. >> remember, howes told us he saw something in the garage that jumped out at him much later. a detail about to assume a huge importance. as howes stood there near anna's body, he testified, he was scanning the room looking for that crossbow. >> on the far side of the refrigerator there was a cardboard box, and sitting on top of the cardboard box was the crossbow. i could see the front of it. >> mr. howes, i'd like you to take a very careful look at that picture. you see a blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator in that picture, sir? >> yes, i do.
>> they put the boy into foster care briefly and then he was taken away too live with anna's relatives. ken was denied bail and took up involuntary residence here in the virginia beach county jail. it was more than a year later when police, still preparing their case, mind you, asked neighbor randall howes for another interview. >> they had some pictures, crime scene photographs that i had not seen. >> but now he saw something very disturbing. and right then and there randall howes knew he was about to play another important role in ken creamer's life. >> so i went, uh-oh. this means probably that my testimony will be key. >> and randall howes was absolutely right. a trial begins and the prosecution tries to prove that what happened to this young wife and mother was no accident. >> i determined that the manner of death in this case was homicide. bored with your one trick lipstick?
neighbor boy. >> he was in his pajamas and he said, mr. randy, we need your help. >> howes asked the boy, what are you saying? that's when he heard the unforgettable phrase. >> he said, mr. randy, the crossbow. and ken came to the door, and i would say melting down, just very upset. just saying, i need help, i need help. >> ken creamer led his neighbor through the house and into the two-car garage. >> and there's anna laying at the end of the treadmill with her hands up under her head with an arrow stuck straight in her back. >> dead. had to be. but only just, said howes. the body was still pink. >> kind of like, whoa. >> but now what happened next would be central. the military man, his eyes, his memory, this is what he says he saw. >> the first thing i did was scan the garage for the crossbow. i looked real quick and it was sitting on the box on top of this blue wrapping paper on the far side of the refrigerator.