The Final Appeal of Paul Ferrell

[justins5256]

I recently came upon this episode. I doubt many here have seen it or are familiar with it, as the story was featured on NBC’s short lived "Final Appeal" series and was not rerun on Unsolved Mysteries or on Lifetime to my knowledge. The case concerned the possible wrongful conviction of a rookie deputy sheriff from Virginia, Paul Ferrell. Ferrell was serving a life sentence for the murder of Cathy Ford, a 19 year old waitress whom Ferrell admits to having an affair with.

Paul Ferrell was a rookie deputy sheriff who had only been on the force for a few months at the time of his arrest for Ford’s murder. He was also dating a woman who had a young son and the couple was discussing marriage. Ferrell's girlfriend was unaware that Ferrell was also dating Cathy Ford, a 19 year old waitress who worked at her parents’ restaurant in Gorman, Maryland. Likewise, Cathy Ford's boyfriend, Darvin Moon, was unaware that Cathy was dating Ferrell.

On the afternoon of February 17, 1988, Cathy Ford left her parents’ restaurant. Cathy told her mother that she had received a phone call from a friend who told her that the local police department was going to be conducting stings to crack down on bars and restaurants serving alcohol to minors. Cathy left the restaurant in her Ford Bronco presumably to meet with the caller. She never returned. That same evening, Paul Ferrell went to a bowling alley to meet with some friends. When he arrived at the bowling alley, the manager informed Ferrell that a young woman had called the bowling alley repeatedly asking if he was there. The woman wouldn't leave her name but did leave a phone number. Ferrell claims he called the number and spoke with Cathy. He said she sounded distressed and that her speech was slurred. She wanted to meet Ferrell at his trailer. He declined but suggested they meet in a local high school parking lot instead. Ferrell claims Cathy agreed to the meeting but never arrived. Cathy's parents reported her missing and a search began.

In the days after Cathy's disappearance, Ferrell claims he made a gruesome discovery on his property. He says he found Cathy’s burned out Bronco in the woods about 75 yards behind his trailer. Fearing that Cathy’s body may be inside, and that he might be blamed for her murder, Ferrell did not report the discovery to anyone. He then hand wrote an anonymous letter to Cathy’s parents. In the letter, he wrote that Cathy had intentionally run away. He also included $200 cash to help cover the cost of the missing Bronco. Ferrell would later deny that he wrote the letter, but changed his story after an FBI handwriting expert testified that the writing was indeed Ferrell’s. A few weeks after the letter was received by Cathy’s parents, Darvin Moon found the burned Bronco behind Ferrell’s trailer and notified authorities.

The police obtained a search warrant and began a vigorous and comprehensive search of Ferrell’s property. Investigators found blood stains on the ceiling of the trailer and under a newly laid carpet. The blood could not be positively linked to Cathy Ford, but testing showed it did belong to a female and was consistent with blood from other members of Cathy Ford’s family.

At Ferrell’s trial, several witnesses testified against Ferrell. One of his neighbors, Kimberly Sue Nelson, testified that she had heard a female scream and a gunshot originate from Ferrell’s trailer on the day Cathy Ford disappeared.

Another witness, Tamela Kitzmiller, claimed she received an obscene phone call from Ferrell. The prosecution presented evidence that Ferrell had a bizarre habit of calling local bookstores and libraries pretending to be a doctor and asking the female clerks to read sexually explicit passages from medical books. There were at least 400 documented incidents of these phone calls. The prosecution used this testimony to paint Ferrell as a pervert who lived in a fantasy world.

An FBI profiler who interviewed Ferrell gave testimony that he noticed “signs of guilt” in Ferrell’s body language while the two were discussing a hypothetical murder scenario involving Cathy Ford.

Ferrell was convicted of kidnapping, murder, and arson and sentenced to life in prison. He immediately appealed the conviction and has always maintained his innocence.

So, was Ferrell innocent? Here are some issues raised by the defense...

* Ferrell admitted that he had been the first to find Cathy’s Ford Bronco and that he had also been the author of the anonymous letter, but now says he was scared and that these were just “stupid mistakes”.

* Ferrell’s attorneys pointed out that the blood could not be conclusively linked to Cathy Ford. In addition, the trailer was several years old and Ferrell was not the first tenant to occupy the trailer.

* Kimberly Sue Nelson would later retract her statements about the shot and screams she allegedly heard on the day that Cathy Ford disappeared. She claimed that the prosecution prepared a type written statement of her testimony and instructed her to sign it. She didn’t read the statement before signing but now says that that there are inconsistencies. She said she told the police that she did not know the exact date she heard the shot, and that gunshots were pretty common in that area. She also said that prosecutors badgered her saying that Ferrell was a killer and might come after her or her children if she didn’t testify against him.

* Tamela Kitzmiller would also recant her testimony about the crank phone calls and has claimed it was coerced. She said the police told her that they knew Ferrell was a “sicko” and that he was responsible for other unsolved murders, including some in Yellowstone Park.

Investigators deny making such statements to both witnesses.

Ferrell also admits to making some sex phone calls but says it irrelevant. He says that the calls were harmless, and that he made them because he couldn’t afford a credit card to call actual phone sex lines.

* Ferrell’s attorneys claim that the testimony about Ferrell’s demeanor as given by the FBI profiler is subjective and should not have been allowed in court in the first place.

* Finally, a year after Ferrell’s conviction, there was one reported sighting of Cathy Ford. Two residents of Gorman who knew Ford prior to her disappearance claim they saw her waitressing at a restaurant in Tennessee. The witnesses stated that the woman appeared to recognize them too, and had another waitress ask the couple where they were from. When the waitress relayed the information back to the mystery woman, she fled the restaurant. According to Robert Stack, the police did NOT investigate this sighting. However, Ford’s brother was interviewed on FA and stated that the family believed that Cathy was dead.

As an interesting footnote, Ferrell was paroled in 2005. FA mentioned he would be eligible for parole in 2002.

He seemed pretty guilty to me. Any thoughts?

EDIT: To elaborate on a few things - I was disappointed that FA did not present any alternate scenarios to explain the evidence against Ferrell, or more specifically, who may have planted it (assuming he was framed). While the sighting of Cathy after her "death" does cast some doubt on the "official version", I find it difficult to take the sighting seriously. It is also difficult to take the whole "Cathy Ford lives" theory seriously without some more background. Why would Cathy Ford suddenly and abruptly vanish leaving her burned out car on her lover's property and leaving him holding the bag at the same time? Not once did the show touch on other suspects or attempt to explain Cathy's behavior here. I thought that aspect was pretty weak. There have been numerous cases on Unsolved Mysteries where a witness will appear on the show and swear up and down that they saw a missing person alive and well. Then we get an "update" saying that the person's body was found and they have been dead since the day they disappeared. I can't help but wonder if the same thing is going on here. Not to mention members of Ford's family think she is dead, and these people typically hold out hope the longest.

I wonder if FA's selection of cases to had anything to do with it's cancellation. If they were all this weak, and the defendants so blatantly guilty as I feel that Ferrell was, it's no wonder the show wasn't taken seriously.

[UMFan972]

I just saw this one on Spike. I'm not sure how much they edited from the original airing, but based on what I saw, I'm not sure that he was guilty.

My first problem was the car being in his backyard. The guy really couldnt have been that stupid could he? I mean he was a cop, you would think that if he had killed his girlfriend that he wouldnt be stupid enough to torch her car and leave it in his own backyard.

They didnt tell us what his motive would have been for killing her. They never gave any reason why he might have wanted her dead.

I wonder how closely they looked at her boyfriend. She was cheating on him, and they implied that he knew about it, which would give him a motive.

I just dont think the burden of proof was met here. I can see why someone might think he was guilty(I dont know what the hell he was thinking by sending that letter to the family), but I dont think they proved him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

[justins5256]

Did the Spike airing mention that he was paroled?

[UMFan972]

Originally Posted by justins5256

Did the Spike airing mention that he was paroled?

Yes it did, they said that he spent 18 years in jail, so I guess he just got out recently.