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SALT LAKE CITY -- The process of solving the murder of a West Valley mother was a result of detective work, technology and the suspect's own confession. Police say it was a matter of knowing what to look for.
One such clue, Martin Vuskinick shaking hands with murder victim and neighbor Kimberly Hain's husband, may have seemed innocuous. To the trained eye, however, the visit to the Hains' home had a self-serving purpose.
Former FBI profiler Greg Cooper looked at our footage online. Cooper says he saw a young man, driven to return to the scene of his crime for insight on the investigation, possibly to re-live the incident itself.
"From a perspective of wanting to know the status of the investigation, that becomes paramount, from a practical perspective. The other perspective is sort of a morbid curiosity," Cooper explained.
Vuksinick is now under arrest, not formally charged but a homicide suspect in Kimberly Hain's death, but it wasn't just the 18-year-old's actions, or even the evidence at the scene, that landed him behind bars. West Valley police say it was his own words, more specifically the stress in his voice, as he answered questions from detectives.
Related:
18-year-old may have been high when murder occurred
On Wednesday, police confirmed that 18-year-old Martin Vuksinick ingested cocaine prior to entering 33-year-old Kimberly Hain's home.Using a computer voice stress analyzer, police were able to recognize Vuksinick was not being truthful. "There were indications of deception in this interview on certain questions, and we were able to zero in on those questions, and that's when this young man began to divulge information," said West Valley police Capt. Tom McLachlan.
A traditional lie detector measures a person's physiological response to questions, like pulse and respiration. The voice stress analyzer measures differences in the frequency of a person's voice after being asked certain questions.
"When a person lies, is knowingly deceptive, it's common knowledge that it creates stress within the body," McLachlan said.
According to Cooper, "It's just another investigative tool. It's not meant to be used in court as evidence. In fact, it's not allowed or accepted as evidence."
West Valley City detectives are still fully processing the scene for every bit of physical evidence, which they expect will cinch the case against Vuksinick.
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Story compiled with contributions from Richard Piatt and Marc Giauque.
