Episode 9: The CVSA Exam

[00:00:06] At that time, I was of the understanding that the polygraph results had been inconclusive.

[00:00:15] So I differed from that in that I think the guy wasn't being truthful, but I have since learned that he actually failed the polygraph.

[00:00:25] And so I just kind of, I just hope he didn't get away with this, if you know what I mean.

[00:00:51] Who Killed Beth-Ellen, Episode 9

[00:01:00] We've heard from people that knew Beth-Ellen, we've heard from people that knew Ricky, but there's always been a third character connected to this case.

[00:01:16] The mysterious character, that until now, you only have known as the client.

[00:01:30] Well this episode, you'll find out more about him.

[00:01:38] But before that, more details from more detectives have surfaced as a part of my investigation.

[00:01:46] So let me fill you in on that.

[00:01:51] We have to go back to the day of Beth-Ellen's murder.

[00:01:55] And the same day, Beth-Ellen's car was found.

[00:02:00] August 16th, 1994

[00:02:05] We've heard that Masonic Stokes was the first officer to respond to the abandoned vehicle call.

[00:02:12] But as it turns out, there was also a detective on the scene when Ricky showed up at Beth-Ellen's car.

[00:02:18] My name is Bruce Embry, detective of Raleigh PD.

[00:02:25] I originally got the call about a suspicious vehicle.

[00:02:30] When I got to the scene, there was a vehicle with the door, driver's door open,

[00:02:38] and a shoe from a female laying outside the vehicle.

[00:02:46] Certain details of the case have been reported different ways.

[00:02:51] In some newspapers, it was reported that the driver's window was down, but the driver's door was closed.

[00:02:58] But the more people I talked to that saw the car early on, like Detective Bruce Embry here,

[00:03:04] it seems more certain that her driver's door was left open.

[00:03:09] Someone reached out a few months ago, who was traveling to work that morning and passed her vehicle.

[00:03:14] He remembered the door being open and the headlights still on.

[00:03:18] But this is the first time I've heard that Beth-Ellen's shoe was actually found outside of the vehicle.

[00:03:24] It was reported as being found lying on the driver's side floorboard.

[00:03:29] But regardless in the discrepancies of those details...

[00:03:34] It appeared to be clear to me that the person met some sort of subject and was taken, kidnapped.

[00:03:46] That's what it appeared to be to me.

[00:03:48] I stayed there and contacted my sergeant to get some of the major crime investigators to come to the scene.

[00:03:57] It was pretty clear to me something had happened that was kind of bad.

[00:04:01] And one person was not going to be able to work.

[00:04:09] I met with the suspect, Ricky.

[00:04:15] And he showed up and was saying that he was all concerned about Beth-Ellen.

[00:04:22] He was...

[00:04:24] She had gone to the Innkeeper Motor Lodge, which is north on US 1 from my location in the Beltline.

[00:04:34] Capitol Boulevard is US 1.

[00:04:36] He basically stated he was coming from their apartment and was going straight to the Innkeeper.

[00:04:45] And said he saw her car sitting over on the service road to Amber Pontiac.

[00:04:55] By 1994, the dealership was named Royal Pontiac.

[00:04:59] In the years prior, it was Amber Pontiac.

[00:05:04] Same location.

[00:05:06] I did not say anything to him at that point about that there's no way you could have seen the vehicle.

[00:05:17] Actually, I did say that to him because he said, oh, well, then you went south, which would have put him coming by there.

[00:05:29] But that was only after I had confronted him about him saying he saw the vehicle as he was going northbound on Capitol.

[00:05:39] There's no way that he could have seen that vehicle going northbound on the US 1.

[00:05:44] There was too much in the way, hills or whatever.

[00:05:47] And he would not have been able to see southbound to that location.

[00:05:52] Not if he was heading northbound going towards the Innkeeper.

[00:05:57] And now, when he changed his story or changed the route that he was going, do you think that he was just mistaken or was he just...

[00:06:08] He got caught in a lie.

[00:06:16] He was trying to correct an error in what he had told me.

[00:06:23] Why did you get that sense as opposed to, oh, well, actually, he was just giving you more details about the route?

[00:06:30] No, it was very obvious to me that he was trying to escape the story that he went northbound on Capitol.

[00:06:41] And he had to, he was going to have to have some reason to have gone that direction to be able to say he actually saw that vehicle.

[00:06:51] Because what he said he had done wasn't at all possible.

[00:06:58] Coming from that direction, you can't see that location from the Beltline.

[00:07:08] And what was his demeanor when he pulled up and was telling you all this?

[00:07:14] Very matter-of-fact, wasn't upset.

[00:07:18] He said that he was worried, but he did not act like a worried partner would act.

[00:07:28] Something like that, they would have been really emotionally upset.

[00:07:33] Worried to death about their partner missing and so forth.

[00:07:38] And he was not displaying anything like that.

[00:07:40] So I asked him if I could go to that apartment with him.

[00:07:49] He was fine.

[00:07:55] I left officers there and I went to his residence at the apartment.

[00:08:06] The apartment was not a shambles in any way.

[00:08:12] I looked through her room or their room, seeing if there was anything obvious.

[00:08:20] I didn't do a complete search or anything.

[00:08:23] I didn't have enough to do that at that point.

[00:08:27] And was going to leave that to the major crime team.

[00:08:34] And how long would you say you stayed at his apartment and was anyone else there?

[00:08:39] I don't remember anybody else being there.

[00:08:44] I think we just talked, he and I.

[00:08:48] We were sitting in the living room of the apartment and he was showing me the scrapbook that he had of Beth Allen in himself.

[00:09:01] How was his demeanor when he's showing you pictures of Beth Allen?

[00:09:05] It was like he was making everything up.

[00:09:11] You know, he made me feel that he's the one that had done something to this girl.

[00:09:19] Why did you feel that way?

[00:09:22] The lack of emotion.

[00:09:24] He was worried about her.

[00:09:26] He would say that, but he was not acting like somebody that was upset.

[00:09:32] And what you would normally feel that a person would, how concerned they would be.

[00:09:42] That something like this may have happened.

[00:09:45] Just the thought that it may have happened would make.

[00:09:49] I would say a vast majority of the people that were in that situation.

[00:09:55] They would be crying, worried.

[00:10:00] He would state he was concerned for her, but displayed no emotion.

[00:10:07] It just, something just really felt wrong.

[00:10:11] Like, you know, this is an act.

[00:10:15] Hmm.

[00:10:17] And what happened then?

[00:10:19] I just stayed with him until, as I recall, somebody else came.

[00:10:26] And I went to the station and talked with Michael Hunter, or Mike Hunter, who was the sergeant at the initial scene.

[00:10:37] And stayed on the investigation for a little while longer.

[00:10:43] You know, I just didn't want to leave it like it was, because I felt like we were on the verge of something there, but could never figure out exactly what it was.

[00:10:55] And do you remember having any other discussions or any other work on this particular case?

[00:11:00] Not really.

[00:11:02] At this point, like I said, without having my report in front of me, I'd have to have things jog my memory.

[00:11:11] If I saw the report again, I could possibly, you know, give you more information.

[00:11:17] But right now, I don't want to say things that I only think happened.

[00:11:21] I wanted to know that it did happen.

[00:11:23] Sure.

[00:11:23] And so everything that you've said, I mean, you remember that vividly.

[00:11:28] Yes.

[00:11:30] Again, there's no doubt in your mind the direction he told you that he saw the vehicle initially.

[00:11:36] Oh, I'm positive of that.

[00:11:38] He was going eastbound on the Beltline and then said he went north onto Capitol Boulevard.

[00:11:46] And then he shows up at the scene and he's saying that when he went northbound, he saw her vehicle there and he couldn't have done that.

[00:11:57] The only way he pulled over there is because he knew it was there.

[00:12:03] Since day one, I felt like he was a suspect.

[00:12:10] It's surprising the differing opinions from detectives that were part of this case.

[00:12:20] I've spoken with some detectives that sound dead set, Ricky did it.

[00:12:26] And others that seem confident Ricky didn't do it.

[00:12:31] It does make you wonder why.

[00:12:34] Why detectives from the same department working on the same case have such opposing views.

[00:12:42] I suppose because they were involved in different areas of the investigation.

[00:12:50] Working in different units and witnessing their own pieces of the case.

[00:12:57] That's why for this investigation, I'm just trying to hear all points of view.

[00:13:02] Everyone's experiences.

[00:13:03] So we can put all those different pieces together and see more of the full picture.

[00:13:12] As we've heard, Ricky failed a polygraph.

[00:13:15] But according to the polygraph operator, he was too emotional at the time and was not a good subject to be polygraphed.

[00:13:23] Although apparently, Raleigh PD wanted kind of a second opinion on the situation.

[00:13:29] And they called.

[00:13:31] Jerry Peter with the Garner Police Department.

[00:13:39] Garner is a small town about 15 minutes south of Raleigh.

[00:13:44] And the Raleigh Police Department reached out to Garner and asked for a little bit of assistance.

[00:13:51] They wanted me to run a computer voice stress analyzer exam on a suspect in the Beth Ellen Vincent case.

[00:14:05] Raleigh had run a polygraph test on the suspect.

[00:14:10] And the results had come back inconclusive.

[00:14:14] The polygraph examiner wasn't willing or wasn't able to make a determination if the subject was being truthful or not.

[00:14:27] The upside of a CBSA is there are no inconclusive tests.

[00:14:32] When you run a CBSA exam on a person, they're either deceptive or not.

[00:14:39] There's no gray area.

[00:14:43] You're either deceptive or you're, we call it NDI, no deception indicated.

[00:14:49] So I just felt like, you know, I'll do what I can do to help Raleigh out.

[00:14:55] My agency was okay with it.

[00:14:57] So I took the unit up to RAPD.

[00:15:00] And I did a CBSA exam on Ricky Heath.

[00:15:14] So explain what a CBSA is and how that's different than a polygraph.

[00:15:22] CBSA stands for Computer Voice Stress Analyzer.

[00:15:26] It is, the function, almost identical to a polygraph.

[00:15:32] The whole idea is to try to determine if someone is being truthful.

[00:15:39] I think the CBSA came out in 1988 is when it was, when it first hit the market.

[00:15:46] Actually, they sent me to a school in Rhode Island to learn how to operate it.

[00:15:51] And then later they sent me to an advanced school in West Palm Beach, Florida.

[00:15:56] So be a certified operator of a computer voice stress analyzer.

[00:16:01] We used it and they still use it.

[00:16:05] I do understand there's about 3,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation that uses computer voice stress analyzers.

[00:16:15] And it's just a truth detection instrument.

[00:16:18] What you're looking is for stress patterns in his voice.

[00:16:23] This instrument ran, at the time, it ran out of chart.

[00:16:26] At that point that I asked the question, when he makes a response in the graph,

[00:16:32] it would show peaks, sharp-pointed peaks at the time for a truthful response.

[00:16:38] If the response was deceptive, it would be a block instead of a peak on that question.

[00:16:45] But the CBSA liked the polygraph.

[00:16:48] Either one is not admissible in court as evidence.

[00:16:51] It's just an investigative tool.

[00:16:55] The suspect speaks into a microphone.

[00:16:59] And I mentioned control questions to you so you'll understand it.

[00:17:04] If I could tell you, I want you to lie to this question.

[00:17:08] Now you might be sitting in front of me and I'm asking you to lie to this question.

[00:17:14] And you're sitting in front of me with a hat on.

[00:17:17] I'll look at you and say, lie to this question.

[00:17:21] Do you have a hat on?

[00:17:23] Now you're wearing a hat, so you're going to lie, so you're going to say no.

[00:17:27] That's a lie with no consequences, actually.

[00:17:30] I mean, I asked you to tell the lie.

[00:17:33] But it lets me look at this chart and see what this chart looks like when you lie.

[00:17:39] It's a small one.

[00:17:40] It's an insignificant thing.

[00:17:42] When I ask a control question like that, I'm just wanting to get a picture on the charts.

[00:17:48] What it looks like when you lie.

[00:17:53] I've gotten control questions laid down.

[00:17:55] I know what it looks like when you tell a lie.

[00:17:58] I know what it looks like when you tell the truth from these control questions.

[00:18:02] And now I hit you with, you know who killed Beth Ellen Vincent.

[00:18:05] If you lie.

[00:18:11] Now there's consequences with this question.

[00:18:16] You could get locked up and go to jail.

[00:18:18] And so the blocking or the blocking pattern should be greater.

[00:18:25] It should be more pronounced.

[00:18:27] It should be more distinct.

[00:18:29] Because there are serious consequences with this question.

[00:18:35] The results of the CVSA, he lied.

[00:18:42] He was deceptive.

[00:18:46] And I relayed that to the investigating detective with Raleigh back then.

[00:18:51] He was a Raleigh investigator.

[00:18:52] I was a Garner investigator.

[00:18:54] Raleigh's a big agency.

[00:18:56] He garners small.

[00:18:57] And I did not personally know him.

[00:19:01] I know that when he, after I ran the test, he says, what are your thoughts?

[00:19:08] What's your opinion?

[00:19:10] And I says, I think the guy that killed Beth Ellen Vincent is sitting in that room across the hall.

[00:19:15] And I remember my remark to him.

[00:19:22] I remember saying just that directly and that candidly to him.

[00:19:28] That I thought the murderer was across the hall.

[00:19:34] And his response back, it kind of took me back, you know.

[00:19:39] Oh no, this guy's a college kid.

[00:19:42] He's got a clean background.

[00:19:44] He was very defensive.

[00:19:51] He challenged my CVSA exam, the results, automatically.

[00:19:57] And then he went into this tirade a little bit about the John at the hotel being a zero.

[00:20:03] He was drunk.

[00:20:04] I don't know what he does.

[00:20:05] You know, I mean, it was apparent and clear to me.

[00:20:09] His focus on the boyfriend, it was on the guy at the hotel.

[00:20:17] So who was the guy at the hotel?

[00:20:19] At the innkeeper that night.

[00:20:22] His name was Randy.

[00:20:24] At the time, in 1994, he was 33.

[00:20:29] And I wanted to know what he had to say about everything that night.

[00:20:34] But that was impossible.

[00:20:36] Randy is dead.

[00:20:40] So I talked to his then wife to see what her perspective was on everything.

[00:20:46] Maybe Randy told her something over the years that he never told the police.

[00:20:51] I spoke with her over the phone.

[00:20:53] His now ex-wife didn't sound in good health.

[00:20:57] But this is what she shared with me.

[00:20:59] She still thinks about Beth Ellen whenever she's in the area around Atlantic Boulevard,

[00:21:04] where Beth Ellen's body was found.

[00:21:06] She said back in 94, she and Randy were living in Raleigh, in the same house, but in separate bedrooms.

[00:21:14] The marriage already had problems.

[00:21:17] Her then-husband Randy was a construction subcontractor.

[00:21:21] He would pick up random construction jobs here and there.

[00:21:24] And when he got paid, he'd go out and he'd spend it.

[00:21:28] She might not see him for days on end.

[00:21:31] She said it was a very dark time in her life.

[00:21:34] Randy had a terrible drug and alcohol problem.

[00:21:37] He went on multiple day benders and would get so wasted,

[00:21:41] when he came back around, he wasn't even sure where he'd been.

[00:21:45] She remembered the cops coming by looking for him.

[00:21:48] And he hid in a trash can behind their house.

[00:21:52] She couldn't remember if that time they came by because of Beth Ellen,

[00:21:56] or if that one had to do with one of his many DUI violations.

[00:22:01] She remembered right after Beth Ellen's car was found,

[00:22:05] and the cops had figured out he was the client at the innkeeper.

[00:22:09] They called her looking for Randy.

[00:22:11] She had no idea where he was.

[00:22:13] Remember, this was before cell phones.

[00:22:15] But when she got home after work that day,

[00:22:18] she saw Randy's van parked at the house.

[00:22:21] He drove a custom work van.

[00:22:24] Since Randy was at the house, she didn't want to go inside,

[00:22:27] and she parked down the street.

[00:22:29] The cops were already staking out the place

[00:22:32] and noticed her vehicle and approached her.

[00:22:37] After that, she remembered the police taking Randy and his van down to the station

[00:22:41] to interview him and process the van.

[00:22:44] She said Randy never talked about what happened

[00:22:47] during that bender at the innkeeper.

[00:22:51] He would get so wasted.

[00:22:53] She doubted he even remembered.

[00:22:57] She never got the impression from him

[00:22:59] that he had anything to do with Beth Ellen, though,

[00:23:02] or there was more to his part of the story.

[00:23:06] He was a drunk, but not the murdering type, she said.

[00:23:13] I ran through a list of names I had come across during the investigation

[00:23:16] to see if any sounded familiar to Randy's wife,

[00:23:21] if somehow there was a connection to him.

[00:23:25] But none sounded familiar.

[00:23:27] She said she really couldn't remember any close friends he had.

[00:23:31] Just whoever would buy him a few drinks that night

[00:23:33] was typically who he was hanging out with.

[00:23:37] Soon after Beth Ellen's murder, Randy's wife moved out,

[00:23:41] and they got a divorce.

[00:23:44] Randy kept racking up DUIs around Raleigh

[00:23:47] and had to move out of the state, she said.

[00:23:49] So he was down in Myrtle Beach for a while.

[00:23:52] Then he moved to Colorado and was working up there.

[00:23:55] His ex-wife heard he fell off a ladder

[00:23:58] and later died because of the injuries.

[00:24:00] That was 2007.

[00:24:02] He was 45 years old.

[00:24:05] As we've heard, the Raleigh PD detectives

[00:24:08] were able to rule Randy out as a suspect

[00:24:11] because of the timeline of other escorts

[00:24:14] he was with at the innkeeper that night.

[00:24:17] Randy didn't kill Beth Ellen.

[00:24:21] But it does make you wonder

[00:24:24] if he never called the Class Act Escort Service that night

[00:24:28] and if Beth Ellen never left that night.

[00:24:31] To go to the innkeeper,

[00:24:34] would she still be alive today?

[00:24:42] Back to Jerry Pierce and the CVSA exam.

[00:24:46] And I don't know what happened after I left.

[00:24:49] I was told just to run the CVSA exam.

[00:24:52] I was not to attempt to interrogate.

[00:24:56] I mean, normally,

[00:24:58] if I run a CVSA exam

[00:25:01] and my subject,

[00:25:02] I think,

[00:25:03] is being deceptive,

[00:25:04] I would immediately go into an interrogation.

[00:25:08] I mean,

[00:25:08] I would challenge him about the deceptive CVSA exam,

[00:25:12] ask him why he can't pass it,

[00:25:15] and we would have...

[00:25:17] there would have been an interrogation

[00:25:19] at that point.

[00:25:20] But I was told not to

[00:25:22] just to reveal the results

[00:25:25] to the investigator

[00:25:26] and give him my opinion

[00:25:28] as to what I thought.

[00:25:29] And that's what I did.

[00:25:31] I did what they asked.

[00:25:34] And since I have since learned

[00:25:36] that he actually failed

[00:25:38] the Raleigh polygraph,

[00:25:39] it makes me more confident

[00:25:41] in me calling the chart.

[00:25:42] You know,

[00:25:47] the Raleigh polygraph examiner

[00:25:48] that tells Lynch

[00:25:50] the guy's too emotionally attached

[00:25:52] to this thing.

[00:25:53] I don't think he would be

[00:25:54] a good candidate

[00:25:55] for the polygraph.

[00:25:56] Well,

[00:25:56] why would that not be

[00:25:57] the same set of facts

[00:25:59] and circumstances

[00:26:00] if he did the crime?

[00:26:08] He's emotionally attached.

[00:26:10] He killed this lady.

[00:26:11] I mean,

[00:26:12] I'm not understanding that.

[00:26:16] But going back to it,

[00:26:20] you know,

[00:26:20] they polygraphed Ricky.

[00:26:22] He failed it.

[00:26:25] They CBSA'd Ricky.

[00:26:26] He failed it.

[00:26:29] Why wouldn't it they

[00:26:31] had went after the alibi?

[00:26:36] Those guys are alibying.

[00:26:38] They're standing up for him.

[00:26:39] And that's the only thing

[00:26:40] that's keeping Ricky

[00:26:41] from being a real,

[00:26:44] for sure,

[00:26:48] top-notch suspect

[00:26:49] is these guys were saying

[00:26:54] he was home at 3 o'clock.

[00:26:56] And Lynch is thinking

[00:26:58] there's no way

[00:26:59] he could have done all of this

[00:27:01] in about 30 minutes.

[00:27:02] Chased her down the belt line.

[00:27:05] Grabbed her,

[00:27:06] committed the homicide,

[00:27:07] and got back.

[00:27:08] He couldn't have done it

[00:27:10] in 30 minutes.

[00:27:11] I would almost agree

[00:27:12] with that.

[00:27:13] I don't think he could have

[00:27:14] done it in 30 minutes.

[00:27:16] But if those guys

[00:27:18] are lying,

[00:27:19] if he wasn't there

[00:27:20] at 3 o'clock,

[00:27:23] there goes his alibi.

[00:27:24] But there is more

[00:27:31] to the story.

[00:27:32] And whenever you're ready.

[00:27:35] Okay.

[00:27:36] My name is Beverly.

[00:27:39] I'm at Walt

[00:27:40] in October of 1997

[00:27:43] when I moved to North Carolina

[00:27:45] working at

[00:27:47] Winn-Dixie

[00:27:48] Grocery Store.

[00:27:51] And

[00:27:52] we were together

[00:27:53] until

[00:27:54] 2020,

[00:27:56] 2019 really,

[00:27:57] so 22 years

[00:27:59] we were together.

[00:28:12] If you have any information

[00:28:14] about this case

[00:28:15] or know someone

[00:28:16] who might,

[00:28:17] call

[00:28:17] 1-866-TIPS-4BE.

[00:28:21] That's

[00:28:22] 866-847-7423.

[00:28:26] Or email us

[00:28:27] at

[00:28:27] whokilledbethellen

[00:28:28] at gmail.com.

[00:28:39] If you want to help

[00:28:40] spread the word

[00:28:41] about Beth Ellen's case

[00:28:42] and podcast

[00:28:43] and are looking

[00:28:45] for new ways how,

[00:28:46] email us.

[00:28:48] We'll be starting

[00:28:49] new campaigns

[00:28:50] before the end

[00:28:51] of the year.

[00:28:52] And if you've got

[00:28:54] ideas of how to

[00:28:54] spread the word

[00:28:55] around North Carolina,

[00:28:56] please email us.

[00:29:00] Let's end this year

[00:29:02] with another big push.

[00:29:04] Work together

[00:29:06] and make 2024

[00:29:09] the year of closure

[00:29:10] for her family

[00:29:11] and justice

[00:29:15] for Beth Ellen.

[00:29:17] Thank you for listening

[00:29:19] and stay tuned.