Murder at Morse's pond

Doctor Dirk Greineder had told the court that he did not bludgeon and stab to death his wife, the woman he never stopped loving.

But now it was the prosecutor’s chance to cross-examine the star witness. And Grundy went right after the doctor challenging him on why he called a prostitute the day after May’s murder.

Rick Grundy, prosecutor: On October 31, 1999 you loved May?

Dirk Greineder: I love May now.

Grundy: On November 1^st you loved May too, isn’t that correct sir?

Dirk Greineder: I love her now.

Grundy: (strong) And you called who on November 1^st?

Dirk Greineder: I called Miss Doolio.

The prosecutor tried to show the doctor as a man who was looking to get out of his marriage.

Grundy: Can you tell the jurors, was there something that you expected would occur in the year 2000 that would make you a casual guy?

Dirk Greineder: No. 

Grundy: Sir, you indicated that you met with a prostitute and she asked you if you’re married, didn’t she sir?

Dirk Greineder: She did. 

Grundy: And you told her I’m separated. I’ve been separated for a long time. Divorce takes a long time, didn’t you sir?

Dirk Greineder: I did say that.

Grundy: And you told her sir, that you were getting divorced from your wife because she was old and soft, didn’t you?

Dirk Greineder: I did not. I did not say that exactly.

Grundy:Everything else is true but that you didn’t say?  

Dirk Greineder: Not exactly that way.

But most importantly Grundy hoped to point out for the jury, the Harvard doctor had tripped himself up by being so locked into a detailed blueprint for murder that didn’t go according to plan.

Grundy: His story was fluctuating at best, even as those first moments at the crime scene.

Dennis Murphy, Dateline correspondent: Details count, don’t they?

Grundy: Absolutely and being able to recall and recount those accurately, as to the sequence that they’re told, the timing as to when they’re told.   

And Grundy would tear into the doctor for NOW telling the jury that he picked up his wife three-times that morning, not once as he initially told the police.

To prosecutor Grundy, the doctor was now changing his story to adjust for the damaging blood spatter testimony he’d so attentively listened to in the courtroom.

Grundy: Today we hear that you actually tried to pick your wife up a number of times. Isn’t that correct sir? 

Dirk Greineder: That’s correct.

Grundy: You never told the police that prior to today, did you sir?

Dirk Greineder: They never asked.

Grundy: When he got up there and he testified that he attempted to pick his wife up on three separate occasions that was so far and beyond anything he had ever said before that I think in my mind, at least, that was a crucial statement by him.

And Grundy pushed the doctor to explain how he could then lift his wife three times and still have no apparent blood on his hands.

Grundy: Sgt. Foley asked, “You know, why there was no blood on your hands and you stated that you didn’t know. He asked you if you had washed your hands and you had stated, ‘no the police have been with me the whole time. Do you recall telling Sgt. Foley that you hadn’t washed your hands because the police had been with you the whole time?

Dirk Greineder: I believe I do. 

Grundy: There’s no blood on his hands, if you’re being honest with us, where is it? Tell us. Where’s the blood on your hands? How are you picking her up three times and not having blood on your hands?

And the state had another piece of evidence that was hugely important to its case.

Police had recovered the killer’s other glove and where it was found was what made it so explosive.

Police Chief Cunningham remembers the day after the murder, he decided to take a look at the drain before calling it quits. 

He was shocked by what he discovered.

Cunningham: We found that second glove in a storm drain over 1500 feet from where the homicide had been committed but within 25 to 30 feet of where Dirk had his car parked.

Apparently, both Dirk Greineder and the killer were both where May’s body was found—and then took the same path out of the park.

Grundy: The defendant and the killer have now three areas within a very short window or period of time that they were both at.

Murphy: What does that do to his story he’s told you about this unknown assailant attacking his wife and heading out of that park?

Grundy: He is the single most unfortunate man who’s having a really bad day or he hasn’t told us everything.

The placement of the gloves, matching Greineder’s route through the park was troubling circumstantial evidence.

And when they analyzed the killer’s gloves and the knife at the lab, it got worse for the doctor. There was DNA found on the gloves that looked as though it came from Dirk Greineder.

The prosecutor also told the jury that there were strong signs of DNA on the knife that pointed to the doctor. According to the statistics used at the lab, Greineder was a likely match.

But defense attorney Murphy argued that the DNA lab has shifting standards.

Mike Murphy: So when cellmark first started to do forensic work on this case, the value that was set for recognizing a peak was 40, is that correct?

Cotton: Yes.

Murphy: And somewhere along the line it changed to 60.

Cotton: Yes, last spring.

And, most importantly, defense attorney Murphy called his own expert to explain why the doctor’s DNA could well be on the gloves and the knife.

Murphy: There’s only one possible explanation and that’s that at the time of the murder there was a phenomenon recognized in science known as secondary intersiary transfer where Dirk’s DNA ended up on that glove along with the DNA of the real killer.

“Transference:” Here’s the scientific theory that explains how the doctor’s blood ended up on the killer’s gloves and on the knife. Greineder said that morning of the walk, he got a nosebleed and so did his wife May. Then they shared a towel to clean their faces, so traces of his blood were then on her. DNA transferred by the towel. When the killer’s gloves touched May, they came away with traces of both the doctor’s DNA and that of his wife. And ditto for the knife.

Dirk Greineder: She had a nosebleed.

Murphy: Did your wife often have nosebleeds?

Dirk Greineder: Fairly often, I’d probably say at least once a month.

And the doctor said he got his nosebleed while getting the dog into the mini-van.

Dirk Greineder: She was jumping in and out of the van, banged her head banged my nose, not real hard but I guess hard enough to give me a nosebleed.

Two simultaneous nose bleeds...

Dennis Murphy: It sounds off the charts in probability…

Mike Murphy: It sounds off the charts in probability some might say, but there was clear forensic evidence that corroborated what he said.

Mike Murphy: Do have an opinion sir as to whether the DNA that was on the towel was likely to be transfered to Mrs. Greineder’s face as she held the towel to her nose?  

Taylor: Certainly, I would expect some of it to...

And the defense still had a head-snapping piece of evidence...

Murphy would tell the jury that when he analyzed the DNA data he made a crucial finding. His expert found small traces of what they believe was unidentified DNA on May’s glove, on the murder knife, on the killer’s gloves and more.         

It was DNA that Murphy said belonged to May’s killer.

Mike Murphy: It was on every significant piece of evidence in the case. It was on both of May Greinder’s gloves, the gloves that she wore out to the pond. It was on the knife that was used to kill her, it was on the gloves that were found in those storm drains. And most tellingly, there was the DNA of a unknown stranger, not May’s DNA, not Dirk’s DNA, under May Greineder’s fingernails. Whose DNA is that? Could only be the real killers.

Mike Murphy: Did you see DNA inconsistent with Dirk Greineder or May Greineder in the sample taken from May’s fingernails?

Krane: Yes.

Murphy: They were never able to show whose DNA that was the state never offered any serious solid explanation for the fact that every significant piece of forensic evidence in this case had the DNA of someone who is not Dirk and who is not May. Who is that? 

Prosecutor Grundy was beginning to sweat ...

Dennis Murphy: Did it worry you?

Rick Grundy, prosecutor: Sure.

Murphy: That day in court...

Grundy: Absolutely

Murphy: This is gonna fit in with the theory of the killer who’s working the parks killing older people?

Grundy: Right.

And  sitting in the front-row every day, were the three super-achieving children of Dirk and May Greineder.

Mike Murphy: It’s a question of three bright intelligent children who know their mother, who know their father better than anyone and who know to their core that he is incapable of this horrible act.

And the doctor’s oldest child, Kirsten took the stand to tell the jury she had as close to a perfect childhood as anyone could ask for.

Kirsten Greineder: I had two parents who loved me, supported me and allowed me the opportunity to do everything I wanted.

And Kirsten—a whip-smart Yale-Harvard educated doctor herself—would tell the jury that she and her siblings worried that the faulty DNA tests would be used against her dad.

Kirsten Greineder: I recall having discussions about the transmitability of DNA from different surfaces and the potential for something to be obtained that would be able to be misinterpreted or and in fact make my father potentially look responsible for this.   

And now after almost six-weeks of trial, 70 witnesses and almost 500 pieces of evidence, the doctor’s fate was about to be handed to the jury.

Mike Murphy: The stakes can never be higher at the end of the day you know he’s walking out of there with you or he’s going to go to jail for the rest of his life.

MORE FROM DATELINE

Dateline Section Front

NBC's People of the Year: Read the interviews The Night Mary Jane Disappeared The Friday the 13th Mystery Mystery at Lost Dog Road Slideshow: Photos in the Bob Duke case When The Smoke Clears   Sneak peek: When The Smoke Clears Slideshow: The Christie Fleming murder Transcript: Dan Brown and Secrets Of The Lost Symbol Through The Pouring Rain Dateline Section Front   Add Dateline headlines to your news reader: