Home Alone

20/20

This episode details the brutal 2015 murder of Allison Feldman in her Scottsdale home and the grueling decade-long investigation that followed. Detectives

Key takeaways

Allison Feldman, a 31-year-old wound care specialist and University of Arizona alumna, was found murdered inside her Scottsdale home on February 17, 2015.
Detectives eliminated early suspects like boyfriend Alex Stone and boss Jeff Ciardi after their DNA did not match the unknown male profile left at the scene.

Main topics

Cold case investigation & forensic evolution
Familial DNA matching breakthroughs

Notable quotes

"DNA is not like a fingerprint. Fingerprints, you have to be present to put it down... It moves freely. Like a cold in the air."

Conclusion

The episode underscores how persistent forensic innovation and unwaverin

Transcript preview

Speaker 8 (0:00) Hello, everybody. It's Deborah Roberts here with some news to share. The first episode of The Scream Murder, a new podcast from 2020, is out right now. But if you wanted to get this early, all you got to do is subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple. Our subscribers already listened to that episode weeks ago. ad-free. And this week, they're going to be able to listen to episodes one through five. As always, our subscribers have access to hundreds of 2020 episodes going back years, completely ad-free. So if you're interested, subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple now. This show is sponsored by Aura House. Have you ever walked into a space like a luxury hotel lobby and immediately felt a difference in the air? Well, that's no accident. High-end hotels pay for cold air diffusion technology to scent their spaces. But you don't have to check into a five-star hotel to experience that level of luxury. You can bring the same diffusion technology to your home with Aura House. Aura House is a waterless, flameless, fragrance diffuser that can fill up to 650 square feet with a premium scent 24-7. It does all of this with no burning, no soot, and no wax. They offer a whole range of inviting scents inspired by nature. Aura House is the easiest upgrade you're ever going to make for your home. Your guests are going to notice it too, and it'll be a breath of fresh air. So what are you waiting for? Go to AuraHouse.com and use code 2020 for 10 % off your first order. Again, that's AuraHouse, A-U-R-A-H-O-U-S-E.com, and use the code 2020 for 10 % off your first order. You'll thank yourself. Speaker 4 (2:16) Allison was kind of a character. She grew up in the 80s and the 90s, so love 80s and 90s pop. She loved to have fun and sing along with the radio. Speaker 2 (2:30) We went down to Tucson. We throw some music on and I happened to catch her belting out. Cyndi Lauper's girls just want to have fun. Speaker 2 (2:50) It's just her, that just amazing person. Speaker 4 (2:54) She lived in Scottsdale. She worked out of her home. Speaker 5 (2:57) She had a good relationship with her family, and that was very, very important to her. Speaker 8 (3:03) We talked almost every day. Speaker 1 (3:05) Allison's mother, Elaine, told people she would text Allison every night. And Allison, she'd always text her back. Speaker 1 (3:15) And then, one February afternoon, the clockwork calls and texts. Stop. Speaker 4 (3:24) I called her when I was leaving my office and it went straight to voicemail. Speaker 8 (3:29) My wife said, it's just not right. Things were out of normal. Speaker 1 (3:36) One of the neighbors reported hearing a long intermittent scream. Yes. Was it Allison? We believe so, yes. Speaker 8 (3:47) If it could happen to Allison, it could have happened to any one of us. Speaker 3 (3:50) As it turned out, the critical piece of evidence ended up being this stain that just didn't have an explanation. Speaker 5 (3:56) This becomes key to solving this case. Speaker 1 (4:13) In Arizona, Saturday is like the Sabbath. College football is religion. Speaker 1 (4:20) The marching bands, a sea of red and blue, and tens of thousands of Wildcat fans roaring as one. For Allison Feldman, this was home turf. Speaker 5 (4:33) If you take a look at Allison's Facebook page, you're going to find pictures of Allison at U of A sporting events. She really liked to be a part of the university. She Speaker 1 (4:42) graduated the University of Arizona. Speaker 4 (4:44) Yes, yep, she was a huge Wildcat fan. Speaker 5 (4:51) Allison was from Minneapolis. Speaker 5 (4:55) And once she graduated from U of A, she moved up here to the Valley, which is what we call the Phoenix Metro area. Speaker 8 (5:02) Tucson was too small and the city girl in her said, I'm going to move Speaker 1 (5:07) to Phoenix. By the age of 31, things are going very well for Allison. She even buys her own home. She loved that house. Speaker 4 (5:17) Yeah, she had just bought that house less than a year earlier. Speaker 5 (5:20) People generally consider it to be very safe, especially where Allison was living. Speaker 1 (5:28) Scottsdale rises from the Sonoran Desert like an oasis. Beneath rugged mountains and towering saguaros, where coyotes and road runners still roam. But neighborhoods, restaurants, and resorts have transformed the desert floor. And in February, when much of the rest of the country is locked in winter, the days here are often warm, dry, and bright. Speaker 1 (5:56) It was here in this corner of the Arizona desert Allison was building a life of her own. Speaker 5 (6:06) Allison was really at the top of her game in early 2015. And for a 31-year-old, she had her whole life ahead Speaker 4 (6:14) of her. She sold wound care products in hospitals. Speaker 2 (6:19) So Allison was the burn specialist for my region. She was somebody who wanted to succeed. When you meet Allison, it's difficult not to get drawn in. She's kind of like gravity. Speaker 4 (6:30) She was very active in Camp Courage, a camp in Arizona for kids who've been burned. That was a really important cause to Allison. She loved working with the kids. Speaker 1 (6:42) What was it that they saw in Allison? Speaker 8 (6:45) Her unconditional acceptance, and she approached all of the children and everyone, really, in her life equally the same. Really remarkable young woman. Speaker 1 (6:58) Alex Stone comes into her life. Speaker 4 (7:02) Yep. That was her first really serious boyfriend. Speaker 1 (7:07) Wanted to marry him? Speaker 4 (7:08) Yes, she did. They were really happy. And that was the first guy I really saw her just sparkle over. Speaker 5 (7:24) On February 17th, it was a pretty normal day for Allison. She got up, she did work, she had a performance review, and then later in the day, she had errands to run. She went to Kohl's. She went to Walmart. And then she came home, and really that was kind of going to be the end of her day. Speaker 8 (7:47) I tried to text her. And the text didn't go through. But I didn't think anything of it. But the next morning we tried to call her. Speaker 8 (8:00) And her phone was off. that's Speaker 3 (8:03) never off. Speaker 3 (8:06) So Alex, being her boyfriend, was in communication with her the previous evening, Tuesday night. He sent her a goodnight message. Speaker 3 (8:17) and then sent her a good morning message, which went unanswered. Speaker 5 (8:34) Video catches Alex pulling up to Allison's house to go check on her. Speaker 1 (8:40) So he gets there and what does he find? Speaker 3 (8:44) At first, when he arrived, he checks the garage to see if her vehicle's there. Maybe she's out on a sales call or something else. Speaker 3 (8:57) He knocks on the door or rings the doorbell even until he eventually uses his key to go inside. Speaker 5 (9:08) Later on, you see him come out of the house, and it's at that time that he makes a 911 call. Speaker 4 (9:15) 911 emergency. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. There's blood Speaker 8 (9:19) everywhere. Where's the blood from? The blood is the blood. Speaker 1 (9:40) The next day, the 18th, Alex went to her house. Speaker 4 (9:43) Yes. Speaker 1 (9:44) What did he find when he got there? Speaker 4 (9:46) So he walked in. Speaker 4 (9:49) And Sai was like, you know, the house was disheveled a little and found her laying on the floor. Speaker 4 (9:56) So then he called 911. 911 emergency. Speaker 8 (10:01) Oh my God. Oh my God. Come on, girl. Stand in line. Let me get you over to the paramedics. Don't hang up. Speaker 4 (10:09) It was horrible to listen to. I mean, he was screaming and just raw, really distraught. There's blood Speaker 8 (10:16) everywhere. Where's the blood from? The blood, the blood. Speaker 7 (10:24) I overheard the radio dispatch when they said that the boyfriend had found his girlfriend unresponsive. Speaker 1 (10:35) Lieutenant Hugh Lockerbie with the Scottsdale Police Department was one of the first investigators to arrive on the scene. Speaker 1 (10:43) So this is the house where Allison actually lived. Yes, that is correct. When you arrive here, what's the first thing Speaker 7 (10:52) that struck you? When I got on scene, and I'm standing right where we're at today, the doors open. All I could smell is overwhelming smell of bleach. All the way out here? All the way out here. Speaker 7 (11:07) What did you find when you got inside? So when we got in the home, there was blood stains smeared throughout the home. And then when we look down a hallway, we see Allison lying on the floor in the hallway with her dress covering her face, and she was completely naked. It looks like it was a blitz attack, like she wasn't expecting this attack from this individual. Speaker 4 (11:32) She was very beat up. It kind of took your breath away a little bit, just the brutality that she went through. Speaker 1 (11:42) And you can tell that there had been a struggle. Speaker 4 (11:44) Oh, for sure, yes. There was broken nails from her fingers in different places throughout the house. I think just by her injuries, you could tell that she was fighting. She wasn't going down easy. Speaker 1 (11:58) I also had the chance to meet with Detective John Heinzelman, a seasoned veteran of the Scottsdale Police Department. He walked me through the mountain of forensic evidence recovered from Allison's home. Now these are the three pictures of her backyard pool. What did you find back there? Speaker 3 (12:18) We believe at some point this assault spilled out into the backyard. In the pool, we found an earring that was lying on the bottom of the pool. The matching earring was still in her earlobe. The other thing we found is a carpet remnant that... Allison used to have on the outside of her sliding glass door. That was in the bottom of the pool and that was stained with blood that we determined to be Allison's. And what we recovered as well was this clump of Allison's hair. And this is ultimately where she ended up before she was brought back in the house. There was a couch in Allison's home. Speaker 7 (12:54) What did you find underneath it? So after a few days of processing Allison's home and processing evidence, we moved this couch, and as we lifted it up, there was a broken beer bottle. And that's this picture, right? That's the beer bottle? Yes, it was a Leinenkugel's beer bottle. Did that suggest that maybe Allison was drinking with this man who killed her? Initially, we didn't know exactly what significance that bottle had. had to the investigation. So with all the Speaker 6 (13:24) evidence that the police are uncovering, what can be of equal importance is what they're not finding. And in this case, what they're not finding is any sign of a forced entry. So what that can mean, but not always, that the victim knew her killer and might have let them in. Speaker 7 (13:41) So we're walking down the same alley that runs behind Allison's home right now. And this alleyway is significant because we had no evidence that our killer came through the front door or through the garage door. And Speaker 1 (13:56) that explains why the killer was never captured on that front yard security camera. So he had to come this way. He had Speaker 7 (14:04) to come down this alleyway, John. He could have potentially opened the gate to go in. It's dark here too. You can easily hide. Could have been here peering Speaker 1 (14:15) through the window looking over there. And with her lights on he could see her but she could not see him. Correct. That is chilling. To figure out who killed Allison, detectives first have to turn back the clock and reconstruct the final hours of her life on February 17, 2015. Speaker 3 (14:36) So this is Allison on the 17th. She went to the Kohl's department store and she was shopping. So as a matter of fact, she walks right across the camera. She's wearing her blue jean jacket and that black dress that we found in the house later that evening after her murder. This is roughly 6.30, 6.45, where she's shopping right before she returns Speaker 1 (15:00) home. Allison was home by 7.15 that night. Now, detectives began combining security videos, her alarm system records, and witness accounts to narrow down when the attack began and how long her killer remained in the house. When do you think she was killed? Based Speaker 3 (15:24) on a witness that heard a scream sometime around 9.30 that Tuesday evening is when I believe the murder occurred. And then the killer left at what time do we think? At 1.04 a.m. the following morning is the last door activation. There's no more door activity until the following day. Speaker 1 (15:43) So you think the killer spent almost four hours in that house? That is correct. Speaker 1 (15:50) What did you determine was the cause of death? Speaker 3 (15:53) There were multiple causes. So she had lost a great deal of blood. She also had some blood-forced trauma injuries to the back of her head and manual strangulation. So it was a combination of strangulation and a loss of blood that ultimately was the cause of her death. Speaker 5 (16:10) Allison's autopsy showed that she was also violently sexually assaulted. Speaker 8 (16:16) I got a phone call from the Scottsdale detective. And he said, are you driving? And I said, yes. And he said, pull off the road. And so I knew what was coming next. Speaker 4 (16:31) My dad called me and said she'd been killed. I was screaming and I was just in disbelief, like this can't be happening right now. There's no way. Speaker 8 (16:42) She didn't have any enemies, so that makes it difficult to start. Who would want to do this to her? Speaker 5 (16:50) Alex was the first person that detectives looked at. Speaker 2 (17:00) In the back of my mind, I was wondering if he played a role in her death. Speaker 3 (17:05) Do you recall about what time you got to her house? Okay. Speaker 2 (17:18) This show is supported by Chime. Here's a message your younger self would have liked to hear. There's a bank out there where you don't have to pay all those endless fees. It's called Chime. Chime is a breath of fresh air compared to all the other banks that charge you for everything. With Chime, there are no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, and no minimum balance fees. Instead of fees, you get rewards. You get 5 % cash back on Chime Card in a category of your choice, like gas or groceries. all while building credit through their regular everyday spending with no credit check. 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We're used to following heists in movies from the perspectives of the ever so glamorous and dangerous perpetrators, but when it happens in real life, the lines between good and bad guys aren't so clear. And even less clear is the fate of those French crown jewels. In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day like you've never heard them before, through the eyes of the people who lived them. I'll follow the investigation into how this could have happened Who could have been behind it? And then I'll join the international hunt for the Louvre jewels. Heist at the Louvre, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or your favourite podcast app. Or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. Speaker 3 (19:24) Feeling short on smiles? Does your frown need to be turned upside down? We got the perfect dose of Speaker 4 (19:29) comedy. 30 minutes of scrubs. Speaker 7 (19:31) Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalk, and the rest of the gang at Sacred Heart are back for a brand new season. Speaker 3 (19:37) We play medical doctors who are besties. Just like in real life. Speaker 8 (19:41) And we'll definitely be up in each other's cases. Speaker 1 (19:46) Scrubs Wednesdays on ABC. Speaker 8 (19:48) And stream the next day on Hulu. Speaker 3 (19:50) Side effects may include laughing, cheering, and lots of high fives. Speaker 4 (20:11) Oh yeah, here's another matching. Speaker 1 (20:14) I had the chance to sit down with Allison's big sister, Kelly. Speaker 4 (20:18) She was on the dance team. Speaker 1 (20:21) She really loved dance. Who shared photos and memories. Two little girls growing up together. Once side by side in matching dresses. Speaker 4 (20:33) My mom loved the matching outfits for a long time. Speaker 1 (20:37) And years later, dressed for Kelly's wedding day. Speaker 4 (20:42) This is one of my favorite pictures. She was my maid of honor. Speaker 4 (20:46) I love this picture. It's just, it reminds me of such a happy time in my life, her life. Speaker 5 (20:55) It's a murder case that put the valley on edge, the death of Alison Feldman. And Speaker 1 (21:00) this is Alex Stone. Allison's boyfriend, he's the first person you look at, right? That's Speaker 3 (21:07) exactly it. There's already some sort of built-in relationship. There's all kinds of things. Speaker 5 (21:13) Detectives immediately focused on Alex. because not only was Alex dating Allison, but he had access to the house as well and found Allison at the crime scene. Speaker 8 (21:28) A neighbor told me that he went into the house and he's the one who discovered her. And she told me he came out and sat on the sidewalk and just Speaker 3 (21:40) wailed. Speaker 3 (21:43) And this is Alex, and he's arriving at home at her house. You see actually him getting out of his car and him using the keypad on the garage to open up the door. He also goes to the front door, and he rings the doorbell before he actually uses his key to go in. So as you can see, at 4.05 p.m. now, you see Alex has come out of the house. He's actually on the call with 911. Speaker 1 (22:08) As in all these cases, you've got to interview him. Speaker 3 (22:11) What did you hope to learn and what did he say? We're trying to get a pattern of life. We're trying to get the last time someone spoke with Allison. Was there anybody that she was having issues with? Was there any issues between them with their relationship? Speaker 1 (22:25) Hours after finding Allison at the crime scene, investigators sat down with Alex Stone for an interview. Okay, let me explain some things we have to do first here, Speaker 8 (22:35)