DoctorOz: Ballistics That Proved It Was Not Suicide | Oz True Crime

In this country, a murder occurs every 36 minutes. Since 1980, there have been roughly 200,000 murders that have never been solved. Today, prosecutor Kelly Ziegler is here. She's tried 68 murder cases over her 20-year career and, listen carefully, has never lost even one. Kelly is now taking on cold cases and giving countless families hope. So I want you to meet her. So, Kelly, cold cases are ones that have not been solved. What gives you the confidence that you're going to be able to bring justice to these often forgotten issues? I think that when you work these cases long enough, there are certain things that you can clue in on that help you understand that there's hope to work on some of these cases. So today we're going to open the case of Benjamin Cooper with all of you, who was found dead just two weeks after his wedding. His new wife, Samantha, claimed he shot himself in the head. Was this really a suicide or was it murder? Doesn't add up. After your first meeting with the local police, something just didn't sit right with you about this being a suicide. Well, you know, in addition to the obvious, which you understand, that most suicides don't happen with a shot to the back of the head, we're always looking for the little bitty pieces. A circumstantial evidence case can be a good case, but it's all about the little bitty pieces. In this case, her story. There were so many little things about her story that kept changing, that didn't make any sense. You use your common sense to look at the relationship and see what you can figure out from all that. But at the same time, you learn things about Benjamin's mental health. About their marriage. Yes. And Samantha's interaction with him during it that We did. We learned that Benjamin had been diagnosed as being bipolar. He had had some talk of suicide in his past. His family didn't want to talk about that, but you have to be straight up and honest when you try to figure out what kind of case you have. And they admitted it, so we had to figure out how much that played into this night, if anything. So you've got two issues happening simultaneously. Yeah. Quite as clear-cut. Up next, Kelly and her team of investigators dissect the evidence piece by piece to uncover the truth about Ben's death. We're doing it together. Don't go away. I'm back with prosecutor Kelly Ziegler investigating the death of Benjamin Cooper, a newlywed found with a gunshot wound to the head, with his new wife claiming it was suicide. But there were two red flags that allowed Kelly's team to use signs to determine if this really is suicide or if it could have been murder. First up, Samantha's interview with police immediately following Ben's death. I want you to take a close look and pay attention to what Samantha says about the gun. What was most suspicious to you about that interview? Well, why is she lying about the gun? She keeps changing her story about the gun. She also lied about it first thing. She wasn't even in the room. And you ask yourself, the truth is the truth is the truth. You don't have to change that or lie. So you go through every word of every line she said in that interview and try and figure out how much of it is the truth, and then you go from there. And she just didn't seem that believable when you put it all together. And why were you so... Desirous of finding out if she knew she was being filmed. Why does that matter? Well, when you watch that interview, she's answering the cops' questions a certain way. And then when they leave the room, you see this little dramatic act where she's bending over and, like, talking to Ben from up on high. And it just seems kind of corny and faked and canned to me all of a sudden to talk like that. I would think, truly, if you were grieving, you would kind of, you know, you know better than I do, kind of get down to yourself and talk to yourself and be sobbing. But she's very articulate. and coming out with all these lines when the cops leave the room, and I just thought it was kind of fake. Did you ever find that if there was a camera visible? There was. There was. All right, so up next, we're going to have to find out how Kelly and her team used science to solve this case. And the way they did it was by examining if Ben's bullet wound could possibly be from suicide. All right, so take a look. We've got a model here, and I put a brain on the inside so we can pull this out and show people what we're talking about. So for people who commit suicide, Demonstrate the typical path that a bullet would take. How would they shoot themselves? I think the most common ways that people commit suicide are to the side of the head, to the temple, right or left, right or left-handed, and then also into the mouth toward the back of the head. Up angled this way, and then also underneath the chin. Those are the three most common ways that we're all familiar with when people commit suicide. So demonstrate how the bullet passed here and what would have to have occurred. So let me move the brain out of the way, and you can just show us. How would have gone this skull? So in Ben's case, keeping in mind that he was left-handed, we know that the gunshot entry point was to the back of the head, slightly to the right of midline, your lingula, right here. It was slightly from down to up, again, your lingula, and from left to right. It actually would have come out in his left eyebrow, so right here. So sort of like this. Yeah. There's the eyebrow there. And we're talking about going in right here and coming out right here. And if you're left-handed. Try doing that with your left hand. Actually, we made a little model to show that. This demonstrates. So again, this is common sense, but it takes a scientist with some ballistics ideas to figure this out. So for him to have shot himself, he would have had to take his left hand around. And here's a little demonstration. You actually can't even hold the gun the regular way. You got to hold it upside down so you can use your thumb to pull the trigger. And only then could you actually enter the bullet where we know it entered and have it exit where we know it exited. So that's... Who's going to shoot themselves like that? If you want to kill yourself, you don't want to mess it up. So why use a .25, turn it upside down, and use your thumb and shoot yourself in the back of the head? So does this seal the case? I wish. It would be nice if science could be absolutely conclusive. It goes a long ways, but not quite. All right. So when we come back, we have the shocking conclusion how Kelly and her team solved this five-year investigation. Stay with us. We're back with prosecutor Kelly Siegler investigating the death of Benjamin Cooper. Now, here's what we know. We know his wife, Samantha, lied about several things in the case, including the gun ownership. We know she put on a show for cameras during her interview with police. And scientifically, the bullet wound, almost impossible to be self-inflicted because he was left-handed, And we know where it entered and exited. The final outcome of the case, and give us a little texture here, so I'm sort of stunned. Everyone's struggling now. This is five years old, this case. Is it a suicide or is it murder? Samantha Price took a plea when all of this evidence was put together and the story all came out with what family members and friends had to say about their relationship, the fact that she was very controlling and angry and domineering. And this particular night, on this night, things didn't go her way and she lost it. When we were able to show exactly how we thought it happened and her lawyer told her that story, she pled. She pled to 15 years. The case is disposed of. There's no appeal. It's over with and done as far as the state of West Virginia is concerned. So pled guilty 15 years ago. So why did she do this? Is it just emotions? You know, think about these kinds of relationships where they're abusive. In this case, the woman was the abuser, not the man. Again, Ben was a very sweet, innocent, go-along kind of guy. And she was a witch. For lack of a better word, she pushed everybody around. She ruled that universe, and that night he didn't do what she wanted, and she lost it. So did Ben's family get closure with this verdict? You know that that works individually even more than I do, probably. I would say that his mom would say she's pleased with the result and she's moved on a lot better than Ben's dad. Ben's dad is having a little more harder time because he was closer to Ben. The plea he's okay with, every parent wants a life sentence. You can never get enough time, you know that. But he was having a hard time because he was sad that Samantha was the one who decided how Ben was going to be disposed of with his remains, not him. Of course, because she was still the wife. Yeah. And she wouldn't sign away the rights to let them decide anything. So the murderer controlled the body? Yes, sir. Oh, gosh. You know what's amazing to me? I want to you know compliment you on this. You can come into this case five years afterwards. And with a lot of detective work, I know it took some time, work out something that would otherwise remain an unsolved mystery and would have allowed her to go on and maybe do this again in a different situation. So congratulations on that. Thank you. Look forward to doing more with you. You can see Kelly's show, Cold Justice on Oxygen. It's on Saturday nights. 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