Ep 6. Tourist Trap

In the Forensic Files season 8 episode titled Tourist Trap, viewers are taken on a journey to the stunning city of Santa Fe, New Mexico where the wealthy art community reigns supreme. The episode explores the tragic death of a prominent businessman named Bill Douglas, who fell to his death from the balcony of his on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

The case starts off as a suspected suicide, with Douglas's wife, who is a well-known artist, claiming that he had been dealing with depression. However, as investigators poke around, they begin to notice suspicious elements and energy surrounding the investigation. They find that not only was Douglas involved in a heated legal dispute over money, but he also had a girlfriend aside from his wife who is, upon surveillance, seen making a suspicious trip to the house the day before Douglas's death.

The premises are bursting with art, but also littered with security equipment such as sensors and alarms which were still functional at the time of the incident. Through the assistance of the team of forensic analysts, investigators were able to detect dust patterns on a jagged wall that indicated that Douglas fell vertically against rough stucco when they arrived at the scene of the accident. The lack of abrasions and the direction that his body fell indicated that suicide was not the cause of death.

The initial autopsy report revealed that Douglas's cause of death was landing on a boulder, which investigators scrutinized, pointing out that the details of the time of death were inconsistent with the report. Upon the detailed discovery by investigators, it was revealed that the man's death was manipulated. He was killed beforehand, carried to the balcony, and hurled off the balcony to manufacture the scene of his deaths' accidental fall.

The focus of the investigation slowly gets on a husband and wife business duo that were once partners with Douglas. They had reportedly stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from him, but their alibi excluded them from the list of possible suspects, until latent prints revealed otherwise. Footprints made of dry mud on the second-floor balcony revealed that the couple had tried to clean the area, but had missed a few pieces of evidence.

At this point, investigators start pinpointing more clues that gave the impression that Douglas had arrived at this building unintentionally. It was discovered that the building owner's boyfriend had been staying until the early hours of the morning in the apartment building across from Douglas's rental property, and as such could have been keeping a watchful eye on Douglas's doings.

In addition, the precinct discovered that the couple that had skimmed Douglas out of his money had accompanied the building owner's boyfriend to a casino to discuss the swiping of Douglas's money the day he was found dead. This suggests that they may have gone straight to the property right afterward to maintain their cleanup.

This Forensic Files season 8 episode is not one to be missed, as it takes viewers on a puzzling and thrilling journey through the unsolved mystery of Bill Douglas's death. With real-world forensic science, extraordinary forensic analysts, and incredible detective work, Tourist Trap is a fascinating depiction of the real-life criminal investigations that occur in society today.