New.York.Homicide.S03E02
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00Everybody loved Bruce. Bruce didn't have any enemies. He loved a good laugh and he was
00:11so loved by his colleagues. He worked with off-track betting. There's always been an
00:17involvement of the Mafia in horse racing. Bruce told them that I should have never gotten
00:23involved with these people. He purchased saw blades, plastic garbage bags, sulfuric acid.
00:29Items used in getting rid of a body. She grew up in that culture. You don't cooperate with
00:35the police. She goes, I'm here about a murder and she pulls a cell phone out of her pocket
00:43and says it's on this. We're dealing with a psychopath and a very violent individual.
00:51I remember him just saying, I killed them. I chopped the mother up.
00:57I was the only living witness. This is the first time I've ever spoken
01:27publicly about what happened. There were some people who said I was courageous. There were
01:33some people who said I was a backstabber and a snitch. This family deserves to know what
01:41happened. They deserve to know who did it and they deserve to have justice.
01:45In our 180 year existence, the NYPD is known to stop at nothing, see that justice is served.
01:56But regardless of determination, how do you prove there's been a murder when there's no
02:01crime scene, no physical evidence and no body? That was the case when beloved 55 year old
02:07Bruce Blackwood simply vanished. And it took tireless police work and the help of an unlikely
02:14witness to finally crack this diabolical mystery.
02:22This twisted tale begins in March of 2006 in St. Albans, Queens, a quiet neighborhood,
02:28just 20 minutes from JFK International Airport.
02:32I met Bruce in 1976. I was a flight attendant and he was also. We worked together for years
02:40and became very close friends. But then I knew he had another best friend, Diane. He used to
02:47love us fighting over him.
02:53That Friday, I call him, say, what's going on? You sound pretty normal. So I said, OK, Bruce,
03:00talk to you later. Be good. That was the last day I heard from him.
03:11On Monday, Diane called me. She said she couldn't contact Bruce. So then she called his job
03:22and they said that Bruce had called in and said that he slipped and hit his head.
03:30And for him not to call myself or Diane, that's when I began to believe that something was
03:37not right, something was wrong.
03:41That Tuesday, I called my uncle Bruce and I got the voicemail. Then I called my uncle
03:53Edward and I said, have you heard from Uncle Bruce? And my uncle said, I just spoke to
03:59Diane. She's been calling him and he hasn't answered, which is unusual. Bruce always answers
04:05the phone for Diane. That's when we started to become a little concerned. So we did go
04:11to the house in St. Albans first.
04:15We didn't see anything that may have given us a clue that he took off anywhere. But we
04:22noticed that Bruce's car was missing. It was a Cadillac Suburban. My uncle Edward said
04:28I'm going to go over to the Hancock property that my uncle Bruce owned and rent it out
04:34in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He had multiple dwellings. He went over to that location and he observed
04:43Bruce's car there. But he could not find Bruce.
04:55Nobody had seen Bruce in four days. So my husband called the police department and he
05:02had Bruce reported as a missing person.
05:07The next day, detectives from Queens 113 precinct take up the case.
05:12We spoke to Bruce Blackwood's brother, Ed Blackwood. He told us the last time Bruce
05:18Blackwood was seen was on March 5th. We learned that Bruce, as well as being retired from
05:26American Airlines, he was working at off-track betting. Right off the bat, we had felt that
05:32he was a victim of suspicious circumstances. One being that he would contact his family
05:39daily. He did not do that that day.
05:43Bruce was due to be at work at 11 a.m. Monday morning on the 6th. And he had called in sick
05:4910 minutes prior to his supposed arrival time. Ed had informed us that Bruce was extremely
05:56punctual at work and never called in sick. He had mentioned that he fell in the shower
06:02and hit his head on the bathtub. But he didn't call anybody else to let them know that he
06:06was injured. This was very suspicious.
06:12The off-track betting location where Bruce worked was in Maspeth, Queens. But he also
06:17would purchase run-down buildings, renovate them, and eventually rent apartments in these
06:22buildings.
06:24Investigators subpoenaed Bruce's phone records and looked for any proof of his whereabouts.
06:30We looked at any movements over the bridges, over the tunnels, checking EasyPass, his checking
06:35account. On March the 6th, the day that Bruce Black went missing, everything pretty much
06:42stops.
06:44Bruce's family had informed us of a very close friend of his named Gene Mark. The weekend
06:50that he went missing, Gene Mark was staying at Mr. Blackwood's house before he went back
06:55to his residence in Pennsylvania. So it was extremely important for us to locate him and
07:01interview him.
07:04While detectives tracked down Gene Mark, Bruce's loved ones agonized over his inexplicable
07:09absence.
07:11Uncle Bruce was such a really great guy. Family was very important. Bruce would come through
07:17for his brothers. He also adored his nieces and nephews. He devoted so much time with
07:24us, and we learned from Uncle Bruce, and we aspire to be as great as he was.
07:29He was always kind. He would actually cook for me and my family. Bruce really didn't
07:36have any enemies. Everybody loved Bruce.
07:41Bruce's close connection and active lifestyle are precisely why investigators deem his sudden
07:46disappearance so alarming.
07:49We had felt that Mr. Blackwood was potentially a victim of a suspicious crime, possibly a
07:55murder.
07:57On March 10th, we responded to Bruce's house at Blackwood and brought the vehicle back
08:04to Bruce's residence. We searched the vehicle, and we did not see anything suspicious. We
08:10made our way inside. We searched everywhere in the house from top to bottom, and there
08:15was no sign of any criminal activity or any signs of Bruce.
08:21That same day, investigators head to Bruce's rental property in Bushwick.
08:26The handyman, Louis Perez, was in front of the building. He explains that a couple of
08:31days prior, on March the 6th, he was at the Hancock Street address, and that Mr. Blackwood
08:37came up to his third floor apartment where Louis Perez resided.
08:42That morning, they were discussing a new tenant moving into the second floor.
08:46The handyman says there was a guy outside in a Toyota Camry. He was beeping the horn
08:51for Mr. Blackwood to come out of the residence.
08:54Mr. Blackwood turns and says, I'm going to run some errands with my friend named Mike.
08:58Please hold on to my car keys and move my car. We're all to the side of the street
09:02parking.
09:04Bruce Blackwood gets into the car with Michael, and they drive away, and that's the last time
09:09that anybody sees Mr. Blackwood.
09:11We knew that something was definitely wrong because Bruce Blackwood would never just
09:15like disappear off the face of the earth and not tell anybody.
09:21Coming up.
09:23The neighbors saw a very heated argument between Bruce Blackwood and two males.
09:29He's getting off on how he was able to do all this and not get caught.
09:35This man had just confessed to murder.
09:37And I recorded him.
09:39I was afraid.
10:01Bruce Blackwood's handyman has just told detectives that there was a man in the car
10:05Bruce Blackwood's handyman has just told detectives that the last time he saw his boss
10:08was in Brooklyn, driving off with a man Bruce referred to as Mike.
10:14Luis Perez stated that he saw Bruce Blackwood on March the 6th.
10:18The problem was, all I had was Michael with a Toyota Camry.
10:23We did find one Mike that worked at the OTB where Bruce worked.
10:27We spoke to him. He did not have a black Toyota Camry.
10:32And there was no connection between that incident and that individual.
10:42Detectives pivot, tracking down Bruce's longtime friend, Gene Mark,
10:46who was visiting Bruce the weekend of March 4th and 5th.
10:51I interviewed him via telephone because he lived in Philadelphia.
10:55He states that during that particular weekend, Bruce became very aggravated and agitated
11:01as a result of some phone calls that he was receiving.
11:04Bruce basically told him that, I should have never gotten involved with these people.
11:12Gene Mark told us that he saw Bruce last on that Sunday, the 5th, before he went home.
11:20He seemed genuinely upset, and he was very, very forthcoming.
11:24Gene Mark was extremely cooperative, and we had no indication that he was at all involved
11:29in the disappearance of Mr. Blackwood.
11:33But we needed to find out who Bruce was speaking about.
11:40Given the nature of Bruce's day job at off-track betting in Maspeth, Queens,
11:44investigators consider the involvement of a more sinister crew.
11:50There's always been an involvement of the mafia in horse racing.
11:56Mafia families that run illegal gambling could certainly see legal gambling operations
12:02like the OTB as competition.
12:06We spoke to a couple of employees, and everybody was just basically telling us the same thing,
12:10that Mr. Blackwood was just a stand-up guy.
12:13There was no missing monies or shady dealings at the OTB.
12:17They never had any problems or anything of that nature.
12:20We were able to conclude that Mr. Blackwood was not the victim of organized crime.
12:27After investigating that aspect of it, that didn't turn out to be fruitful at all.
12:33While detectives hunt down new leads, Bruce's loved ones also take action.
12:38My Uncle Bruce and my Uncle Edward, they grew up very close.
12:42When my Uncle Edward had some medical issues, Uncle Bruce was there.
12:46Anytime there was a need, Bruce would come through.
12:50My Uncle Edward decided to have missing persons posters,
12:54so we went and we posted in the neighborhood of St. Albans.
12:58We posted on trees, on bulletin boards, wherever we could find space.
13:04We were praying that he was still alive somewhere.
13:09With Bruce's family spreading the word, detectives focus on his inner circle.
13:15On March 10th, we wind up interviewing a very close friend of Bruce Blackwood.
13:20She spoke with Bruce over the phone sometime late on March 3rd.
13:26She told us two years prior to Mr. Blackwood going missing,
13:29he was working on one of his properties in the Bronx,
13:32and Louis Perez, the handyman, lived in the Bronx at the time,
13:36and he was looking for work, and he would do little odd jobs,
13:40and Mr. Blackwood would pay him.
13:45Bruce told her that Louis Perez had stolen a bunch of blank checks from his residence,
13:51probably when he was doing construction there and taking down some Christmas lights,
13:55and forged Bruce's name and cashed several checks.
14:00He approached Perez and confronted him about this,
14:03the fact that Perez had stolen money from Mr. Blackwood.
14:07Mr. Blackwood, more than likely, was going to go to the police to report it.
14:12We felt that we now have a motive for the disappearance,
14:16and probably the murder of Bruce Blackwood.
14:21Police run a criminal background check on Perez.
14:24It comes back clean, but it does flag something in his past.
14:28Louis Perez had previously lived in Boston, Massachusetts,
14:32and so we began criminal history searches in Massachusetts.
14:37As they dig deeper into Perez, detectives also re-canvas Bruce's neighborhood.
14:43I eventually come across the neighbor who lives next door to Mr. Blackwood,
14:47who tells us that he remembers seeing Bruce Blackwood in his driveway
14:52the week before he went missing, arguing with two male Hispanics,
14:56one heavyset, stocky male, and one thin, light-skinned male.
15:01He said it was a very heated argument between Bruce Blackwood and the larger male.
15:08And the heavyset, stocky male, was just cursing in a very threatening manner.
15:16I had a photograph, and I showed it to the neighbor,
15:20and I asked him if that's the individual that he saw arguing with Mr. Blackwood.
15:26And he stated yes.
15:29And he stated yes.
15:31It was a photograph of the handyman, Louis Perez.
15:37Once he identified Perez, that was a turning point in our investigation.
15:47The authorities down in Massachusetts were able to link Louis Perez to the alias Enrico Perez.
15:54Louis Perez had several aliases, and he did have an extensive criminal history.
16:01Years prior, he attempted to kill his daughter and his daughter's mother.
16:06There was some type of pursuit.
16:08The state troopers attempted to pull him over,
16:10at which point he attempted to stab one of the state troopers.
16:14Perez was charged with multiple counts of attempted murder,
16:18and he served a ten-year sentence.
16:20With Louis Perez, we were dealing with a psychopath and a very violent individual.
16:43So, based on prior history, we figure out that this guy Perez
16:48who Bruce Blackwood hired as a contractor is actually a monster.
16:54Obviously, it raised our suspicions even more so that we have to look deeper into Perez.
16:59We were able to figure out what hardware store they both would use,
17:03because it was a few blocks away from the Hancock Street residence.
17:07A few days prior to Bruce going missing,
17:10Louis Perez purchased saw blades, plastic garbage bags, as well as sulfuric acid.
17:16Most of the items are items that may be used in renovations and construction,
17:21but they may also be used in getting rid of a body.
17:31Detectives then receive further damning intel on Perez
17:35when the checks they subpoenaed from Bruce's bank come through.
17:39There are approximately 13 checks that were written out
17:43to a tune of about $7,700.
17:47The majority of them were made to Louis Perez.
17:49However, there was one made to an individual named Martin Rodriguez.
17:54I believe that Martin Rodriguez was the second individual that was with Louis Perez
17:59arguing with Mr. Blackwood a week before he went missing.
18:04We felt that maybe Martin Rodriguez had something to do with the disappearance as well.
18:14Two months into their investigation,
18:16detectives are bearing down on Perez and his suspected accomplice.
18:21And then, finally, Bruce's phone records come in.
18:25The phone call that Bruce Blackwood made to OTP calling in sick,
18:30and he said, like, I was in the shower and I slipped and hit my head on the tub.
18:35I would think that that phone call would have been made from his residence.
18:38When he makes that last call, it was made from his cell phone.
18:43And, in fact, the cell phone pinged from the cell tower
18:46approximately two blocks away from the Hancock Street address.
18:53That led us to believe that Bruce was actually inside 98-3 Hancock Street when he made that call.
19:00Perez stated that he was with Mr. Blackwood that day, that morning,
19:05at the same time, inside the apartment.
19:09We felt that Mr. Blackwood might have been dismembered in that apartment by Luis Perez.
19:18On June 13, 2006, investigators come up with a plan.
19:23That Queens District Attorney's Office would give us the green light
19:26to arrest Perez and Martin Rodriguez for the forgery and the grand larcenies.
19:32We would get a search warrant from the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office
19:35to conduct a search of the Hancock Street location.
19:39We were hoping to find any type of DNA evidence of Bruce Blackwood
19:44or a statement from Perez incriminating himself.
19:51Two days later, investigators put their plan into action,
19:54tracking Martin Rodriguez to a homeless shelter in Manhattan.
19:59Martin Rodriguez was arrested on grand larceny charges,
20:02but he denied any involvement in the disappearance of Bruce Blackwood.
20:11Next, detectives go to Perez's apartment.
20:16We place Mr. Perez under arrest for the grand larcenies.
20:19He's removed and brought back to the 113.
20:22And then we execute the search warrant at 98-3 Hancock.
20:27They rip up carpeting. They rip up flooring.
20:30We vouchered the baseball bats and the cutting tools that were in that location.
20:36The crime scene unit were taking pieces of sheetrock,
20:39dismantling the drain pipes in the sinks and even in the bathtub
20:44to see if there was some type of bone chips that might have got caught in the elbows.
20:49And everything is sent to the lab for analysis.
20:53Perez did admit to the checks, but he claimed he had no idea where Mr. Blackwood was.
21:00And he was just arrogant, callous, smirking.
21:03And he just kept saying, why would I kill Mr. Blackwood?
21:1511 months later, as Perez and Rodriguez remain in jail,
21:18awaiting trial for grand larceny,
21:20the lab results from Perez's apartment search are in.
21:24There was no DNA recovered from Mr. Blackwood.
21:28Queens District Attorney's Office and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office
21:31did not want to proceed with murder charges with out-of-body at that point.
21:39It was very disheartening, very frustrating.
21:42We were hoping that we'd find something that would connect Luz Perez or Martin Rodriguez
21:46to the disappearance of Mr. Blackwood.
21:48But we didn't come up with that smoking gun.
21:52In June of 2007, Perez and Rodriguez are both found guilty of grand larceny.
21:58Perez gets 25 months in prison, Rodriguez just six.
22:03And the investigation into Bruce's disappearance comes to a grinding halt.
22:08This entire time since Bruce was missing,
22:11we've been under a lot of stress, the family.
22:14And still no justice for my Uncle Bruce.
22:18I was upset that Perez wasn't arrested for murder.
22:21I was upset that they still couldn't find Bruce.
22:28Without the physical evidence they need to prove Perez killed Blackwood,
22:31the NYPD's hands are tied.
22:34Two years after he vanished, Bruce's missing persons case goes cold
22:38and Perez is released from prison in 2009.
22:41But one person never stops seeking justice for Bruce.
22:45My Uncle Ed was relentless in trying to get the air of whoever he could regarding Bruce.
22:53Ed demanded that the law enforcement looked into his brother's case.
22:59He wasn't going to stop.
23:04Ed's persistence begins to pay off.
23:07Ed's persistence begins to pay off.
23:10We got a tip from police that this missing persons case was a homicide
23:15and that they were going to open a new case.
23:18And an editor said, go out and find whatever you can about Bruce Blackwood.
23:24Luis Perez, his mother gave me his phone number.
23:29I call Luis and he picks up.
23:32I say, look, I'm just hoping you'll talk a bit about Bruce.
23:34Perez tells me, I don't know where Bruce is at.
23:37He's missing. I had nothing to do with it.
23:39And he hangs up.
23:42But he said enough.
23:45He talked about Bruce and Bruce being missing.
23:48And he said, I had nothing to do with it.
23:52That I can put in an article.
23:56On March 6th, 2011, Burke's article runs in the Daily News.
24:00My uncle's appeal and the news media led to Commissioner Kelly's decision
24:05to reopen the case as a homicide, which was like a godsend for us.
24:16I was a first grade detective in the NYPD's cold case squad.
24:21And I was instructed by the chief of detectives
24:23that I would take that case as a cold case.
24:26I'm a different sort of bird.
24:28I just needed to claw at it a little bit more.
24:31I want to be able to tell Mr. Blackwood's brother and his friend.
24:36We know that Bruce was murdered.
24:40First, I wanted to look at that address on Hancock Street
24:43where we believe Bruce had met his demise.
24:50Coming up.
24:51I was just so scared. Like, I know too much now.
24:55She goes, I'm here about a murder.
24:57I go, what murder?
24:58She goes, Bruce Blackwood.
25:21Now that Bruce Blackwood's cold case has been reopened,
25:23Detective Wendell Stratford's first step
25:26is to head back to Louis Perez's old apartment.
25:30It had been empty, you know, for five, six years.
25:34You have to go back to the location where you believe the homicide occurred.
25:41You're building off of what the detectives did prior to you getting this case.
25:46Looking to put up another ladder that maybe they didn't climb.
25:51We were looking for anything that could have been used for DNA.
25:55For a drop of blood that got missed or a spot on the wall or even on the ceiling.
26:01But we didn't find anything.
26:05Detective Stratford then studies up on the two original suspects.
26:10Louis Perez was just a thug.
26:12He was involved in a lot of crime.
26:15Martin Rodriguez was this little squirrely guy
26:18who just had petty crimes on his record.
26:22So he was a follower.
26:24Perez, I felt, was more likely of a person to have killed Mr. Blackwood
26:29than Martin Rodriguez.
26:31I needed to find both of them and talk to them.
26:35Detective Stratford starts with Martin Rodriguez.
26:40And he's able to track him down to a trailer park in Florida.
26:44We find the trailer.
26:45He's sitting there smoking a cigarette.
26:47And I said, I'd like you to tell me what you know
26:50about what happened to Mr. Blackwood.
26:53He said, well, I had nothing to do with that.
26:56And I said, well, hold on a second.
26:58I said, I more want to talk to you about Louis Perez.
27:00And he scoffed.
27:02And from that point on, he launched into what he thought happened.
27:08He said Blackwood came to Hancock Street
27:11and said he knew we were stealing money from him.
27:14And he was going to call the police.
27:16Perez tells him, I'm never going back to prison again.
27:19And I'll kill him before that happens.
27:25Perez had a plan that the next time that Mr. Blackwood came back,
27:30we were going to use duct tape to tie him up with.
27:33And we were going to torture Mr. Blackwood
27:35to get the PIN numbers to his cards.
27:41He told me to go to the hardware store
27:43and get duct tape and plastic and several other items.
27:48He goes, well, I went, but I bought painter's tape.
27:52I go, you can't tie anybody up with painter's tape.
27:55He goes, I know, but I didn't want to have anything to do with it.
27:58And when I bought painter's tape back to him,
28:01he beat me up, told me to get out of here.
28:04I never went back there again
28:06because I knew Perez was going to kill Mr. Blackwood.
28:10And he's sweating and he's on like a sick cigarette.
28:13I said, so what do you think he would have done with the body?
28:16And he said he had no idea.
28:18I just knew he was going to hurt the man.
28:21But that still wasn't enough to make an arrest of anybody.
28:28Armed with a plausible account of Perez's evil plot,
28:31Detective Stratford carefully charts his next moves.
28:35I had to narrow the list of people to talk to
28:38because the more people I talked to,
28:40the better chances it was that Perez was going to find out
28:44that we were looking into him.
28:46I knew Perez had a daughter that lived in Brooklyn.
28:49Her name was Irene Perez.
28:51And then I found out that he was paroled to her address.
28:55I said, you know what, why not just go there?
28:57Who knows, he could lead us to something else.
29:01She was living in an apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
29:06We went and we surveilled her address
29:09until we saw him come out.
29:15We said we're doing a parole follow-up
29:17and we're looking for Luis Perez.
29:19But didn't tell her we were there about Bruce Blackwood.
29:22She kind of let that out.
29:24Oh, you hear about that guy?
29:25It was like, what guy?
29:26Oh, the missing guy that was in the newspaper.
29:29She goes, I can't have any problems here.
29:31My daughter's here.
29:32I was like, okay.
29:33And then we left.
29:35But she had my card.
29:39But what Detective Stratford doesn't know
29:41is that Irene has been wrestling with her own questions
29:44about her father.
29:47I chose to be filmed in shadow today
29:50to not allow the world to see my face
29:53associated with my father.
29:57When I was about six years old,
29:59my father attempted to kill me and my mom.
30:02And he went to prison for a long time.
30:05I feel like because it was so traumatic,
30:07I blocked it out.
30:10He'd call.
30:11He'd tell me how when he got out of prison
30:14he was going to buy us a house.
30:16I was hopeful that me and my dad
30:18could actually build a bond
30:20that I thought I was longing for.
30:24And then I saw him.
30:26And then I saw the newspaper article
30:28with my dad's picture in it
30:30being accused of murder.
30:36The pain in Bruce Blackwood's brother's face
30:38is what made me need to get all the details.
30:44I called my dad.
30:45I said, there's an article
30:47and apparently you're the suspect
30:50in the murder of Bruce Blackwood.
30:52I definitely heard in his voice
30:54his heart dropping.
30:56So we had arranged he was going to come over
30:59the following day.
31:01And that's when my life changed forever.
31:23We'd made a plan to see each other.
31:27And my father came over
31:29and he sat down.
31:33He started to cry.
31:35I knew that was the moment.
31:36He was going to tell me everything.
31:38I went to the bathroom.
31:40I put the phone on record.
31:43I was just so scared
31:45because I didn't want to mess this up.
31:47So I managed to
31:50discreetly put the phone down
31:53and I let him speak.
31:56I remember him just saying,
31:59I killed him.
32:03This man had just confessed to murder
32:05and I recorded him.
32:10So yeah, father or not,
32:12I was afraid.
32:14Like, I know too much now.
32:17That was why I finally decided
32:19that was why I finally went to the police.
32:31It's probably 2 o'clock in the morning
32:33and I get a phone call.
32:35It's a detective from the 7-3 precinct.
32:38He goes, we have a girl here
32:40who says that she's got information
32:42on one of your homicides.
32:44I go, what's her name?
32:45He said, Irene Perez.
32:49Jump in the car and I'm flying to Brooklyn.
32:55And I get to the 7-3 precinct.
32:57I walk in and she goes,
32:59I'm here about a murder.
33:01I go, what murder?
33:02She goes, Bruce Blackwood.
33:04She says, I have a recording.
33:06And she pulls the cell phone out of her pocket
33:09and she says, it's on this.
33:13Irene turns her father's recorded confession
33:15over to police.
33:16Proof that Louis Perez murdered Bruce.
33:19But there's a problem.
33:22Well, I listened to the tape.
33:24But you really cannot hear anything that's being said.
33:27And so I tell Detective Strafford
33:30that we couldn't go forward
33:32unless we had a clear tape
33:34of him admitting this crime.
33:36So the DA was like,
33:38do you think you can get Irene back?
33:40The DA was like, do you think you can get Irene
33:42to wear a better recording device
33:44to get her to do it again?
33:46And I said, absolutely not.
33:48I can't wear a wire.
33:50But I'm okay with them giving me
33:52one of the police professional recorders.
33:56So the day that he was coming,
33:58I hid the recorder where he wouldn't see it.
34:02I didn't want him to think I feared him.
34:05So I pretended to still be his needy daughter
34:09and I needed him.
34:10I said, Dad, I don't want to make you upset or anything,
34:13but I want to talk to you
34:15about this Bruce Blackwood situation.
34:17Do you think you're going to go back to prison?
34:19And he said, there's no body.
34:23I never thought my dad would give me
34:25as many details as he did.
34:27I think he trusted me to be his little girl
34:30and keep a secret with him.
34:32But I wasn't his little girl anymore.
34:35He said when Mr. Blackwood
34:37was trying to leave the apartment
34:40to call the police,
34:44my father grabbed him from behind
34:47and put him in a chokehold.
34:54My dad went into how he had sat the body on a chair,
35:00how he had to think about what he would do.
35:05Smoked a cigarette.
35:06Then I went to my thing, put on my gloves.
35:10He had covered the whole entire living room area
35:14and the bathroom with plastic.
35:18And he said, I chopped the mother******* up.
35:27You used a machete to it?
35:28I had to.
35:29When I saw you with the sauce all on the skin,
35:32you were just whipping the skin and making a lot of mess.
35:35Stopping me from doing it.
35:36When I get it, I slice you like a ****.
35:41He attempted to try to get the body
35:44disposed of with the acid,
35:46but it wasn't going down the drain,
35:48so he had to cut it up into smaller pieces.
35:51When I'm looking at him, I was looking at pure darkness.
35:57Just empty.
36:00No soul.
36:03I contacted Detective Strafford
36:05and I came from the recording.
36:08I was handing over my father's life,
36:10but I was getting justice for my father.
36:13I was handing over my father's life,
36:15but I was getting justice for my father.
36:18I was handing over my father's life,
36:20but I was getting justice for Bruce Blackwood.
36:25Those were the two hardest things that I knew had to be done.
36:30Irene plays it for us and there it is, voila.
36:34He's talking about how he killed Bruce Blackwood.
36:39And he tells her, I wrap up all the body parts in the bag.
36:44I walk down the street to the shelter
36:46and I see these guys start putting the bags into trash receptacles.
36:52You can tell he's getting off on how he was able to do all this
36:57and not get caught.
37:01When you hear the tape, he has no remorse whatsoever.
37:06I mean, he is clear as day.
37:09We knew from Luis Perez's own mouth
37:11we were never going to recover Bruce's body,
37:14and the only chance of Luis Perez paying for this crime
37:18was to try now.
37:26Perez is arrested, bringing hope to Bruce's loved ones
37:30that justice may yet be served.
37:32My uncle called me and said,
37:36you're not going to believe this, Luis Perez has been arrested.
37:40But you're trying to pray that we get a conviction on this.
37:46Days before Perez is set to stand trial,
37:49prosecutors look to secure the most crucial element of their case.
37:53So the key witness in this case was Luis Perez's daughter, Irene Perez.
37:58The only way for a jury to hear that tape
38:01is for her to take the stand and authenticate that tape.
38:04I start reaching out to her and she will not return my calls.
38:08So she's clearly evading us.
38:10Without her, I have nothing.
38:29As Luis Perez's murder trial begins,
38:32the prosecution's star witness, his daughter Irene, remains MIA.
38:38We had the motive that Luis Perez had stolen money from Bruce Blackwood.
38:44We knew that Bruce Blackwood made his last phone call near a building.
38:48Luis Perez is living in that building.
38:51We had information from the hardware store
38:54that Luis Perez had bought garbage bags and sulfuric acid.
38:59We had Martin Rodriguez telling us what Luis Perez's plan was
39:03to torture Bruce Blackwood to get him to give up the PIN numbers
39:06for his ATM card.
39:08And then we had the tape where Irene was speaking to her father
39:12and he gave in very graphic details how he murdered Bruce
39:17and why we would never have that evidence.
39:20But I needed Irene to say that the voices on the recording were her and her dad.
39:26So without her, my case is going to get dismissed.
39:30Irene Perez was supposed to show up for court, and she flat-out refused to come.
39:35Each day that passes that I don't have her
39:38is like feeling more and more sick that Perez is going to walk away.
39:42So we go to the house, she comes to the door, and she goes,
39:46My father knows. I'm like, well, how does your father know?
39:49Because he called to tell me he was arrested, and I couldn't help myself,
39:54and I had to tell him that I was going to kill him.
39:57And I couldn't help myself, and I had to tell him what I did.
40:02I had asked if there was any way possible that I didn't have to go to court.
40:08What were you afraid of to go there?
40:12Facing him.
40:16When you're testifying against your own father,
40:19I can understand why morally she had a dilemma,
40:22and she grew up in that culture.
40:24You don't cooperate with the police, and you don't rat on your own family.
40:27So we subpoena her, and she was brought in to testify.
40:38Twelve days into the trial,
40:40Irene Perez appears at the Brooklyn courthouse and takes the stand.
40:44I said in this recording, who were the voices?
40:47And she said, It's me and my dad, Louis Perez.
40:52Through that one question, I was able to play the tape.
40:55Now in the coffin.
40:58And on September 29th, 2015,
41:00the jury found Louis Perez guilty for the murder of Bruce Blackwood.
41:12We have endured a decade of waiting for this moment, for closure.
41:19Two weeks later, scores of people who cared about Bruce attend Perez's sentencing.
41:25I remember my Uncle Edward's statement to Mr. Perez.
41:29He said that he took away someone from us that we loved,
41:34and he loved us, and he hopes he rots in jail.
41:42Louis Perez received 25 years to life in prison.
41:44The maximum sentence allowable by law.
41:49Even though it torments me and haunts me,
41:53Bruce Blackwood got justice.
41:56I would tell Irene I'm thankful for her courage.
42:00I know this was difficult for her.
42:04Bruce was always kind.
42:06He was always compassionate and loving, and for him to be taken is devastating.
42:14We miss him dearly.
42:16And I'm sure he's in heaven smiling down on us.
42:20We know that we have gotten justice for him,
42:24and we are so thankful he's at peace now.