LAWLOR: The crime scene was one of the most horrific
I had ever seen -- there was blood everywhere.
He stabs her and bludgeons her face
with her own dance trophy.
WYDRA: The front door had not been pried open.
BRODERICK: She knew who this person was.
LAWLOR: This case was about obsession, and this case
was about the rage inside one human being.
STOCKDALE: Zandra is a good person,
a churchgoer, has her own charity.
His statement was that she was in debt for
about $8,000 from a loan shark in New York.
He talked about her being his property,
how she was never going to be allowed to leave him.
This case just really shows, you know, what one
evil person can do to another person.
NARRATOR: Every day in North America,
dozens of people are murdered.
The key to solving the toughest of these homicides
lies in the final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case,
detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline,
the minutes and hours containing evidence that can
help unlock the mystery and catch the killer.
Milford, Connecticut, a picturesque seaside town just
one hour by train from New York City.
LAWLOR: Milford is a suburban town,
a bedroom community where lots of the local middle class folks
reside and raise their kids.
BRODERICK: It's relatively a safe community,
a place that you would feel comfortable raising
your children and family in.
NARRATOR: But peace in the community is shattered
on May 19, 2006.
WYDRA: Linda Ducsay came home from work,
went calling for her daughter, Alexandra,
and she didn't hear her,
so she went towards the basement door.
Linda found her 26-year-old daughter,
Zandra Ducsay, in a bloody heap.
NARRATOR: Zandra's panicked mother calls 911.
[phone ringing]
[Mrs. Ducsay sobbing]
BRODERICK: She is able to get the address out,
and the dispatcher asked
for any of the closest units to respond,
and it just so happens
my partner and I are very close to
that area at the time of the call.
[siren wailing]
NARRATOR: When detectives arrive, they find
the horrific aftermath of a violent crime.
Detective Sergeant Steve Wydra leads the investigation.
WYDRA: I see Alexandra Ducsay laying on the floor,
blood spattered throughout, and there's a small kitchen knife
laying next to her.
Alexandra had stab wounds around the back of
her head and on the front of her face.
NARRATOR: Detective Dennis Broderick partners on the case.
I'm shocked at what I'm seeing, the body
of a young female laying on the ground.
I'm seeing her face completely bashed in
with a blunt object of some sort.
It's almost unrecognizable as a human face.
LAWLOR: The crime scene was one of the most horrific
I had ever seen.
There was blood everywhere.
WYDRA: The wounds that Alexandra had on her face were
definitely wounds from somebody who had anger
towards her -- I don't think it would have been
a random person who wanted to kill her.
It looked like someone who wanted to hurt her.
LAWLOR: The cause of death was blunt force trauma to
the head as well as stab wounds to her neck and torso.
We found out Alexandra had a piece
of electrical tape taped to her mouth.
It appeared it was part of a larger piece
that had bound her mouth so that she couldn't scream.
Police officers take numerous blood samples.
They take the carpet that was surrounding the victim,
they take blood off the walls.
There were small bloodstains identified in a first
floor bathroom that appeared to have been watered down.
They were very light bloodstains.
They swab and then send it off
to our state laboratory for further analysis.
BRODERICK: Downstairs in the basement,
we discover a bloody footprint where Zandra's body
was found.
We can't identify it to a specific make of a shoe
or a male or female or even size at that point.
The crime scene didn't give us a lot
to go off of.
In a crime scene this gruesome, this amount of blood,
you would expect a large amount of DNA
or transfer evidence to be left behind by the suspect.
And during this initial evidence gathering at
the scene, there was a lack of evidence
left behind from the suspect.
It would make me believe that it wasn't spontaneous.
It was a well thought out plan and a premeditated attack on
her that someone would possibly take
the kind of precautions that they
wouldn't leave any kind of evidence behind.
NARRATOR: The small kitchen knife left behind is
likely the weapon used to stab Zandra.
Yet detectives don't see the blunt object used in
the attack,
but they do notice a nearby trophy shelf.
LAWLOR: Zandra had a passion for dance.
She was a dancer.
She was involved in the music industry.
She was beginning her career as an actress, and she
had bit parts in several television shows,
including "Law & Order."
It really came through, the passion she had for
performing, the passion she had for dance,
and it was something that she was obviously quite good at
and something she felt very strongly about.
There was a row of trophies, and one was missing.
The trophy had been there prior to
the assault, and it wasn't there after the assault.
NARRATOR: Based on crime scene evidence,
detectives can approximate a basic narrative of the crime.
The front door had not been pried open,
and there was nothing to lead us to believe
that anyone had broken into the house.
BRODERICK: Whoever did this was let in the house.
It was somebody she knew -- that's what the evidence at
the crime scene indicates, that she knew who this person was.
She let him in.
There was no struggle upstairs.
There was no turned over furniture.
The house is not ransacked.
NARRATOR: Detectives also find no foreign fingerprints in
the house, so they surmise the perpetrator likely
wore gloves.
They also believe Zandra's attacker is a man, since he
was strong enough to gag and drag her to her
basement bedroom.
There, he stabs her numerous times, but she survives
the attack.
That's when he finds a weapon of opportunity.
BRODERICK: The perpetrator most likely bludgeons her
face with a trophy that was nearby.
STOCKDALE: Zandra's face being so horribly disfigured
as part of this murder says to me
that the killer had such a high level of anger
and rage towards her.
He not only wanted to kill her,
he wanted to obliterate her entire identity.
He's clearly targeting what makes her unique,
and that is her face.
NARRATOR: To solve the murder and catch the killer,
detectives need to piece together
the last 24 hours of Zandra Ducsay's life.
They begin by canvassing residents on her street.
We are going door to door, questioning neighbors if they
have seen anything or heard anything
suspicious in the area.
NARRATOR: News of Zandra's violent murder sends shockwaves
through what is normally a safe
and peaceful neighborhood.
BOUCHARD: Milford is a very quiet community.
It's a residential community that has a very
low rate of violent crimes -- all of a sudden,
imagine you waking up and finding that
your next door neighbor has been murdered,
and not only murdered, but murdered in such
a violent manner.
WYDRA: A lot of people saw the murder on the news,
and there were questions about who could have murdered her.
Why did it happen?
Is there a killer loose in Milford?
LAWLOR: Neighbors inform the Milford Police Department
that they witnessed a red pickup truck earlier in the day,
around 12:30, as well as a black Acura later on at around
four o'clock being operated by an African-American male.
NARRATOR: But without license plates,
there's nothing for police to chase down.
So detectives turn their attention to
Zandra's close friend, Nicole Williamson, who offers help.
Nicole Williamson actually shows up on the crime scene,
hysterical, crying, and she's immediately intercepted
by my partner and I, and we speak to her.
WYDRA: On the day of the murder,
Nicole Williamson met Zandra for a fitness class that
morning at around 10:15.
They worked out together to 11:30.
Zandra stayed behind for a short period of time,
left the gym,
which had her arriving back at 12 PM.
The time of death of Zandra's murder was presumed
to be between the hours of noon and 4 PM.
NARRATOR: To narrow that window further,
detectives want to see
the last time Zandra used her phone.
WYDRA: When I was in the basement,
looking through Alexandra's bedroom,
we found that her cell phone was missing,
which was very odd.
The mother and the brother said that she had a cell phone,
she always had it with her.
But when we looked through her desk,
we did find a copy of about 100 names and phone numbers
that she must have downloaded
off of her phone or off her computer.
It was like her address book.
NARRATOR: Police work their way backwards through Zandra's
phone list.
We see that her last contact is
a person who goes by the name of Jay.
After speaking to her good friend Nicole Williamson,
we're able to identify Jay as Justin Myles.
We learned that Justin Myles had been dating Zandra for
about two weeks,
and he met her at a bank that she was working at.
NARRATOR: But detectives discover a darker side
to Zandra's new boyfriend that she might
not have known about.
WYDRA: Justin Myles had some criminal history in his past.
An ex-girlfriend claims to have been assaulted by him
that he was arrested for.
BRODERICK: Justin Myles
fit the description that the neighbor had seen sitting
in a black Acura prior to the murder taking place.
Justin Myles became a person of interest.
BOUCHARD: Romantic relationships bring out
some of the worst emotions
a human can have, to a point where homicide occurs.
NARRATOR: As police in Milford, Connecticut, investigate
the murder of aspiring dancer Alexandra Ducsay,
known as Zandra to her friends,
they turn their attention to her recent boyfriend,
Justin Myles,
who has an arrest record of assault
on a previous girlfriend.
WYDRA: I interviewed Justin Myles
about the last time he spoke to Zandra,
the last time he saw her, and what the relationship was.
He was a little taken aback.
He just seemed a little nervous to us.
He had seen on the news that there was a murder in
Milford, so he couldn't get a hold of Zandra on her phone,
so he decided to drive to Milford and drive by the house,
which at that time, there were police cars,
and the road was blocked off.
He drove by but failed to stop to talk to
a police officer who was on one of the streets there.
ARNTFIELD: Justin's story about going to check
the welfare of Zandra, only to discover
that the street is cordoned off and police are everywhere,
so he just sort of shrugs his shoulders and goes home,
that is going to be a red flag for investigators.
It's potentially suspicious that he wouldn't try to find
out more about what's going on when he sees police,
because the average person would approach,
especially if they know that somebody they're in
a relationship with lives there.
So certainly police would want to follow up with him
as to why he would turn and leave the situation.
LAWLOR: Justin claimed that it was his intention to go
out on a date with Zandra later on that evening.
NARRATOR: Justin says he spoke to Zandra twice on the day
she was killed.
BOUCHARD: Justin called Zandra at 12 o'clock,
and he could hear in the background,
saying to a person that had arrived, "You're not supposed to
be here without calling me."
The second phone call, which occurred at 12:37,
also came from Justin Myles to Zandra,
because he was concerned what was going on.
She stated that she was okay.
That was the last phone conversation she had
and the last time the phone rang.
WYDRA: Justin Myles gave us his alibi of what he did
for that day, May 19th.
He indicated that he worked for a phone company
from about seven in the morning
till one in the afternoon.
Justin left work.
He went to a clothing store around 1:15 in the afternoon,
and the video showed a timestamp of that time.
LAWLOR: When detectives observe the timestamp on
that videotape,
it made it pretty clear that it would have been very hard,
if not impossible, for Justin Myles
to have been purchasing clothes at that location
and then subsequently committing a murder.
WYDRA: His cell phone records also indicate that he was not in
the area of Milford or Zandra's house at the time of
her murder -- we checked out Justin's alibi...
and determined that he was not responsible for the homicide.
NARRATOR: With Justin removed as a suspect,
police focus on his claim that Zandra had
received a visitor not long before she was killed.
WYDRA: There was another party that had stopped at Zandra's
house at about 12:34 to 12:38 that afternoon.
So we needed to delve into that information and try
to determine who was at her house at that time.
NARRATOR: As police re-canvass Zandra's neighborhood
for possible eyewitnesses to her mysterious visitor,
the case generates media attention.
BRODERICK: There was a large amount of press
in the neighborhood.
Local news agencies were there.
There was a large amount of cameras in the area outside
the crime scene tape.
The press learned that Zandra had a small
part in a TV show called "Law & Order,"
and with that part, the story became bigger
than just Milford and became a nationwide story.
The press was talking to neighbors of Zandra's,
and some neighbors had seen a black male
walking on the street during that day of May 19th,
the day of the homicide.
The suspect may have been an ex-boyfriend
of Zandra's by the name of Matt Pugh.
LAWLOR: Matthew Pugh had dated Zandra
some years ago.
Matthew was an individual known to the police.
He had a long criminal record for serious violent
felonies and had been incarcerated
for a number of years.
WYDRA: Matt Pugh was arrested for drug charges
and had to spend 4.5 years in jail.
We learned that Alexandra was visiting him in
jail on the weekends for about a year.
BOUCHARD: Matthew Pugh, her first boyfriend,
had a troubled background.
Like Justin Myles, the same type of background.
She was a churchgoer.
It had a great impact on her.
She was involved in community service, helping people,
and what she was trying to do was to bring them back into
a more livable lifestyle, to better themselves,
not for her benefit, but for their benefit.
STOCKDALE: So Zandra may have been attracted to
people that she feels she can help.
There are people who do this across multiple relationships,
because it brings them a sense of self-esteem.
You feel good about doing that,
and that's perhaps the case here.
NARRATOR: But Zandra's feelings toward Matthew waned
as her life began to blossom.
WYDRA: Alexandra started going to college,
determined that she needed to change her lifestyle and get
away from this gentleman who was in jail
and start living her life and she stopped visiting him.
About a year and a half before the homicide,
Matthew Pugh was released from jail.
So Matt was out of jail during the time of this homicide.
And at the time, Matthew Pugh had other girlfriends
and a wife, so he wasn't used to
no as an answer.
Zandra's rejection of him may have set off the trigger.
He wanted to be in control.
NARRATOR: Detectives now wonder
if Matthew Pugh was Zandra's mysterious visitor,
who tried to convince her to come back...
and killed her when she refused.
NARRATOR: After 26-year-old Zandra Ducsay
is brutally murdered in sleepy Milford, Connecticut,
police suspect that her former boyfriend,
ex-con Matthew Pugh, may be responsible.
Matthew Pugh was a viable suspect, and we obtained
a search warrant to search his house in Hamden, Connecticut.
When we execute the search warrant,
his current wife and stepdaughter are there.
And Matt's cousin, Anthony Pugh, was also at the house,
Matthew and Anthony worked at the same factory,
and they commuted together.
So they spent a lot of time together.
BRODERICK: We immediately notice how clean the residence is.
It's upkept, clothes are nicely folded.
WYDRA: We started looking for any evidence that could
tie Matthew Pugh to Zandra and the homicide.
BRODERICK: We do find a roll of tape.
WYDRA: A roll of Permacel tape, black electrical Permacel tape.
There was also a bunch of that tape rolled
up around a lint roller thrown into the garbage can,
so that evidence was taken
in hopes to match it up to the tape
that was found at the scene on Zandra's mouth.
The Permacel tape was sent for forensics,
and the forensics came back showing that there was
no DNA for a suspect found on that tape.
NARRATOR: The negative results don't deter detectives from
questioning ex-con Matthew Pugh
about the murder of his former girlfriend.
We questioned Matthew Pugh about being in the area,
being seen inside of a black Acura
and asking him was he in the area that day
and that time, and he denied it.
He was questioned about his current relationship
with Zandra.
He admitted that they were still friends, and they still
were in contact, that they
were on good terms, and they still remained in a friendly
relationship with each other.
Matt indicated that he had moved on from Alexandra and got
married and had a stepdaughter that he was taking care of.
Matt Pugh stated that he had gone
to work at 6:30 that morning at Chromalloy Aviation.
He had to pick up his stepdaughter at
the high school at about 10 in the morning,
so he had to leave work early.
Matthew had indicated that he left Chromalloy
to go home because his stepdaughter was sick.
WYDRA: Matt said that he went to
the Hess gas station in Hamden at noon.
Matt went to several used car lots that day.
The first ones were from 12:15 to 12:40 PM,
and another one from 1 PM to 1:15 PM
and two more lots till 2:30 PM.
He then went to the bank and then called his wife at
3:30 PM.
NARRATOR: Matthew Pugh's alibi appears
to rule him out as a suspect.
But the color and model of his car piques detectives' interest.
We got a search warrant for Matt's vehicle,
which was a dark green Acura.
NARRATOR: That's a close description of the car
witnesses saw on Zandra's street on the day of her murder.
We were looking for forensic evidence in the vehicle,
whether it was DNA or hair follicles,
tape, whatever -- anything else that
might be related to the homicide.
NARRATOR: Once again, investigators come up
empty-handed.
Not a shred of biological evidence from Matthew's vehicle
or home links him to the crime scene.
We did not find any evidence that was key to the case.
BRODERICK: Now you have to start turning the investigation into
exploring other possible suspects
that might have had a reason to murder Zandra.
NARRATOR: But without any new leads pointing the way forward,
the murder investigation of Zandra Ducsay hits a dead end.
It becomes frustrating for Zandra's family,
for the community, and for the police department that we
haven't been able to make an arrest in this case.
Detective Wydra was very emotionally attached to it.
I recall Detective Wydra having a photograph of Zandra pinned
up on his desk to remind him every day
on how he touched this case every day.
And it was a high-profile case.
It was on the news, and therefore that
led to State's Attorney Kevin Lawlor being involved.
The division of criminal justice Cold Case Unit
assists local departments with cases just like this.
BRODERICK: There was a $50,000 reward for anybody
who had information on the suspect
and led us to an arrest and conviction of the person
who killed Zandra.
By getting a $50,000 reward,
we were hoping to get witnesses to
come forth with information to help this case.
NARRATOR: But even with a reward,
three more years go by with no new leads.
Zandra Ducsay's killer remains at large.
So investigators try a new approach by
advertising the reward to a more specific audience.
LAWLOR: After the case had gone cold,
members of the Division of Criminal Justice Cold Case Unit
included Zandra
and her case on the playing cards that we distributed
within the Department of Corrections.
BRODERICK: These cards are issued within the prison system.
They offer a reward on information on
unsolved crimes within the state of Connecticut.
And Zandra's face is on the two of clubs.
The strategy of putting faces of victims onto playing cards
and distributing decks of those cards
in the prison system is an innovative one.
Inmates are known to talk.
Inmates are known to boast and brag about their crimes.
Someone may be motivated to provide
information to improve their own circumstances.
NARRATOR: The strategy works.
The two of clubs developed some interest by an inmate by
the name of Peter Osborne -- on September 15, 2011,
Peter Osborne contacts the Milford Police and says
he has information involving the murder of Alexandra Ducsay.
NARRATOR: Five years after the brutal murder
of aspiring entertainer Zandra Ducsay,
an unconventional investigative approach produces
a new lead.
Once the case had gone cold,
members of the Division of Criminal Justice Cold Case Unit
put out new playing cards
for the Department of Correction that have the faces
of victims and their unsolved homicides.
Zandra was the two of clubs.
Soon thereafter, a number of tips came in.
One was from an individual by the name of Peter Osborne.
He recognized Alexandra's face from
a fellow inmate, Charlie Rooney's, cell phone.
Osborne heard from Rooney that he had
dated Alexandra about two years before the homicide.
BRODERICK: Osborne said that Rooney and Zandra met
at the prison while Matthew Pugh was incarcerated,
and she was visiting him.
WYDRA: Osborne stated that when Alexandra broke off
the relationship with Rooney, Rooney got mad,
he got angry and said that he was going
to get her to kill her.
Osborne met Rooney and Rooney's sister
here in Milford, and Rooney's sister tells Osborne that
Rooney had murdered Zandra and that he was covered in blood.
NARRATOR: Osborne's explosive revelation has the potential
to blow the case wide open.
Police press him for corroborating evidence.
WYDRA: Osborne was asked if anyone else knew about this,
and he stated that he told it to his girlfriend, Crystal.
When Crystal was asked about this information by police,
she indicated that she knew nothing about what inmate
Osborne was saying
and that he was a pathological liar and not to believe him.
The police department talks to Zandra's family
and friends about this inmate, Rooney,
and if they knew of him being
Zandra's boyfriend for any amount of time.
No one knew of him, had ever heard of him.
The family basically said that she's only had two boyfriends,
Matt Pugh,
and Justin Myles.
This inmate's story, we investigated it
and found out that it was an unbelievable story,
something that never happened.
NARRATOR: For detectives, Osborne's story about
Rooney was just a goose chase.
People, even though they're housed in the same prisons,
don't always tell you the truth.
Osborne did say Rooney did it, because
he may have had something against this guy.
They may have hated each other.
STOCKDALE: When investigators turn to inmates for tips,
it's potentially helpful, but also potentially difficult,
because you know that people
in correctional facilities are often
antisocial, they also have their own motivations.
They may want to strike a deal to get out of
jail or may be embellishing to add to their own
criminal reputation.
So these things are really hard to decipher fact
from fiction.
NARRATOR: Frustrated, the detectives are back
to square one as yet another year goes by.
On September 11, 2011,
we get a new call from
a person by the name of Jeremy Shauffner.
He is involved in the church, and he goes to church
with Zandra.
Jeremy Shauffner says that Zandra had borrowed a large
amount of money from a loan shark in New York,
a Jamaican male by the name of Donovan.
And the reason she was borrowing the money was because
she needed money for a vehicle
that she can transport herself back and forth to New York City
for various acting auditions.
ARNTFIELD: Could Zandra have been desperate enough
in furtherance of this dream of becoming a famous actress to
actually go to a loan shark to obtain a vehicle
to travel back and forth to these shoots?
Jeremy Shauffner actually goes as far as saying
that he was with Zandra
on an occasion where she was receiving threatening text
messages, because Zandra had failed to pay Donovan, this loan
shark from New York, back -- the way Donovan was described,
he was a black male that did fit the description that was
provided by a neighbor, that a black male
was sitting in a black Acura near Zandra's
street on the day of the murder.
When word of this New York loan shark comes up,
investigators begin realizing
that despite outward appearances,
Zandra may have fallen in with a bit of a bad crowd.
Her ex-boyfriend, Matt, is a known felon who served
hard time.
Now, if she's borrowing money from someone imposing
what we call a criminal interest rate,
which is essentially loan sharking,
it would appear as though her expanded social network may
have drawn in some dangerous people.
We follow up the lead, and we take a dive into Zandra's
financial records, and we learn that
Zandra didn't have to borrow money from a loan shark,
because she had paid for her car already, and there was
no indication to us that she was in debt
or needed to borrow money from a loan shark.
NARRATOR: The loan shark story from Zandra's church friend,
Jeremy Shauffner, is
just one more false lead in the five years since
Zandra's murder.
My view of Shauffner was that he was just kind of pulling
things out of the air, more for notoriety than rather
anything else.
Someone may be compelled to provide police
with false information for a number of reasons.
They may want to insert themselves into
the investigation for their own sense of self-esteem.
They get attention, they get to feel important,
and maybe they get to feel, in a strange way, helpful.
NARRATOR: Driven to find justice for Zandra, detectives
must treat each new tip as the break it could be,
even an unlikely one about
a previous suspect whose alibi had eliminated him,
Zandra's ex-boyfriend, Matthew Pugh.
The police department got a call from Matthew's cousin,
Anthony Pugh.
Anthony Pugh had just been released from Cheshire Prison.
He was working at Chromalloy Aviation with Matt Pugh
for two years -- 2005, 2006,
right before the homicide.
Anthony stated to the police that Matt Pugh
had come up with a plan to kill Zandra.
NARRATOR: But after so many false leads,
police have reason to be skeptical.
Anthony was asked why he would give up information
on his cousin and rat him out to the police.
And Anthony's response was that he wanted
the $50,000 reward.
BOUCHARD: There was history with Anthony and Matthew Pugh.
They both were involved in the drug trade.
They were both on opposite sides of the territories.
This is mine. This was yours.
ARNTFIELD: When Anthony comes forward as the latest tipster
in this case, police naturally need to
take his account with a grain of salt.
Here we have a rival drug dealer who would stand to
benefit by eliminating his competition,
and he admits that he's only coming forward
for the reward money.
NARRATOR: Now, detectives need to determine whether
Matthew Pugh really did kill his ex-girlfriend, Zandra,
or if Matthew's cousin Anthony is trying to eliminate
Matthew in order to take over his drug territory.
NARRATOR: Five long years after Zandra Ducsay's murder,
her ex-boyfriend, Matthew Pugh,
is accused of the crime by his cousin, Anthony.
Anthony says that Matthew threatened to kill
Zandra after she broke up with him.
Matthew sent her threatening letters
when he was incarcerated,
saying the things he wanted to do to her.
LAWLOR: The letters showed a person
who was completely obsessed.
He talked about sex with her.
He talked about her being his property,
talked about how she was never going to be allowed
to leave him.
And sprinkled in there
were threats of violence, physical harm,
even death if she were to not be with him.
He had said he was going to do things to hurt her family.
He would actually go as far as saying
he was going to destroy her face.
In the crime scene,
her face was brutally battered by a blunt object.
Matthew has written a letter from prison threatening Zandra,
treating her like she is
a piece of property that he owns and controls.
And so Matthew may be someone who thinks nothing of
assaulting women or intimate partners to have his needs met.
NARRATOR: Matthew's letter terrifies Zandra, so much so,
she alerts the penitentiary administration.
Alexandra reported to the Department of Corrections
this eight-page letter that Matt Pugh wrote, indicating that
he wanted to destroy her face and harm her family.
After Alexandra reported the threatening
and harassing letter,
Matt Pugh got time added to his sentence,
which made Matt furious with Alexandra.
That information brings Matthew Pugh back into
the picture, pointing at Matthew Pugh as a suspect.
NARRATOR: According to Matthew's cousin, Anthony,
Matthew turned his threats into action.
Anthony described details
only the killer or his confidant could know.
Police found Anthony credible.
He was able to talk about things that were never
made public,
about how Matt had said that if he were to kill her,
he would use clothing from Chromalloy,
his place of employment, things like latex gloves,
like paper suits, like paper booties to cover his feet.
He would wear two of everything
so he would not leave any trace of evidence behind.
WYDRA: He was gonna shave all the hair off his body,
including his arms, legs, so that he would leave
no hair DNA at the scene.
What Anthony is saying fits the crime scene
in that the person that committed the crime left
very little if any physical evidence behind.
Covering your feet with
the booties does match that footprint that was covered.
NARRATOR: Even more damning,
Matthew told Anthony he would also
take a roll of Permacel tape from work.
One of the key pieces of evidence in this case
was certain tape that was found on the victim's mouth.
When it was sent to the lab,
it was found to have a very distinctive adhesive
on the inside.
This was not a tape that you could buy at Home Depot.
This was a tape that was
specific to the aircraft construction industry.
The connection with the tape is important, because Chromalloy
is only one of three companies in the state
of Connecticut that actually use this aviation tape.
That aviation tape is found at the crime scene on Zandra,
at Pugh's house, and Pugh actually works at the company.
NARRATOR: Anthony's story is strong enough to isolate
his cousin, Matthew Pugh, as the prime suspect,
but the evidence is still only circumstantial.
None of it ties Matthew directly to the crime scene.
And Matthew's alibi is still rock solid.
BRODERICK: So with the new information provided by Anthony,
it's still not enough to arrest Matthew Pugh.
So the next step is to pick apart his alibi
that he provided at the time of the murder.
His alibi consisted of him being at Chromalloy
in Enfield, Connecticut,
and he was told that his daughter
was sick, and he had to go home.
He indicated that he went home, that he went to a gas station,
that he went out looking at cars
at various used car dealerships throughout
the greater New Haven, Hamden area,
and that he then went to the bank.
NARRATOR: But five years after Matthew's initial statement,
details of his story begin to crack.
BRODERICK: The stepdaughter recants
what she said earlier in the investigation.
Now says years later that she never saw
Matthew Pugh that afternoon.
We checked gas station surveillance footage,
and Matthew Pugh did go to a Hess gas station.
However, he didn't get there until 2:10 PM,
which is hours after he originally stated.
NARRATOR: With Matthew's lies exposed,
police now have probable cause
for a warrant on his phone records.
They need to pinpoint where he actually was on the day
Zandra was killed.
BRODERICK: Using the phone records,
we start to understand that Matthew Pugh
was in the neighborhood throughout the week,
which corroborated what the neighbors were saying about
a suspicious male
and a suspicious vehicle being in the neighborhood
prior to the murder.
NARRATOR: On that day, May 19th, the day of the murder,
Matthew's phone shows he again visited Zandra's street.
BRODERICK: Matthew Pugh's phone records shows he was using
the phone close to the area of Zandra's residence.
So now with the evidence from the cousin,
the broken alibi, and this tape that's used at Chromalloy
matches the tape at the crime scene,
I know that Matthew Pugh is responsible.
NARRATOR: Investigators are finally able to piece together
the events that led to Zandra Ducsay's murder.
On Friday, May 19, 2006,
Matt Pugh shaved his body hair at 6 AM to make sure there
was no DNA evidence left at the crime scene.
BRODERICK: At 8:39 AM,
Pugh leaves Chromalloy, his place of work.
LAWLOR: At 10:15 AM on the day of the murder,
Zandra meets her friend, Nicole Williamson, at Bally's gym.
BRODERICK: According to Zandra's phone records,
she arrives home from the gym at approximately 12 PM.
WYDRA: At 12:07 PM,
Matthew Pugh's cell phone is pinged, putting him in Milford.
LAWLOR: At 12:34 PM,
Zandra speaks with her boyfriend, Justin.
WYDRA: At 12:34 PM,
Matt Pugh shows up at Zandra's door.
BRODERICK: At 12:34 PM,
Zandra's boyfriend hears her say, "Why are you here?
You're supposed to call before you show up."
From 12:34 PM to 12:37 PM,
Zandra and her boyfriend speak on
the phone for three minutes before they end the call.
So between 12:37 and 4 o'clock on that afternoon,
Matthew presented himself at the front of Alexandra's home.
He was able to get himself in.
BRODERICK: Pugh covers her mouth with the black Permacel tape.
LAWLOR: She was gagged, and she was
brought to the basement of her house.
We believe at that time, he was able to put on all of the items
of clothing that he had taken from Chromalloy,
things like the paper suit, the vinyl gloves, the booties.
He then stabs her...
and bludgeons her face with her own dance trophy.
NARRATOR: After brutally murdering Zandra,
Matthew leaves behind just a single bloody footprint.
Pugh removes his booties, his gloves,
and his smock and places them in a bag.
LAWLOR: Once Matthew was done, and he cleaned up,
we believe he attempted to wash up in the first floor
bathroom -- when doing so,
he left one minute bloodstain from when
he was washing his hands.
And that stain is really the only piece of forensic
evidence that ever came back
with even a small tie to him through DNA evidence.
WYDRA: At 2:10 PM,
Matt Pugh was caught on videotape
at the Hess gas station,
and he claimed he was there at 12 noon.
BRODERICK: At 4:30 PM,
Linda Ducsay, Zandra's mother, arrives home to find
her daughter in the basement, covered in blood.
On September 5, 2008, Matthew Pugh was
arrested for the murder of Alexandra Ducsay.
He's also charged with burglary in the first degree.
On May 11, 2015,
Matthew Pugh was sentenced to 60 years in prison
[gavel pounds]
for the murder of Alexandra Ducsay.
He's currently serving that sentence
in the Cheshire Correctional Institution.
BRODERICK: The case is sad, that a family
lost a family member who was so young.
She was 26 years old.
She had an aspiring career as being an actress, and she was
a positive role model in the community, and, uh, her life
was taken way too soon and, unfortunately,
in such a brutal way -- it will stick with the family for
the rest of their lives.
This case really does show, you know,
domestic violence at its worst and just really shows, you know,
what one evil person can do to another person.
This case is done for Alexandra Ducsay.
It's done for her family and all of the members
of the law enforcement community who dedicated
a significant portion of their careers to bringing this man to
justice is what this case is really about,
that we will never stop looking for you.