…Easy…it sounded sooo easy… We are on site at the canal in Amityville, where Ryan Katzenbach, owner of Katco Media and producer of the docudrama “Shattered Hopes: The True Story Of The Amityville Murders” believes the killer, or killers, may have disposed of a weapon used in that infamous crime. It seemed like a simple plan; team up with Aqua Survey, one of the world’s preeminent electronic metal detection companies, do a one day electronic survey of the search area, and spend the second day excavating targets until we had the pistol in hand, or could conclusively prove that the pistol was not there. Easy…

What looked so easy on paper was turning out to be not so easy to execute. The concept was simple enough, all we needed to do was pass an EM detection coil, which is mated to a GPS antenna, over the bottom of the canal while a pair of computers logged metallic objects buried under the mud, and pinpointed their position to within a couple of inches. While the detection equipment worked flawlessly, it was the human element that was not yet quite up to speed.

We had at our disposal two different options for moving the coil/antenna unit around the search area, a boat–towed sled, and a diver-propelled unit that ended up resembling an oversized underwater lawn mower. Both of these options worked great in certain parts of the search area, neither was ideal for the entire site. The EM coil works best when it is VERY close to the bottom, especially when looking for small objects, such as a pistol. We could easily set the boat-towed sled to work at any depth, but any irregularities on the bottom could easily tip the sled and plunge expensive electronic components into the water.

The diver-propelled unit worked exceptionally well, but it is incredible exhausting to try to push the unit around underwater, especially in zero visibility conditions when the bottom consists of over three feet of silt and mud. Fortunately, the computer program developed by Aqua Survey that collects the data provided by the coil/GPS unit makes keeping track of the search area incredibly easy. The computer monitor topside displays the entire search area, as the coil moves over an area the path is charted, leaving a green trail over the previously black screen. Kind of like coloring a sheet of paper with a very expensive crayon, all we needed to do was keep moving the sensors around until we had colored the entire screen green. Easy…

To be continued…

In our first two installments we discussed the circumstances leading to our participation in the Katco Media docudrama “Shattered Hopes: The True Story Of The Amityville Murders”, and our initial survey of the site where the producers believe that the murder weapon may have been disposed. So now, let’s talk about how we intend to go in and search for a pistol that has been underwater for 37 years, and is likely to be buried under several feet of thick black mud.

I think that it is important to recognize from the beginning that there is no guarantee that the weapon was actually disposed of at this site, the site was chosen by the team of forensic criminologists after years of studying the original crime scene reports and psychological profiles.
Our objective is now two-fold, to either recover the weapon, or prove conclusively that it is not there. Not an easy task, considering the conditions at the site, namely zero visibility and deep silt and mud.

Fortunately, I already had experience working with a company that is capable of helping us do exactly that. I called my friend Ken Hayes, owner of Aqua Survey, one of the world’s leading underwater detection companies. They have a long history of providing their unique services to governments around the world, including locating unexploded Vietnam War vintage ordnance in the jungles of Laos and detecting and charting ordnance around Martha’s Vineyard for the Army Corps of Engineers. They have also spent time with the Mel Fisher Group, mapping the debris field of the Spanish galleon Atocha, arguably the richest treasure wreck of all time.  No doubt they would be able to help us locate our weapon among all of the junk that has accumulated in the canal over the last hundred years or so.

After discussing the specifics of the situation with Ken, we decided that we would use an “EM” detector, coupled with a military grade GPS system accurate to within 2 inches, to map every single piece of metal in the entire search area. An EM detector is similar in function to a magnetometer but infinitely more sensitive, and capable of picking up all kinds of metals, not just iron or steel. After analyzing the resulting data, we would have a map of all of the targets that had the right mass to be our murder weapon. Sounds easy, right? Dig up all of the targets, if we find the pistol, great. If we don’t find it, then it’s not there. Yup, easy…

So we meet at the site, figuring on a two day project. Day one, we do a complete EM search, day two, we dig targets until we have our weapon, all under the watchful eyes of a Hollywood film crew, Steve and Maureen Langevin of Dive Voyager Productions, and the staff of MAXIM magazine. Easy…■

By Bill Pfeiffer

In March of 2011 I received an e-mail from Gail Bleckman, a producer working with Katco Media, a Hollywood motion picture production company. To make a long story short, she wanted to know if my company could assist them in locating a murder weapon from a very high profile case that had been underwater for 36 years.
Hoo boy!

I quickly pushed the keyboard aside and gave Gail a call. She wasn’t kidding when she said “high profile.”  Katco was producing a documentary on the DeFeo murders...you know, the case spawning the Amityville Horror movies. The big difference was, this wasn’t going to be some silly ghost story. Katco has a team of some 26 forensic criminologists who have been poring over 15,000 pages of evidence for years now, and wants to tell the real story about what happened in Amityville on the night of November 13, 1974 in a documentary entitled “Shattered Hopes: The True Story Of The Amityville Murders”. As part of their investigations, the forensic team had discovered it was probable more than one firearm was used during the crime, and a pistol that is believed to be connected to the crime was never recovered. OK, so now I’m hooked. What do you need from me?

Enter Ryan Katzenbach, owner of Katco Media and the director, producer and writer of the film. Ryan explains the lengthy process by which the forensic criminologists have attempted to reconstruct the crime and determine how the killer (or killers) may have disposed of the second murder weapon. They believe it was thrown into a body of water, as had the first weapon, a Marlin .35 rifle, that had been recovered by the Suffolk County Police just days after the crime. Same method of disposal, different location. Can we find it? I agree to put a team together and do an initial survey of the site to determine what kind of conditions we would encounter when we undertook a full scale search.

The initial survey team consisted of Steve Neumann, Ed Springer, Anthony Amato and Ronnie Siwulec, all members of the Nesconset Fire Department Scuba Rescue Team and all more than capable of working in the muddy black water we were likely to encounter at the site. A call to our friend Jerry Barrett at Air and Gas Technologies got us Interspiro full face masks and a wireless comm system, and John Drewniak of Whites Diving set us up with hazmat suits for the entire team. So, let’s go check it out! ■

To be continued…

In our first installment, we discussed the circumstances surrounding our involvement with Katco Media, the Hollywood production company responsible for the docudrama “Shattered Hopes: The True Story of The Amityville Murders”. We had agreed to assist them in attempting to locate a murder weapon that they believed had been disposed of in a body of water some 37 years ago.

The first step would be an examination of local ordinances to determine the legality of performing dive operations at the site. Finding no obvious restrictions, we used satellite imagery to assist us in defining our search area, basically covering the entire area that an adult male could conceivably throw a pistol from a bulkhead. With our search area plotted, it was time to go to the site and survey the conditions that would affect a full scale search, such as access to the water, tide and current, depth, obstructions and bottom type. We found relatively easy access to the canal from a bulkhead with about 5 feet of water, and typically dark canal water. Not really the nicest place to dive, but we were well prepared with hazmat suits courtesy of John Drewniak at Whites Diving, and full-face masks with wireless comm courtesy of Jerry Barrett at Air and Gas Technologies.

Our plan was to do a quick bottom survey of the entire search area with tethered divers using a “dock walk” pattern. In this manner we could cover the entire search area with little risk of the divers becoming disoriented in the dark water. The divers were guided around the entire search area and stopped every few feet to report depth and bottom conditions. They also used 3 foot long probes marked in 6 inch increments to measure the thickness of the mud and silt at each location. Topside support personnel used this information to create a detailed underwater map of the search area, an invaluable tool for a future full scale search.

By the end of the day we were able to report the following conditions; the search area was approximately 125 by 75 feet. The water depth ranged from 5 feet at the bulkhead to approximately 9 feet at a distance of 75 feet, with a smooth, gradual slope. Visibility was practically non-existent. Other than a single dock piling, there were no major obstructions on the site.  The bottom consisted of silt over harder mud, with the silt ranging from 9 inches in most areas to a few spots over 3 feet thick. The underlying mud went as deep as we could reach with our probes. Obviously, after 37 years, our murder weapon is going to be buried deep in the mud along with a lot of other junk. It’s time to start looking for some sophisticated electronics if we’re going to get this job done!

To be continued…