In July 1997, the staff of a Washington coffee shop were shot dead. The oldest victim was 25; the three bodies were found by the day shift manager who turned up for work the following morning to find the lights on, and both front and back doors locked.
Horrified, she ran out into the street and flagged down a bus. Nothing appeared to have been stolen – the only thing of value one would expect to find in a coffee shop is money – so the first question the investigators were faced with was is this personal or a robbery gone badly wrong?
The first suspect – a former employee - was eliminated, and the coffee chain offered a $50,000 reward which was shortly doubled.
There was an innocent explanation for the locked front door; an unsuspecting deliveryman was responsible.
An anonymous tip off led them to Carl Cooper, a family man, but one with a record for armed robbery. He was also suspected of murdering a partner-in-crime. Rather than go in feet first, the police elected to trace his phone calls and set up a covert surveillance operation on his home.
It took them well over a year, but eventually they built a rock solid case against Cooper, including for the murder of a security guard, a crime for which he was never a suspect. Although others were involved in his criminal enterprises, including his wife, contrary to the interpretation of the crime scene, Cooper carried out the Coffee Shop Murders alone. After shooting the manageress, he panicked, killed her two co-workers, pumped more bullets into her, and fled empty-handed. To avoid the death penalty, he pleaded guilty to this and numerous other offences. He will never see daylight again.
This documentary includes reconstructions, and interviews with the investigators, and is a fair report on an ultimately senseless crime.