Second crime scene key to quadruple murder case

As police searched an Aurora home where they found four slain family members, officers grew suspicious some of the scene was staged.

But it would be another 2½ days until they uncovered a second crime scene, in the nearby Naperville home of two of the victims.

The search for clues inside Terrance and Mary Hanson's house on Rock Spring Court was the focus Wednesday of their son's death penalty trial.

Eric C. Hanson is charged with killing his parents, sister and brother-in-law late Sept. 28 into early Sept. 29, 2005, after stealing $80,000 from his folks in a credit card scam.

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Prosecutors accused Hanson, 31, of bludgeoning his sister, Kate, and her husband, Jimmy Tsao, in their home in the White Eagle subdivision. Hanson is suspected of shooting his parents, with whom he lived, hours later.

Eric Hanson is expected to testify later in the trial. He admits the thefts, but denies killing his family. The existence of a second crime scene is crucial because, if true, that means Hanson was home when his parents were killed.

Police checked the Hansons' house the day the murders were discovered, but they did not find obvious signs of a disturbance. The interior was immaculate, the way Mary always kept it.

But back at the Tsao house, things weren't adding up, police testified. The Hansons were in night clothes, the younger couple in day attire. Some bodies appeared as if they were moved.

Naperville police officer Michael Sailer testified Wednesday that they eventually found evidence that the Hansons were shot in their bed and taken to Kate's, and then the killer cleaned up the Naperville house.

Sailer said they discovered a bloodstained mattress; a fired bullet in the attic, which is on the other side of a wall behind the headboard to the Hansons' bed; and evidence someone used a drill and wood filler to cover the headboard's bullet hole. And police found blood stains elsewhere in the bedroom and in the passenger seat of Mary Hanson's Saturn SUV.

Financial papers from the credit card scam were found between Eric's mattress and box spring, Sailer said.

The prosecution team -- Robert Berlin, Michael Wolfe and Nancy Wolfe -- called about 21 witnesses and introduced more than 200 pieces of evidence in the trial's first four days. Its witness list includes 100 names.

The defense team -- Robert Miller and Elizabeth Reed -- argues Eric's parents were letting him pay the money back without involving police. He is expected to tell jurors he was asleep in his basement bedroom and didn't hear any disturbance.

Prosecutors lack a confession and the murder weapons, but they are emphasizing the financial motive, timeline and other physical evidence. They said a rubber glove with his father's blood was in Hanson's SUV, along with jewelry belonging to Kate and Jimmy.

Still, none of Hanson's blood, saliva, fingerprints, and hairs were recovered in the Tsao home. Seven partial bloody shoe prints were found, but none were Eric's.

The attentive jury is made up of an administrative assistant, nurse, teacher, dispatch supervisor, mechanic, contractor, accountants, managers and two retirees.

The trial continues today.