Defrosting Cold Cases

Los Tocayos Carlos … the namesake Carlos … The Guardian has an excellent article about a Texas capital punishment case involving a wrongful conviction, switched identities, an unsolved murder, evidence not tested for DNA, sloppy police procedures and an execution. “Carlos DeLuna was arrested, aged 20, on 4 February 1983 for the brutal murder of [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Capital Punishment, Carlos DeLuna, Carlos Hernandez, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Knife Attack, Los Tocayos Carlos, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Texas, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

Edward Jesus Elias and Leopoldo Chavez II, both 36, were found guilty of first-degree murder and special-circumstance allegations including murder during a robbery. They were teenagers at the time they killed Keith Combs and Eugene “Cliff” Ellis. Elias and Chavez were both sentenced to serve life without the possibility of parole. They both received consecutive life [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Keith Combs & Eugene Ellis, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

This newspaper article from August 14, 1974 was sent to me and it contains information about the crime scene re Teresa Sue Hilt that will make Sue jump up and down across the pond! Hair particles found at the crime scene showed the one who left that hair had a rare scalp disease that makes [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Knife Attack, Missouri, monilethrix, Police, Rape kits, Teresa Sue Hilt, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

More details have appeared in the Hartford Courant about Elizabeth Heath‘s violent death. Dr. H. Wayne Carver, the chief state medical examiner, was in charge of Elizabeth’s autopsy. It was not easy for him. Elizabeth’s remains covered 188 separate envelopes. “Gough Heath’s maxilla — the upper jaw — had been traumatically amputated from the skull, the [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Connecticut, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Elizabeth Heath, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Prisons, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Police have arrested John Heath for murder in connection with the killing of his wife, Elizabeth Gough Heath, 28 years ago. Elizabeth was reported missing in 1984. Her skeletal remains were found beneath the subflooring in a barn in April 2010. Heath, 68, of Bridgewater was arrested by warrant last Monday. He was charged with murder and [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Connecticut, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Dental Records, Elizabeth Heath, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Lisa Cay Kroeyr from Saginaw, Michigan, was found drowned, partially clothed and her hands were bound before she died. I have tried to find some newspaper articles about this case but so far, been unsuccessful. Should you have any links with more information about this case, please let me know. As soon as I get more [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, drowning, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Lisa Cay Kroeyr, Michigan, Police, Rape kits, Saginaw, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

A 1970 Plymouth Road Runner … could this be the car that killed Karen Caughlin? The paper Sarnia This Week wants to know. Several people have been wondering about. They got a creepy feeling after remembering they used to own a car just like that. So they called Crime Stoppers and waited. And waited some more. [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Canada, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Karen Caughlin, Plum Crazy, Police, Sarnia, Witnesses

Forensic anthropologists at Texas State University are helping to solve four unusual cold cases, for the television series “The Decrypters” that will air on the National Geographic Channel beginning March 29, 2012. “The series will tie the investigative methods used by forensic anthropologists to sweeping events in American history,” said Michelle Hamilton, who with Kate [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, Evidence, Forensic Anthropology, Forensics, Identification, National Geographic

Robert Henderson visited the University of Hawaii in the summer of ’96. Five days later his naked body would be discovered at the Ilikai Hotel. Fourteen years later Jason Lee McCormick came forward to say he did it. ”Everyone agrees to the facts. There is no question in the government’s mind, or my mind, as to what happened. The question [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Forensics, Hawaii, Identification, Police, Robert Henderson, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

A verdict has been reached in the trial of two men accused of robbing and fatally shooting two San Diego-based sailors more than 18 years ago in an area of Otay Mesa popular for after-hours drinking and bonfires. Though detectives who documented the murder scene recovered fingerprints and genetic evidence apparently belonging to the killer(s), [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Ballistics, California, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Eugene Ellis, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Keith Combs, Unsolved Homicide, Victim