Defrosting Cold Cases

Looking back it is always easier to point out how many mistakes police made during an investigation. I try to remain objective. Working with many serving men and women, I partly know the pressure they are under. But some goof-ups need to be exposed especially since it could have prevented an even bigger one. This ignored piece of evidence could have spared Riley’s father a traumatizing interrogation…

In June of 2004, the body of Riley Fox(3) was pulled from a creek near her home in Will County, Illinois. As police attempted to build a case against Riley’s father, evidence that could have helped them find the real killer was right under their noses. Within an hour of finding Riley’s body, police had in their possession a pair of shoes with Eby’s name written inside. Combined with other evidence, it could have led to Eby. Within days, if not hours.

Scott Eby, a jailed sex offender who confessed to Riley’s murder last month, left a pair of mud-covered shoes at Forked Creek, where he allegedly raped and killed Fox. Police collected the shoes and put them into evidence but never followed up. They focused their case instead on the girl’s father, Kevin Fox who confessed to her murder. Charges were later dropped thanks to DNA evidence that excluded him.

Chicago Tribune reporter Hal Dardick, who covered the Fox murder case for years, told WGN that the shoes were not the only clue overlooked by misguided investigators. Like the fact that Eby lived only about a mile from Riley at the time of her murder. And that Eby’s mom had called police the morning the Riley had been reported missing. She was concerned about her son who was vomiting and agitated. Dardicksaid that when police arrived at Eby’s home he was vomiting and asked the cops ’Have you found that little girl yet?’ ” Dardick told WGN.

Read about more ignored evidence here.

Categories: Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, News: Cold Cases, Solved, Unsolved

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Child Abuse, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Rape kits, Riley Fox, Unsolved Homicide, Victim