Defrosting Cold Cases

We had a very hot Cold Case Live Chat today with Andrew Wade who introduced us to fire investigations. Amongst the many questions Andrew answered a few issues stood out. Those issues feature in many arson cases on appeal right now. As I said before, a V-pattern does not necessarily point to the fire’s origin. [...]

Tags: Andrew Wade, Arson Detection, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Fire investigations, Forensics, Identification, Miscarriage of Justice, UK

This Friday, we will be joined by Andrew Wade for #cclivechat and I have some burning questions for him. We have seen many cases re-investigated in the USA where forensic arson detection plays a role. I pointed you to the case of Han Tak Lee in my previous Sum it up! and now we have [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Cameron Todd Willingham, cclivechat, Daniel Dougherty, Forensics, Han Tak Lee, Kenneth Richey

The first Sum it up! for 2012 and I got a lot to share with you. First of all, another police department has decided to place all their cold cases online with information for the public. The Syracuse Police Department and the Criminal Investigations Division have established the Cold Case Unit with an email address and a telephone [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Evidence, Forensics, Han Tak Lee, Sum it Up!, Unsolved Homicide

From the New Hampshire Sentinel: “The [Hina Family] case — originally slated for trial in August — has been delayed twice and will remain on hold indefinitely while the N.H. Supreme Court considers whether to hear an appeal from the N.H. Attorney General’s Office of a pre-trial ruling by Judge Marguerite L. Wageling, who is [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Autopsy, Crime Scene, David McLeod, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Forensics, Hina Family Murders, Investigations Division, New Hampshire, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

Exciting news in the Mercury: “The Texas Forensic Science Commission on Friday approved 17 recommendations for improving arson inquiries. The panel also is suggesting a review of murder convictions involving fires, starting with prisoners on death row.” Of course, reading about forensic arson detection brings to mind the cases of Daniel Dougherty(PA), David McLeod(NH) and [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensic arson detection, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

A pretrial hearing begins coming Monday in Sullivan County Superior Court (NH) in the case of David McLeod who is accused of setting the 1989 fire that killed the Hina family. McLeod was indicted last year on four counts of murder, accused of setting the blaze that killed the Hinas. I am particularly interested in the forensic arson detection part [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Crime Scene, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Kenneth Richey, New Hampshire, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

The controversial chairman of the Texas Forensic Science  Commission will be out of the job next week. The state Senate Nominations Committee has ended its work  for this session without voting on Gov. Rick Perry’s appointment in 2009 of John  Bradley to chair the commission. Perry appointed Bradley to lead the commission days before it was to [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

A cold case chat filled with different topics as you can read below. We discussed that lifting prints from eye balls was a not much researched area as the need is/was probably never there. Lifting prints from people with very soft skin can cause problems so Richard Case commented on that as well. We also [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Autopsy, Crime Labs, DNA, Finger Printing, Forensics

The hearing today brought forward some more details about the fire. Key is of course whether the fire was accidental or arson. Also, exactly where  was the point of origin and what was the material that ignited first. From the New Hampshire Sentinel Source Online: “On Wednesday, a federal fire investigator supported Norton’s belief that [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Autopsy, Crime Scene, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Update Hina Murders: A New Hampshire fire investigator says he doesn’t believe a lit cigarette started the fire that killed a Keene family of four in an adjacent apartment in 1989. Lawyers for 54-year-old David McLeod are in court challenging evidence prosecutors say shows that McLeod set the fire that killed a newlywed couple, their 4-month-old daughter [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Crime Scene, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, New Hampshire, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses