Defrosting Cold Cases

The 1988 Apple Valley Murders have been solved thanks to a federal DNA grant. Hulon and Elaine Hughes were found shot to death in their California Apple Valley home on Oct. 12, 1988. They operated two business on the property: Hughes Roofing and B&S Paving. They employed Harold David Toney as a mechanic and part-time roofer according [...]

Tags: California, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Investigations Division, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

The parents of Andy Moore want answers. They hope that talking about the circumstances of their son’s death and offering a large reward will prompt someone who knows something to come forward. Andy Moore was murdered in his studio apartment on the corner of Ash and 8th Avenue in downtown San Diego, California, USA. Police believe that Andy [...]

Tags: Autopsy, California, Crime Scene, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Police, San Diego, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

Amber Nicklas has learned her true name and is being given therapy to cope with the trauma of leaving the only family she remembers, an investigator said Monday. Amber was placed with an undisclosed California foster family until authorities can determine where she finally will live, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Patrick Maxwell said. He had no immediate [...]

Tags: California, Evidence, FBI, Forensics, Foster Care, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police

More details are now available in the missing person case of Amber Rose Nicklas, the little girl who was abducted from California when she was just one year old and who resurfaced in Phoenix, AZ. The family who raised her as their own are now fighting for legal custody. They claim that they had no idea that the baby [...]

Tags: Amber Nicklas, California, Evidence, FBI, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Victim

Amber remains in protective custody in Los Angeles and it was not clear if she will be reunited with her foster parents. Authorities have not released any names or filed any charges but continue to investigate. “This girl was taken away from the only parents and family that she knows yesterday,” said Phoenix police Sgt. [...]

Tags: Amber Nicklas, Arizona, California, Child Abuse, Cruelty, Evidence, FBI, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Victim

Amber Nicklas, a California girl who had been missing for almost seven years was found last Wednesday by police in Phoenix, Arizona, authorities said. The girl had just turned a year old when she was abducted in September 2003. She had been in the care of foster parents in Norwalk, California, when she was snatched [...]

Tags: California, Child Abuse, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Victim

SAN DIEGO – Authorities say DNA evidence led to an arrest in the 1993 killings of two enlisted sailors whose bodies were found in a field in San Diego County. Leopoldo Castro Chavez II was arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of gunning down the two men in an Otay Mesa field nearly 17 years ago. [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Ballistics, California, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

On Wednesday, New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney announced that David McLeod has been arrested in West Sacramento, California, on four counts of second-degree murder for “recklessly causing the death of the Hina family under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life,” according to a written statement from the attorney general’s office. [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, California, Crime Scene, Evidence, Forensics, Hina Family Murders, Identification, Investigations Division, New Hampshire, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

The reduction in overtime expenses for fingerprint specialists has delayed the collection of evidence in crimes such as burglaries by as much as a week or more. Victims are frustrated by the time lag. Budget cuts ordered by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca have undermined his agency’s ability to collect and analyze fingerprint evidence, [...]

Tags: Budget Cuts, California, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Los Angeles, Police

Colorado prison inmate Roy Allan Melanson might never stand trial for the murders that his DNA says he committed in Louisiana and California decades ago. He will die in a Bent County prison for a 1974 murder that took nearly 20 years to solve, but new evidence links him to at least two other cold [...]

Tags: Anita Elizabeth Andrews, California, Colorado, DNA, Louisiana, Michelle French, Napa Police, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim