Wet-Vacuum Forensic DNA Collection Gaining Momentum, a guest post by Jared Bradley. Scientific related industries have been my focus the majority of my adult life. In all that time, I don’t remember a device, product, service or method that has garnered more support in a shorter amount of time than the M-Vac System, with the […]
Crime Labs
RTI International Webinar on backlogs in crime labs
RTI International webinar on backlogs in crime labs and their impact on the justice system This morning I attended this webinar and learned more about the backlogs in crime labs, what causes them, whether all labs have a case acceptance policy, the costs involved and much more. The live discussion took place in Washington DC […]
#cclivechat Recap June 15, 2012
In today’s #cclivechat, Sue Carney covered body fluids testing, limitations of tests and forensic interpretation of body fluids with us. It brought a few surprises such as that urine and feces contain very little DNA, that some cells look identical and are thus less suited for forensic purposes. Sue also indicated the difficulties with several tests and […]
Guest post: Road death investigation by Dave Thomas
Guest post: Road death investigation by Dave Thomas. Dave has been a police officer for 15 years with the last 3 years on road policing. _________________________________________________________ Road death investigation and the importance of forensic evaluation. As a road policing officer based in the United Kingdom, I have seen advances in the last few years in automobile […]
Recap #cclivechat March 30, 2012
Today’s CCLiveChat centered on postmortem toxicology and pharmacokinetics. Neither topic can be discussed within the hour but we got some good questions in for Peter Mullen! In general, pharmacokinetics is understanding the “time-course” of a substance in the body or, how fast does it travel through the body? All depends of course on what was taken and in […]
Recap #cclivechat Feb 17, 2012
This recap of CCLiveChat is courtesy of Sue Carney. Today saw a massive turnout of cold case live chat stalwarts, old and new, for a regular-style cold case brainstorming session. Sadly, just as chat began, Alice got the tragic news of the death of her friend Phillip Finch, staunch supporter in the Zeigler case. As Alice […]
Guest post by Sue Carney: Blood Pattern Analysis
Blood Pattern Analysis: A follow up to #cclivechat of Feb 3, 2012, Part I (or, How I Punched a Side of Pork in a Sheffield Morgue) by Sue Carney ___________ In this week’s #cclivechat we focused on blood pattern analysis. The previous week we’d touched on the issues of whether it might be possible to […]
Sum it up! #36
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 […]
Recap #CCLiveChat Jan 13, 2012
Friday the 13th and CCLiveChat, what can go wrong. It was tempting fate and indeed something happened. Air plane delays messed up Richard Case‘s travel plans. Our #CCLiveChat therefore began much early with questions and answers send via email and Twitter. At the noon hour, several other CSI folks jumped in and we learned a […]
Book alert: Cold Case Research
Book alert: Cold Case Research. In 2012 “Cold Case Research” will come out. The author is Silvia Pettem and this is how she describes her book: “Cold Case Research: Resources for Unidentified, Missing, and Cold Homicide Cases,” to be published by CRC Press in 2012. Topics include the latest search engine tools such as TLO, the […]
Bernard Jackson sentenced today
Bernard Jackson was sentenced today. He received 18 consecutive life sentences for rapes committed in the Waldo and Armour Hills neighborhoods almost 30 years ago. No trial date has yet been set for Jackson’s other unresolved criminal cases. Prosecutors accused him of two more recent sexual assaults in the Waldo area. The Case Jackson is […]
Sentencing Bernard Jackson
From the Pitch: “Bernard Jackson‘s sentencing is scheduled for September 30, 9 a.m.” He could be sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is also charged with rapes in the same area where five rapes occurred between September 2009 and February 2010. UPDATE: He was found guilty in July on seven counts of rape stemming from […]
Execution date set for Skinner
According to the website of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Henry Skinner is set to be executed Nov. 9, 2011. In March of this year, the justices ruled that Skinner had the right to sue a Texas district attorney under a federal civil rights law for refusing to allow him access to evidence for […]
Penn State CSI Students on the Zeigler Case
Penn State CSI Students on the Zeigler Case: a review of Zeigler Project. During their final spring semester twenty five (25) undergraduate and five (5) graduate students from Penn State University (PSU) reviewed documents pertaining to the trial and conviction of William Thomas Zeigler. Mr. Zeigler was convicted in 1976 of murdering his wife Eunice Zeigler, […]
DNA techniques
Please welcome back guest blogger Sue Carney. Sue is my DNA expert. In my previous posts and in Cold Case Live Chats, a few other DNA techniques have been mentioned. It seems appropriate to provide a little detail on these techniques: How they work and when best to use them. Mitochondrial DNA Cells contain a […]
Arrest in 1979 murder of Kathy Jo Baker
Richard L. Boswell Jr., a convicted sex offender, has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in the 1979 murder of Kathy Jo Baker (20). That case was recently reopened by the Indiana State Police. He made his initial appearance this morning in Vigo Superior Court 6 to face the allegation that he abducted […]
Riley Fox: Ignored Evidence
Looking back in the Riley Fox case it is always easier to point out how many mistakes police made during that investigation. Some goof-ups need to be exposed especially since it could have prevented an even bigger one. This ignored piece of evidence in the case of Riley Fox could have spared her father a […]
Zeigler, Part XI
Zeigler, Part XI: On Juror Intimidation and Judicial Override You can debate all you want but I have made up my mind; Zeigler is guilty! That was what jury foreman Charles Ashley announced right after he had been elected foreman. According to other jurors, he had made up his mind about two weeks prior … […]
Update Hank Skinner
From the Sceptical Juror comes an update about the Skinner case: “The Supreme Court has handed down its rulings for May 17, 2010. There is no mention of Hank’s petition for a writ of certiorari. The next time the court will announce its rulings is next Monday, 24 May.” Mr. Skinner has asked for DNA testing of seven items: […]
Zeigler, Part IX
Zeigler, Part IX: Let’s talk blood. Pictured here on the website you see the t-shirt Tommy wore underneath a red dress shirt, the night he was shot and, was supposed to die. On the front of the t-shirt you see a big blood stain underneath the left armpit, right? And on the back of the […]