Defrosting Cold Cases

The False Arrest Report The post below is based on the documents filed in Mr. Zeigler case as per the previous post. The documents were sent to me by Mr. Zeigler’s lawyers and I thank them for that. On Dec 29, 1975, Detective Frye from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office wrote in his arrest report: [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

There is a new and exciting turn of events in the case of William Thomas Zeigler. As loyal readers know, Mr. Zeigler has been on death row for the 1975 quadruple murders that took place on Christmas Eve inside his family’s furniture store in Wintergarden, Florida. When I started my posts about this case in [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

Police are taking new action in the Canadian cold case of Sharron Prior. According to this newspaper article: “This week, police announced an anonymous donor has stepped forward to offer a $10,000 reward. Police also set up a fresh command post in Point St. Charles, and set up a dedicated phone line.” Sharron disappeared on [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Canada, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Point-St-Charles, Police, Rape kits, Sharron Prior, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Please welcome a new guest blogger to DCC! Dave Thomas will guest blog about road death investigations. With that, Dave will take DCC into a new direction. I have some hit-and-run cases posted (including the case of Gregory McRoberts) but nothing in-depth about those investigations and the forensics involved. About Dave, he says “I have [...]

Tags: Crime Labs, Crime Scene, David Thomas, Evidence, Forensics, hit-and-run, Police, Road Death Investigations, UK, Victim, Witnesses

There is a lot that bothers me in Tess‘ case so this is a brainstorming session to get things clear in my mind: 1: Tess’ travel checks were found in the parking lot and her billfold was found near the rail tracks, both to the south of the apartment complex. It leads you to believe [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missouri, Police, Rape kits, stabbing death, Teresa Sue Hilt, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, 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

Last night I was making my rounds around the blogs. I stopped by Norm’s. Norm Pattis always makes me think. Last night, Norm made me mad. You see, I had not seen the article he pointed out. In his blog post “Why Florida v. Zimmerman is necessary” he discussed an article concerning the shooting of Trayvon [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Ballistics, Crime Scene, Evidence, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Norm Pattis, Police, Trayvon Martin, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller a.k.a. Christopher Chichester a.k.a. Christopher Crowe will go on trial in September 2012 for the 1985 murder of John Sohus, and whose wife, Linda (pictured on the left) is still missing. Gerhartsreiter is acccused with the murder of John Sohus, his then-landlady’s son. John and his wife Linda disappeared in the mid-1980s. John’s skull and [...]

Tags: California, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, John and Linda Sohus, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

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