Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for a fire that killed his three daughters. Prosecutors argued that Willingham deliberately set the 1991 blaze — but three reviews of the evidence by outside experts have found the fire should not have been ruled arson. The last of those reports was ordered by the Texas Forensic [...]
Tag Archive 'FBI'
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 [...]
Eby’s hands under the loupe…
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Solved, Unsolved Homicides
Authorities will get a closer look at the hands of the man accused of sexually assaulting and drowning 3-year-old Riley Fox. Smudged prints were found on the back door to the Foxes’ Wilmington home at the time of the 2004 abduction and murder, but testing of those prints has yet to find a match, case [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
Fox, Hobbs III, Rivera and Lapointe
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
Lisa Black and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune have written an excellent piece about what makes people confess falsely. False confessions are not so uncommon as you would think. I understand that right now you shake your head and question Vidocq’s sanity…justifiably so! Why would a parent confess to raping their own three year old [...]
Life sentences in 1980 high school sweethearts murders
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Solved, Unsolved Homicides
Edward Edwards, of Louisville, Ky., was arrested after DNA connected him to the deaths of Tim Hack and his girlfriend, Kelly Drew, who disappeared from a Wisconsin wedding reception in August 1980. Their bodies were found weeks later in the woods. Investigators believe Hack was stabbed and Drew strangled. Auhorities said the state crime lab matched Edwards’ [...]
Remains of missing Ryan Eugene Guitron found
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Missing Persons, Unsolved Homicides
The skeletal remains of a Fort Collins man missing for six years have been found in rural Kimball County, Neb., and a multi-jurisdictional investigation is under way since last Monday. According to investigators, the remains of 30-year-old Ryan Eugene Guitron were found in a woodpile on an abandoned farmstead. A former roommate of the man [...]
Riley Fox case… still unsolved
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Solved, Unsolved Homicides
An appeals court Wednesday agreed with a federal jury’s 2007 finding that Will County Police framed Kevin Fox for the rape and murder of his 3-year-old daughter Riley, but reduced the damages awarded to Fox and his wife from $12.2 million to $8 million. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals chastised the investigators on the [...]
In June 1954, Isadore Banks, an African-American veteran of World War I, was chained to a tree, doused in gasoline, and burned alive beyond recognition. Now the traditional three-shot volley salute and the solemn sound of taps echoed across the black cemetery in the Delta flatlands of Arkansas, just across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee, in his [...]