Unsolved homicides that haunt me…
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Help the Cops!
Kansas City police announced today that they are reopening the investigation into the 40-year-old killing of Civil Rights and political leader Leon Jordan. In a news release, police said that they “have located the weapon used in the murder and partial fingerprints taken from the weapon and cars around the crime scene. The fingerprints were [...]
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Miscarriages of Justice
He spent half of his life in prison for a rape and robbery he did not commit. But last Friday, at the age of 39, Allen Porter is finally a free man. Porter’s case stemmed from a robbery and sexual assault at an apartment in southwest Houston on June 18, 1990. Three masked robbers burst [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Solved, Unsolved Homicides
New fingerprint technology has enabled police to identify a woman killed on the M25 in Hertfordshire, UK, 20 years ago. Investigations have revealed Lesley Ann Pickavance died after being hit by several vehicles as she tried to cross the M25 in July 1990. Fingerprints from the body scanned by modern systems revealed a match. There had [...]
Posted in Forensics
If you are promoting stolen merchandize make sure the picture does not give you away! Manchester Police couldn’t have wished for better proof of Stephen Taylor’s guilt. After coming into contact with stolen watches worth £4,000, Taylor draped them over his hand and took a high quality photo with his camera phone. But the image [...]
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 … before the defense had [...]
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, [...]
Posted in Forensics, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
If they knew then what we know now…read about the thoughts and feelings of the original Skinner jury! “In light of new developments that have surfaced in the 15 years since Skinner’s trial, several of the original jurors are no longer sure of his guilt. Five say they might have had reasonable doubt at the [...]
The crime laboratory of the National Bureau of Investigation in Finland is examining DNA samples about twice as often as it resorts to fingerprint analysis. DNA studies have surged in the past ten years. Last year the NBI crime laboratory examined 6,000 DNA samples. In the same period of time, the laboratory analysed 3,000 fingerprints. [...]