Defrosting Cold Cases

Today, a psychologist examined Scott Eby, the man accused of killing Riley Fox. Dr. Randi Zoot did the work with Scott Eby while in the Will County Courthouse. She is trying to determine if he is fit for trial. The legal concept of fitness is related to a defendant’s ability to understand court proceedings and [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Capital Punishment, Child Abuse, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Police, Prisons, Rape kits, Riley Fox, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

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 [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Child Abuse, Crime Scene, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, FBI, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Police, Rape kits, Riley Fox, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

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 [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Capital Punishment, Child Abuse, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, FBI, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

Looking back it is always easier to point out how many mistakes police made during an investigation. I try to remain objective. Working with many serving men and women, I partly know the pressure they are under. But some goof-ups need to be exposed especially since it could have prevented an even bigger one. This [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Child Abuse, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Rape kits, Riley Fox, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

The Fox family of Illinois finally has some closure after an imprisoned sex offender was charged with the 2004 murder of 3-year-old Riley Fox, a crime that Riley’s father originally confessed to committing. It’s been a terrible ordeal for the family because even with DNA clearing Kevin in 2005, many people persisted in the belief [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Child Abuse, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, False Confessions, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Police, Rape kits, Recording Interrogations, Riley Fox, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

One of the strangest cases that I worked on is the unsolved homicide of Mr. McHenry Biggers. Nothing in the file makes sense. The people we spoke to did not make sense. What we found out did not make sense either. That is, what we were able to find. This is, alas, one of those [...]

Tags: Champaign, Crime Scene, Drugs, Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Illinois, Investigations Division, McHenry Biggers, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

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 [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Child Abuse, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, False Confessions, FBI, Forensics, Illinois, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Rape kits, Victim, Videotaping Murder Suspect's Interrogations, Wrongful Convictions

A suburban police department left behind a roomful of evidence when it closed two years ago — including a moldy sexual assault kit that authorities said linked a man to the 2006 rape of a 13-year-old girl, nearly 200 guns and hundreds of bags of narcotics, officials said Friday. In all, seven rape kits had [...]

Tags: Ballistics, Chicago, Evidence, Illinois, Police

The Chicago Police Department is dramatically expanding its use of Tasers, adding several hundred more and putting them in the hands of patrol officers for the first time. The “stun guns” will go in every squad car to give front-line beat officers a more effective way to protect themselves and calm a disturbance. Chicago police [...]

Tags: Chicago, Chicago Police Department, Illinois, Independent Police Review Authority, Stun Guns, Taser X26

On December 7, 1995, between 6 and 7 pm, Mr. Simmons’ neighbour heard shouting next door. Considering that Mr. Simmons led a quiet life, the shouting was unusual. In fact, it was so unusual that it made her open the bi-fold door to the furnace area to hear what was being said in the apartment [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Champaign, Crime Scene, Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Illinois, Police, Shawn Simmons, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses