Defrosting Cold Cases

“A preliminary hearing was held Wednesday for two men accused in the shooting deaths of two San Diego-based sailors in Otay Mesa 18 years ago.  The hearing for Edward Jesus Elias and Leopoldo Castro Chavez II, both 35, was to have started Tuesday morning but was postponed until Wednesday because one of the defense attorneys [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Ballistics, California, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Finger Printing, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Who killed Carl Bridgewater? We may never know but after reading Paul Foot‘s excellent analysis of the police interrogations, I am sure that none of the Bridgewater Four were involved. Even though the case dates back to 1978, I consider this book to be a classic to study how cases can go wrong fast. It [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Book Reviews, Carl Bridgewater, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prisons, UK, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The Crewe Murders will be explored once more but in a different setting. “Although much of the detail of the filming and direction the programme will take is being kept under wraps the film company has confirmed the Crewe murders programme will be a “one-off special”. No firm date for the screening has yet been [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Jeanette and Harvey Crewe, New Zealand, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prisons, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

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, his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Perry and Virginia Edwards, [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, 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

Bernard Jackson was found guilty of 18 total counts of rape, sodomy, and robbery in the cases of four women dating back to 1983 and 1984. The prosecution built their case on DNA. Most victims were never able to give a 100% identification of their attacker due to the fact that they were blindfolded. Fingerprints left [...]

Tags: Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Rape kits, Victim

Tags: Autopsy, Black Dahlia, Book Reviews, Child Abuse, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prisons, Rape kits, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

The case of Betsy Aardsma is more alive than ever. Derek Sherwood has been working hard on a book to collect all the available information and to add his thoughts about this case. He generously agreed to make an excerpt available for DCC’s readers from the chapter entitled “As Time Goes By,” in his book ”Who Killed Betsy?” [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Betsy Aardsma, Book Reviews, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Partial Finger Printing, PennState University, Pennsylvania, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

As you know, our #cclivechat on July 15, 2011, centers on the case of Elizabeth Short. Elizabeth (July 29, 1924 – January 15, 1947) was found savagely murdered and her body was left in plain view for anyone to see the grotesque mutilations that she was subjected to before she died. Over the years, many authors [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Black Dahlia, Book Reviews, California, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Elizabeth Short, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Rape kits, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

We are finally able to see the face of the lady known as Grace Doe. Please take a look and see whether you recognize her. Police believe Grace was killed more than a month before her remains were discovered and that it had probably happened on Halloween night, 1990. A witness reported nearly 20 years [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missouri, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

The Observer reports that “The Ontario Provincial Police won’t be handing over its investigation of the Karen Caughlin murder to another police agency for external review. Commissioner Chris Lewis is confident OPP detectives have conducted a “thorough and professional” investigation and will not ask for an independent review of the cold case file, Insp. Dave [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Canada, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Karen Caughlin, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Sarnia, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses