Defrosting Cold Cases

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

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

In the magazine “North & South,” Chris Birt makes a  strong case for an in-depth review of Len and Norma Thomas Demler’s involvement in the case. Note that Norma is not related to Arthur Allan Thomas! Strong ties have existed between the Demler and Thomas family for quite some time. The siblings in the family married [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, arthur allen thomas, Autopsy, Ballistics, Book Reviews, Capital Punishment, Chris Birt, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Jeanette and Harvey Crewe, Len Demler, Miscarriage of Justice, New Zealand, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rochelle Crewe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The controversial chairman of the Texas Forensic Science  Commission will be out of the job next week. The state Senate Nominations Committee has ended its work  for this session without voting on Gov. Rick Perry’s appointment in 2009 of John  Bradley to chair the commission. Perry appointed Bradley to lead the commission days before it was to [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

One of the issues in the Laura Henderson-Ibach case has been Mac’s van. Did a live or death struggle take place here or not? As you have been able to read in our post, the van doubled as a temporary home to Jim Kerwin. Please take a look at these pictures. They were taken before [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Alaska, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Kodiak, Laura Henderson-Ibach, Missing Person, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

Part 4: “The timeline does not work and police do not care” by Tiah Two different private investigators interviewed everyone who was connected in any way to this case. Much of what they found I will discuss here. If I use the phrase “we know” it is because the information was collected and corroborated by [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Missing Person, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

Part 2: The Changing of the Stories by Tiah  ______________________ After the police had spoken to all Laura’s co-workers they all said they didn’t know anything about a meeting except for CW. But even she didn’t have a name for this unknown man. Police had asked them to all come in and give a written [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Alaska, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Kodiak, Laura Henderson-Ibach, Missing Person, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

Please welcome guest blogger Tiah! Unlike most guest bloggers on my site, Tiah is not involved in the legal world.  Instead, she is an accountant, a far leap from the world of forensics and law!  Tiah has assisted on appeal cases in the past; she was the lay person who reviewed transcripts of court cases.  [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Alaska, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Kidnapping, Kodiak, Laura Henderson-Ibach, Miscarriage of Justice, Missing Person, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

“The lady in the Barrel” has been identified by DNA. Forensic scientists used DNA that was collected during the autopsy of Tracie De Ann Lutz. Tracie was killed in 1990. Her DNA was used to identify her slain twin sister Stacie Anderson. Stacie’s skeletal remains were found stuffed inside a barrel at her husband’s home in 2010. Her husband, Dennis Anderson, later [...]

Tags: Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Prisons, Texas, Unsolved Homicide, Victim