Defrosting Cold Cases

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

The Zeigler Defense Team has told me that this morning, Judge Whitehead has approved state-funding to engage Mr Paul Kish as blood spatter expert in connection with William Thomas Zeigler‘s requests for new DNA testing. Mr. Kish is a forensic consultant in Corning, New York. He will testify at a future hearing on whether a new round of DNA [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, 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

There is a string of news paper articles about the DNA hearing for William Thomas Zeigler that took place at 8am this morning in Orange County, FL! Some are correct and others are not. According to ABC Action News, Private Investigator Lynn-Marie Carty of Reunite People says the evidence she has uncovered will point the [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, 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

From the LASD on Nixle: On  March 15, 2011, the LA County District Attorney’s Office filed murder charges against Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter for the 1985 murder of John Sohus(26). Gerhartsreiter, of German nationality, is also known as Christopher Chichester or Clark Rockefeller. “In February of 1985, John (26) and Linda Sohus (28) disappeared from their home in the 1900 [...]

Tags: Autopsy, California, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, FBI, Forensics, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Prisons, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

be a correctional officer in one of the largest maximum security lock-up in the free world? Meet Luke Whyte who interviewed a sergeant at Pelican Bay State Prison, California (PBSP). “Pelican Bay State Prison is the end of the line; designed to contain and isolate California’s most dangerous inmates. In the event of an earthquake, [...]

Tags: California, Prisons