Defrosting Cold Cases

There is a new and exciting turn of events in the case of William Thomas Zeigler. As loyal readers know, Mr. Zeigler has been on death row for the 1975 quadruple murders that took place on Christmas Eve inside his family’s furniture store in Wintergarden, Florida. When I started my posts about this case in [...]

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

Police are taking new action in the Canadian cold case of Sharron Prior. According to this newspaper article: “This week, police announced an anonymous donor has stepped forward to offer a $10,000 reward. Police also set up a fresh command post in Point St. Charles, and set up a dedicated phone line.” Sharron disappeared on [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Canada, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Point-St-Charles, Police, Rape kits, Sharron Prior, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Please welcome a new guest blogger to DCC! Dave Thomas will guest blog about road death investigations. With that, Dave will take DCC into a new direction. I have some hit-and-run cases posted (including the case of Gregory McRoberts) but nothing in-depth about those investigations and the forensics involved. About Dave, he says “I have [...]

Tags: Crime Labs, Crime Scene, David Thomas, Evidence, Forensics, hit-and-run, Police, Road Death Investigations, UK, Victim, Witnesses

There is a lot that bothers me in Tess‘ case so this is a brainstorming session to get things clear in my mind: 1: Tess’ travel checks were found in the parking lot and her billfold was found near the rail tracks, both to the south of the apartment complex. It leads you to believe [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missouri, Police, Rape kits, stabbing death, Teresa Sue Hilt, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Last night I was making my rounds around the blogs. I stopped by Norm’s. Norm Pattis always makes me think. Last night, Norm made me mad. You see, I had not seen the article he pointed out. In his blog post “Why Florida v. Zimmerman is necessary” he discussed an article concerning the shooting of Trayvon [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Ballistics, Crime Scene, Evidence, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Norm Pattis, Police, Trayvon Martin, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

The request for further DNA testing in the case of William Thomas Zeigler was denied by Judge Whitehead March 12, 2012.  The hearing for that request took place last Dec 1, 2011, see here. Judge Whitehead had previously ruled that Zeigler should receive state-funding for a blood spatter expert to testify whether a new round of [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Death Row, Dennis H. Tracey. III, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, John Houston Pope, Miscarriage of Justice, Paul Kish, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

If you click on the link here you can see that the request for DNA has been denied. It states: “Denying Successive Petition for DNA Testing Pursuant to FLA.STAT. 925.11(1)(a).” NOTE: for some reason the page keeps changing. If you see the general search page, go to “all cases records search” and fill in Tommy’s [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Forensics, Identification, Miscarriage of Justice, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

Forty-six years ago, Jim and Nancy Beaumont were confronted with a nightmare that has been ongoing ever since. Their beloved children, all three of their children, vanished without a trace. It broke their hearts, their hopes, and their marriage. Over the years, South Adelaide Police did investigate more leads. They checked into child serial rapist [...]

Tags: Austria, Beaumont Children, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, South Adelaide, Victim, Witnesses

Tragedy has struck the Meredith family again. Very early this morning, Brandon Meredith was found dead at his sister’s home. Brandon was Trisha‘s brother whose cold case can be found here on DCC. The cause of Brandon’s death is still unknown and details will follow later. Trisha’s case is not forgotten. During his life, Brandon [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Indiana, Investigations Division, Police, Trisha Meredith, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Since 1974, the Caughlin Family has been wondering why their beloved 14 year old Karen had to die. To this date, there are no answers. Maybe we will never get the answers we need but then again, it might be possible with the help of some special people. The Caughlin Family would like to have [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Canada, Crime Scene, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Karen Caughlin, Michigan, OPP, Police, Sarnia, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses