Recently in Crime Investigation Category

Two years ago, there was a stampede at the Nassau county Wal*Mart that lead to a workers death. 

How would you try to bring charges for a man killed in a stampede?

Read this article and blog about how you would try to figure out who killed the Wal*Mart worker.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_re_us/us_post_office_shooting

Here is a link to a shooting that happened Monday October 18, 2010 in Henning Tennessee. Two gunmen opened fire at a post office. No arrests were made and postal officials are pleading with anyone who may have information to come forward.  This article does go through how the police are investigating the shooting.

I was watching the show Forensic Files on night and I saw this case about a woman killing her husband. I found this case to be relevant to this class because of what she did when she murdered him.
The night that she decided to kill him, she called the police in a panic claiming someone had broken in to their home and was robbing it. During the 911 call she was crying and at one point (if you watch the video links below) she yelled at the him to not go upstairs to her children. During the call she said he had a gun, and by this point she was screaming to not shot her husband, and then fires were shot.
The police rushed to the Bosley's home and the house looked like it had been ripped apart like that from a break in. The window to the kitchen door was broken and the cabinets were all opened.
The police search went on for the man that broke in and killed Mr. Bosley. But it soon became focused on the evidence that was around the home. The window that was broken was found to have been broken from the inside instead of the outside. And another things just weren't adding up.
Also, Amy didn't think about her two young children who were still in the home. They became witnesses to what actually happened in the home that night. Which brings about the topic or children as witnesses in criminal cases and how much they know what is really going on.
This is an interesting case and the video provided below isn't from Forensic Files but from another show called Snapped.





Part #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkwaROqDNQ0&feature=related

Part #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZJCXMjvS_8&feature=related

Part #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em2da4vnGjU&feature=related

Also, here is an article about the case as well:

http://www.wlwt.com/news/4540332/detail.html

This article is about the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback being accused of sexual assault for the second time. I think this ties into the class because the case has been dropped from the DA for the lack of any evidence, so it seems that it is all hearsay evidence. This could be a case where the girl was trying to take advantage of the superstar by accusing him of assualting her, or it could be a case in which the prosecution just didnt have enough evidence to satisfy the burden of proof to convict Ben. Either way he is not going to get in trouble by the law for whatever happened however he may be suspended by the league for violating the players code of conduct policy. Ben has been accused of assaulting a girl before and it makes people wonder if girls are just trying to take advantage of a celebrity or is he getting away with these assaults because of lack of evidence. The prosecution pretty much said in their press conference that they are confident that Ben assaulted the girl but cannot prove without a reasonable doubt to a jury that he is responsible, also it did not help that the girl, for some reason, did not want to press charges. The medicial examiner said they found male DNA but not enough to make a DNA profile. I think this would have come to a different outcome if they were in fact able to get a DNA profile from the sample.The case shows that there is in fact a burden of proof that needs to be satisfied for the DA to persue a case, and do not just go after people to punish them for supposably committing crimes.  

After finishing the video on North Carolina v. Michael Peterson, I became interested in what his and his family's life was after his sentencing was given. I found a website that has the story. It describes how one of Peterson's defense attorneys is planning on appealing his verdict. I'm not sure if this has been done yet, but he plans on objecting to some of the evidence that was given at the trial, such as if it was legal to take Peterson's computer away from him and go through it, which is where they found his pornography.

Also on the website, are a few videos that you can click through and watch. One talks about what Kathleen Peterson was like, the other talks about the verdict of the trial, and the third is how Kathleen's sisters react to the whole situation.

In the article, they also bring up the possibility that the prosecution is also going to try Peterson for the death of his other wife, Elizabeth Ratliff, as well. It's a short article, but it does provide good information on what happened after Peterson's guilty verdict.

I found this website that talks about traps that your mind does to you that usually make you think incorrectly. I thought the first one was most relevant to this class. It's called the anchoring trap and it's when you base your thoughts/decisions off of the first thing you hear. The example they used is a study that asked people two questions: Is the population of Turkey was over 35 million? What's your best estimate? The results showed that almost everyone guessed around 35 million. They asked the same question to other people using 100 million instead. The results were the same. This reminds me of questioning witnesses and how using leading questions can result in false answers. If a witness isn't totally sure about what happened and they're asked if the suspect was fat, they're probably going to think the suspect was fat. The website gave 9 more mind traps that are very interesting as well and it shows how powerful our brain is and how we don't always realize that. Here's the website: http://litemind.com/thinking-traps/

http://www.justiceforkurt.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kurt_Cobain

 

 

As a grunge-junkie, I have had a long time interest in the alleged suicide of famous musician Kurt Cobain. For those of you who do not know who Kurt Cobain is, he is the lead singer of popular 90's grunge rock band Nirvana. Nirvana is considered by many to be the anthem band for the generation growing up during this time period. Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home on April 8^th, 1994. Investigators ruled the death a suicide by gunshot blast coming from his jaw then exiting through the top of his head. Much controversy surrounds Kurt Cobain's death leaving many speculators to wonder if Cobain actually did commit suicide. These two websites highlight some of the controversy surrounding the death. Cobain's death is still largely considered a suicide. Those who advocate that his death was in fact a suicide site Cobain's alcohol and drug abuse, his history of depression, and a suicide note left behind. Despite the enormous amount of evidence, there is still a collective group of people who believe that Cobain was murdered. The main advocator that Cobain's death was indeed homicide is Thomas Grant, a private investigator that was under the employment of Cobain's wife prior to his death. Grant's main arguments are so strong that they have led many others to believe his theory. Some of Grant's main arguments are

-          According to the toxicology report, Cobain had an enormous amount of heroin in his blood at the time of his death. Cobain had so much heroin in his system that it would have been impossible to steady a shotgun and pull the trigger. The amount of heroin in Cobain's system would have left him completely incapacitated and unconscious  

-          There are complications with the suicide note including so irregularities in the handwriting

-          Inconsistency in the police reports including: failure to take finger prints off the shotgun trigger, inconstancies with the discharged shell in relation to his body, no finger prints were found on the suicide note yet Cobain was not wearing gloves at the time of the murder

-          Evidence that came out after Cobain's death that Courtney Love (Cobain's wife at the time of his death) attempted to pay someone to murder Cobain

Those who still feel Cobain's death was a suicide believe this evidence to be circumstantial.

I personally feel that there were many signs in this case that indicate foul play but due to Cobain's history of drug abuse and depression they were all overlooked by police officials. If the police had investigated further into the theory of murder then there might be a lot more evidence out there that was not "circumstantial."

 

The Movie takes place in Mexico City, it starts off with a rich man having to pay for his son's ransom, and that is what the whole movie is about, it is about money and kidnapping.  A Body Guard is hired and is being payed very low because of his alcohol problem.  He is hired to escort a daughter named Pita by a Wealthy man.  His wife took a liking to the Body Guard immediately all because he was an American.  The Body Guard had many related skills relating to being a Body Guard, however he had never protected children before.  At first the Body Guard does not want to develop a friendship with the little girl but later on he does anyway.  The Pita (the little girl/daughter of the rich guy) informs the Body Guard that there has been 24 kidnappings in the last six days, four each day.  He is some how psychologically damaged from his past, he dislikes his job so much, he tries to fit in God into his life and wonders if God would ever forgive him (because of his psychological damage I can see why he has a drinking problem). Later on both the Boday Guard and Pita take notice of a car behind them, they both write down the license plate number.  Pita is at her piano classes, the Boday Guard is waiting outside, a dog is let loose the Body Guard puts it back in the car from where it came from and all of a sudden he sees the familiar car pull up where Pita was coming out tries to kidnap her but the Body Guard pulls out his gun unfortunately cops get in the way, Boday Guard shoots and kills two, kidnappers kidnapped Pita.  Turns out the cops were not on duty and yet still had their uniform on and exactly at the scene of the crime so they were crooked cops.  A ransom was offered but no successful, later on turns out the head of the dapartment of anti-kidnapping stole half of the ransom money which was 5 million in total 10 million, but the head stole 5 million of paper not money, the other million went to the Pita's father's lawyer and the kidnappers and in a way he got some money back to help him out of debt but everything was placed on hold because the other half was fake. Of course the Body Guard discovered all of this by going back to the scene of the crimes going around asking questions to witnessess or suspects like a detective.  He builds an alliance with a newsreporter named Maria and his old partner during his lasts jobs.  The Father committed suicide and he made a deal with the kidnappers, "A life for a life."  In exchanged the main Kidnapper's brother and the BodyGuard for Pita, Pita returned safely.  Can you actually imagine going through all of that?  Of course the movie is a bit exagerated, you just wouldn't be blowing off anyone's head off out of anger.  Kidnapping happens every where in this world at any time and any place but rich people are the ultimate targets all because of the economic issues that a person faces that or because of greed.

Talking Tuesday in class I realized how uneducated I am when it comes to police officers. I didn't know that they could lie to no end just to get a confession or anything else we really learned Tuesday. I decided to do some research on the topic. The site I found-- i'm not sure how credible-- reinstated a lot of the things we were told in class. For the record, I LOVE police officers! In the end they do accomplish a LOT of good through their jobs. They protect those who need protecting and uphold a lot of good in the world. So keep in mind while reading this= they are doing their jobs as they were taught to do. They don't know who is truly guilty or innocent and part of their job is to decipher the differance, through whatever means.

I do NOT agree however with the sites "golden rule:" Don't trust cops. Cops are there for the better of society as a whole and we should keep that in mind. At the end of the day, cops are the good guys. Good guys that just want answers. So while this site is informative I'm choosing not to believe everything in it because it seems very opinion based to me.

I was not aware that cops do not have to read you your Miranda Rights- I was under the impression that your rights were there for you regardless, yet they can still use whatever you say against you in court. From class I know that during interrogation they can lie to get any confession possible. I had never really thought about the lie they tell when they're going to charge someone for... who knows what. They can't charge us with anything! So why have we not learned this earlier? We wait until we're 20 years old to find this stuff out. What about those who still have no idea!?

But how fair is it for a police officer to trick an innocent citizen? A citizen who believes that he or she is in good hands. A citizen who believes they are being protected, not tricked. So it should be common sense to any judge or jury that any confession given should be looked at critically because people will say anything to "help" those who are supposed to "help" us.

http://www.rense.com/general72/howto.htm

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/st_bloodstains

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/texas.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T1 

 

A relatively new story that happened just this morning that involved a man that burned his house down and then ran his plane into an IRS building but left behind a disgruntled suicide note.  In the note there were evident signs of a rage against the IRS, but it is still not yet clear if it was a terrorist motive or just one man taking action against the IRS. A possible psychological aspect to the story could be a mental disorder of a manic episode that caused the man to take such extreme action.

 

Veritaserum... Fact or Fiction?

After reading other people's posts this afternoon about lie detection, I started looking for real life chemicals that might make someone spill their secrets. Most of what I found led me to believe that truth serums are better left for pages in a science-fiction novel but I did find one article interesting, on Wikipedia of all places.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_serum

Granted, Wikipedia's reliability isn't the greatest but generally speaking they are good for some stuff so I am going to take their word for it for arguments sake. According to this article, there are certain chemicals that can induce people to tell the truth. These chemicals have been deemed unethical under the grounds of torture in international law however they can be used for psychiatry purposes. The reliability of these drugs are called to question in this article as it states that the drugs do not actually cause people to tell the truth, it is the fact that the people the drugs are being administered to BELIEVE that they cannot tell a lie under the influence of the drug. It also states that the drugs causes people to talk more frequently thereby releasing more information and maybe telling more truths.

I found this information very interesting especially the part about it being illegal in international law. Now I am just as much for civil liberties as the next person but I do not feel that this should fall under the guidelines as torture from an international legal standard. I suppose one could argue that in a very contrived scenario where someone is administering truth serum on a governmental figure to obtain information (let's say codes to our nuclear weapons arsenal) then YES maybe then you can view truth serum as torture (although if someone wants access to our nukes then they probably don't care about international law anyway). What do you think? Is a truth serum unethical? If so why or why not?

 

(For those that didn't get the title reference, Veritaserum is a fictional truth serum)

 

The ever so popular TV show, The First 48 on AE.TV is one that you can count on for truth and facts. The first 48 is a show about homicide detectives that respond to a crime and try and solve it within the first 48 hours. These are real cases with the real people...no actors or replaying of a scene. What you see is what you get!
This show focuses mostly on people that go from suspicion to suspect, eye witnesses, and the interrogation, or interviewing. This really helps you see what a detective does from the moment they get that call.
You can also get a sense of how they figure out what happened and who was involved. They start with the facts that they have off hand and work their way down from there. The one thing that I have started to notice sense we have talked about it in class is the interrogations done by the detectives. In class we learned that a detective will tell you anything you want to hear. They will exhaust you mentally and physically, they will lie to you. Basically they will do anything to get you to confess or turn on anyone. If you notices, in most shows, the detective will either try and play friend, or yell and scream and lie to get them to crack. I find it interesting to watch, now that you really know what is going on.
I have posted the link to the First 48 TV shows. The one on the link I am posting is about a homeless man who is murdered, and a 911 call that has gun shots firing in the background. I urge you to watch the whole show and really pay close attention to the detail that goes into being a detective, especially the ones that do the interviews.
If you are interested after watching this show, you can watch many other episodes with different stories. They get very interesting!

http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/video/index.jsp?paidlink=1&vid=AETV_SEM_Search&keywords=first%2B48&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=first%2540&utm_term=first%2048

http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/video/index.jsp?paidlink=1&vid=AETV_SEM_Search&keywords=first%2B48&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=first%2540&utm_term=first%2048 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/14/AR2010021404062.html

"The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day was read his Miranda rights nine hours after his arrest, according to a detailed chronology released Sunday by senior administration officials. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2010-02-15/5.htm

Wow...try to do a search on "blood splatter analysis training" and you will get just about nothing that your looking for.  After we discussed crime scene investigation last week (and watching a season of Dexter), I started to wonder where individuals could go for training on blood spatter analysis.  I did however find 2 sources that gave a decent amount of information.  The only thing that I really found out was that you need a strong background in biology, chemistry, physics, math, and it wouldn't hurt to have a background in criminology.  The link below is to the wikipedia page that I found on Blood Spatter Analysis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodstain_pattern_analysis 

This link below is to the home page of the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts:

http://iabpa.org/

Enjoy!

http://www.centredessciencesdemontreal.com/autopsy/flash.htm

Above is a link to an interactive game called, "Autopsy of a Murder."

After a little introduction to the crime, you will be given 5 pieces of evidence to click on.  Once you click on a piece of evidence, you will be asked to click the answer to which you think is the best accessory to analyze the evidence.  You are given 5 choices: photograph, measurements and diagram of the crime scene, polilight, revealing prints, taking samples.  Once you choose one, it will tell you if it is relevant or not, and if it is, give you more information about your choice.

You will also be given the option of 4 labs (genetics, chemistry, ballistics, or fingerprint) to test your evidence in.  Once you have chosen the correct lab, it will give you a little background information before entering the lab.  If you scroll over the name of the lab, it will give you details as to why each lab is important.  You will then click on all equipment available and learn about it (some equipment have animations, so be on the look out for those).  You can also click on the person in each lab and learn about them (training required, their role, as well as what they do).  If you so chose, there is a the pioneer file where you will learn about a person from history who held that position and read a short snippet about a famous case they worked on.

Though it is not the most exciting game ever, I felt it was very informative and I read a lot about information I hadn't previously known.

 

Everyone has probably seen movies or television shows where a person is injected with something and magically they are unable to lie ,such as in the movie meet the Fockers and many more. If only it was that simple. This article explains it and guess what?! We have probably all experienced how it feels . Yes really , how could this be? Well, legally if youre 21 otherwise anytime you have been intoxicated that is the effect. And as everyone knows drunk people can lie and most of the time anything that comes out of there mouth is not only irrelavent but makes no sense. Hypothetically though I find it unethical that this could be practiced and it is currently banned.The psychology behind is probably more effective than the actual drug, like self fufilling prophecy (they think it will make them tell the truth so they may feel it like a placebo affect)  Here is the link it is very interesting and short http://www.damninteresting.com/the-truth-about-truth-serum 

The life and story of the BTK killer, also known as Dennis Rader. This 53 page story takes you through everything! His life as the BTK killer in Wichita, Kansas and his life as Dennis Rader in Wichita, Kansas. This is a chilling story that gives you the complete facts, details, and photgraphs. It is worth reading!

 

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/unsolved/btk/index_1.html 

 

A Florida man was found under a concrete slab behind a woman's home.  The man won the lottery in 2006 and his family said that people were always asking for money which made him not want the money anymore.  He then disappeared.  The women that owned the house, where the body was found, had recently transferred 2 million dollars from the victims bank account in to her own bank account.

This story caught my eye because it shows what people will do for money.  I think that money can change how people think.  It will make people hurt or kill other people, even if they are perfectly normal, just so they can get more money.  Money can also change the people that own it and make them do things that they wouldn't usually do but think since they have money, they can get away with anything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/03brfs-MILLIONAIRES_BRF.html

I found an article about a man that has been in prison for 35 years for something he didn't do. He was released from prison on December 17, 2009 because they used DNA do find out that it wasn't him who raped a 9-year-old boy in 1974.

http://www.newser.com/story/76448/innocent-man-free-after-35-years.html

What I don't really understand is why hadn't they used the DNA testing before on this man? They always take the fingerprints of each criminal when they go to prison, and this case could have been prevented or at least reduced in the years that the man was in prison if they would have been able to do the testing. To answer my own question, I found another article about the history of DNA testing in criminal cases that is really interesting. DNA testing has only been used in criminal cases for about 24 years, so the case with the man in prison for 35 years makes sense. They were only able to do the testing after he was in prison for a while.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5285970_history-dna-testing-criminal-cases.html

In an article on CNN.com (found here) regarding the Drew Peterson murder case, a small portion of it makes mention of the fact that over a months worth of hearings have been held regarding the inclusion of hearsay evidence. While the article paid very little attention to it, mostly reporting it as a bit of background on what has happened in the case so far it got me thinking.

It is fair to say that I am not the sort of person who would ignore evidence just because the defense felt it is unfair to them, but hearsay evidence is pushing it even by my standards. It seems to me that it is trying to convict someone over what some guy said at the bar. Certainly if this is brought up in conjunction with either physical or direct witness evidence then sure toss it in, but make sure that the jury knows it is nothing more then rumor and hearsay. However, if all you have is hearsay I'm inclined to think that you are just grabbing at straws and bringing someone to trial over that makes a mockery of the justice system.

After class on Tuesday I got to thinking about crime scenes, then it dawned on me...who cleans that junk up? Turns out there's specialized people for that job, they're called CTS's. These people are generally from the medical background and take many precautions when doing there job. I personally think they're crazy, I mean who'd want to clean up a suicide and/or homicide for a living? I think it would be emotionally draining, and you'd get pretty messed up from it; but those are all just assumptions. Here's the link to it....check it out, it's pretty cool:)

http://science.howstuffworks.com/crime-scene-clean-up.htm

In class this week, we talked a lot about the specifics about crime scenes and how they are investigated. I found this interactive game that shows you the crime scene, forensic evidence, information about people involved with the case and challenges you to solve the case. It's a great experience especially after learning the actual details about how crime scenes are really handled in real life. TruTV seems to be very accurate in the way they set up this game. It's not graphic or anything and was quite fun.

After playing the game, I definitely realized being a detective is not for me, but it certainly was very interesting trying to put the pieces together and understanding what some people do everyday for their job.

http://www.trutv.com/shows/forensic_files/games/burgledbonuses/index.html

What did you find most interesting or surprising about tuesday's discussion? What did you learn that you did not know before? Which of the roles that we covered that day (police, detective, sergeant, csi techs, etc) would you be most interested in? Why?

Next, assume that you are the detective. What are your first steps in the investigation? What questions do you initially have? How will you go about answering them? 

This article looks at the case of Maria Teresa Macias. Macias was killed by her husband Avelino Macias.  The Sonoma County Sheriffs Office were the ones dealing with this case. It was states that Maria had contacted the Sheriffs office on more that 22 different occasions leading up to her death.  In this documentation Macias family is suing the Sheriffs department for not acting properly to the act of domestic violence that lead up to the domestic homicide of Maria Teresa Macias. Maria's family claims that the Sheriffs Office neglected to take her case seriously becasue she was not only a women but a latino woman. In this case a expert witness, San Diego Police sergeant Anne O'Dell was brought in to review the case. In the link I provided below you can see the way in which O'Dell went about determining that the Sonoma County Sheriffs office did indeed neglect an attempt to prevent this homicide from happening . O'Dell states that in many case and situations the Sheriffs Office could have responded but simply brushed the numerous 911 phone calls away. Personally I think the article is very interesting. We hear a lot about expert witnesses in trials but I have never actually seen a case in which one has been used and ultimately determined the outcome. I am sure there are many cases out there where this has been the case (otherwise expert witnesses wouldn't be as important as they are).

 

 

http://www.justicewomen.com/witness.html

I'm doing my book report on "Psychic Criminology" a book about the use of psychics in law enforcement.  My research brought me across the following article regarding the use of Remote Viewing by the CIA.

http://www.mceagle.com/remote-viewing/refs/science/air/hyman.html

First a little background information.  Parapsychology is the branch of psychology studying various kinds of psychic phenomena, known to the scientific community at large as anomalous mental phenomena.  Parapsychology research encompasses various abilities including telepathy (communication between minds), clairvoyance (acquiring information without the use of the 5 known senses), Precognition (predicting something in the future), Dowsing (locating something, generally water or minerals with a dowsing rod or a pendulum), Psychometry (acquiring information about the history of an object by touching the object), and Remote viewing (the ability to describe very distant objects, really this is a form of clairvoyance).

Here is a link to a real autopsy. Be warned, this is a close-up and graphic representation of physicians conducting an autopsy on a young woman. It is narrated so you know what is going on.

http://www.toxicjunction.com/get.asp?i=V3997

http://www.crimeandclues.com/index.php/behavioral-evidence/49-criminal-psychology/88-child-abuse-munchausens-syndrome-by-proxy

 Munchausen's Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP) is a form of child abuse that often times is not caught by social services, law enforcement, or other reporting agencies. This is because the behavior of the offender (typically the child's mother) doesn't fit the stereotype we imagine a child abuser to have. MSBP is a disorder where the abuser will purposely fain or sometimes cause a child's illness so that the child must receive medical care (usual hospitalization). This is so the abuser may gain sympathy and attention from others and receive praise for being such a "good parent."
 The article above describes the characteristics of both victim and abuser, warning signs to look for, and how to properly investigate a case where MSBP may be a suspicion.