Case of the Month: Deborah Lynn Rosencrans (March 9, 1961 – September 18, 1977). Deborah was both attracted and terrified of the city and longed for a quiet place filled with nice people. The city of Chicago was exciting but it also got on her nerves to the point of hospitalization. To help ease her […]
Forensics
Barbara Ann Blatnik (1971-1987)
Barbara Ann Blatnik (1971-1987) was just seventeen years old. On December 20, 1987, her nude body was found about 30 miles from her home in Garfield Heights (Ohio). She had been raped and strangled to death. I have not been able to find out whether she was manually strangled or with an object. Police originally […]
Beverly Ann Jarosz (1948-1964)
On December 28, 1964, Beverly Ann Jarosz (Oct 1, 1948 – Dec 28, 1964) was killed in her parental home in Garfield Heights, Ohio. Beverly had shopping plans that afternoon with two girlfriends, Barbara and Margie. Barbara, showed up at the Jarosz house and not getting anyone to answer the door, she left. When her […]
Good news for William Thomas Zeigler
Good news for William Thomas Zeigler because Judge Whitehead has granted a hearing to discuss the question of whether the Zeigler defense will be permitted to do the DNA testing that they have requested. To recap: in December 1975, a quadruple murder took place in the Zeigler Furniture Store in Wintergarden, Florida. The victims were […]
Cops, crooks, and 3D printers
Get used to the word combination” Cops, crooks, and 3D printers” because it is a thing. Lorenzo Simon can tell you all about it. He thought that he could get away with murdering his housemate Michael Spalding by chopping his body in pieces and burning some of Spalding’s bones. However, it is 2015 and Simon […]
Lapointe’s wrongful conviction
Lapointe’s wrongful conviction brings back Martin’s cold case because if we take Lapointe out of the equation we are left with no answers. Who killed Bernice Martin? The decision The decision to grant a new trial is here (RICHARD LAPOINTE v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION). A few quotes: “On appeal, the petitioner claims that the court improperly rejected his […]
Case of the Month: Forensic arson detection
Case of the Month: Forensic arson detection and its role in wrongful convictions feature in April. Cameron Todd Willingham In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by the state of Texas for the 1991 fire that killed his three daughters: Amber (2) and the 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron. The prosecution argued that the fire […]
The M-Vac System
The M-Vac System is a wet-vacuum based forensic DNA collection device that is helping investigators solve more crime. It has been used on dozens of cases and has produced DNA profiles many times when traditional methods such as swabbing and cutting have failed to produce viable results. It is ideal for touch DNA scenarios, and can […]
A 19th Century Coffin revolutionized 20th Century Forensic Science
A 19th Century Coffin revolutionized 20th Century Forensic Science is a guest blog post by Dolly Stolze. Dolly is a writer and has a Masters in Forensic Anthropology from California State University, Los Angeles. Though her first love is Forensic Anthropology, she also enjoys writing about macabre history and the weird things that happen to human remains. […]
Case of the Month: Lisa Thomas
Case of the Month: Lisa Thomas (August 19, 1959 – October 7, 1974) is one of the many cases that we need to look at again. We have new technology, new cold case investigative teams, and we have the Internet. It is through the Internet that I was made aware of this unsolved case. Mavis […]