Recap #cclivechat Feb 17, 2012

This recap of CCLiveChat is courtesy of Sue Carney.

Today saw a massive turnout of cold case live chat stalwarts, old and new, for a regular-style cold case brainstorming session. Sadly, just as chat began, Alice got the tragic news of the death of her friend Phillip Finch, staunch supporter in the Zeigler case. As Alice quite rightly bowed out to take the time to process this terrible disclosure (and I remind her here, she need make no apology for this — our thoughts are with her), @ColdCaseSquad valiantly led us in our musings.

Joe invited us, at the request of Mark Swett, (@marksme51) to review the 1987 case of Alice Hawkes, violently murdered in Westbrook, Maine. Those speed readers amongst us began discussion of various aspects of the case, and we were later joined by Mark who was anxious to provide further details and answered some of our questions. It seems that a key may comprise a vital piece of evidence (“the key’s the key’!) and the well-preserved crime scene evidence has been under review since 2009, not unexpected according to Alice.

For those of us unfamiliar with the case, Joe set us some ‘homework‘ to review the available information online. More details can be found here and here, and the crew agreed to pass on their thoughts and suggestions to Joe and/or Alice via email. An investigation into which local papers were reporting at the time was also suggested as a good starting point.

Joe reminded us of his recent post on the slow bureaucratic death of cold case units and invited guest posts on cold cases and investigation. Expect further developments later!

Finally @pwmullen popped in to tell us about a another live chat about the Shafia trial. Peter will be joining us next week to discuss postmortem toxicology and pharmacokinetics.

The full transcript of this week’s chat follows below and all of us here at #cclivechat send our thoughts, good wishes and respects to Alice and to the family of Phillip Finch.

The verbatim thread is below.

UPDATE: here are some thoughts about the Alice Hawkes case by Miriam Said:

My thoughts so far on the Alice Hawkes case we have been asked to look at:

Keys: Who had a dead bolt key?

Landlord
Alice
Boyfriend
Unidentified person

Possible motives:

Jealousy
Revenge
Affair
lovers quarrel
argument with friend/other resident
debt owing
drugs

Landlord lives 10 min away

Other residents/Mr & Mrs Friend may have heard something

Who was resident that helped Alice with laundry

Who was the friend Alice was supposed to go for a day out with

Access to apartment is by stairs from porch

Was the apartment ransacked

what errands did boyfriend run

why boyfriend not concerned on that day for Alice & that he couldn’t get in or get her on the phone

Why didn’t boyfriend ring her friends to ask if they knew where Alice was

Why did 1st key landlord gave boyfriend not work on dead lock

why did landlord agree to come to the apartment with key instead of just giving boyfriend another one

where was Alice’s deadlock key

Was a razor blade used to cut Alice’s throat

Why blood drips from mat to bathroom/was Alice still alive with throat cut

Any signs of a struggle/defensive wounds

Did Alice leave front door open while she carried laundry into apartment to put it down on a table thus giving access to perp

What time did boyfriend get back from doing errands

No struggle
No forced entry
No property missing
No sexual assault

Alice worked for a savings bank/could be motive to rob bank

why did boyfriend break off contact with Alice’s family days after she died and then refused to co operate with authorities ever since….Probably because he’s getting blamed for murder whether innocent or not.

http://bangordailynews.com/2009/03/08/news/bangor/21yearold-slaying-under-review/

Cut throat razor as murder weapon????

Why only blood on rug & trail leading to Alice in bathroom…why no blood splatters??

Killer would have had blood on them.

Did police forensically check boyfriends car to see if he’d gotten changed out of bloodstained clothes in the car.

Did police forensically check any of the other residents apartments for blood stained clothing.

Did police do a forensic search of the immediate area for any blood stained clothing or any blood traces on the stair walls/bannister/porch rail or door locks??

Did the landlord have an alibi for Saturday?

Was Alice up for promotion at the bank??

Friend at bank who’d made plans to go out with Alice…possible motives??

Had Alice gone out with her workmates on the day before her death, (Friday) and what happened? Was there any arguments/incidents?

“Theresa” Who is she & does she have an alibi for Saturday??

Sanphy says pieces of door in hallway & inside apartment….why when the landlord is supposed to have gained entry with deadlock key??

Any fingerprints on the door locks???

Why is Alice’s body in the bathroom, why not near front door or near telephone for getting help??

Did killer change clothes & wash blood off himself in bathroom & Alice crawled in there & if so, did police check in the bathtub/shower for forensic evidence of perp???

The landlord was, I presume, left alone with Alice’s body while her boyfriend ran to shop for help…so what did the landlord do while alone in the apartment because he seems very laid back about it in the newspaper article interview??

It also seems that the landlord gave the boyfriend the wrong deadlock key deliberately then volunteered to go to the apartment with the right key after previously just leaving a key on his porch. This seems strange??

The landlord had a key to access the apartment at any time.

Was the friend who the boyfriend played golf with then stopped over at, questioned by the police to verify Alice’s boyfriend didn’t have a deadlock key on him whilst in his company?

Did the landlord have an account at the bank where Alice worked??

Did the landlord suggest that the boyfriend go to the shop to call police & did he also tell the boyfriend to wait outside for the ambulance & police…if so why???

The landlord seems to have been alone in the apartment for a long time between entering with the boyfriend & the ambulance & police arriving….Why & what did he do…plenty of time to mess with anything.

Did the landlord know that boyfriend didn’t have deadlock key or lost it?

Did Alice crawl to the bathroom or was she carried….did the blood drops indicate this. If she was carried there would be forensic evidence on her clothing as well as someone getting close enough to cut her throat this would also leave forensic evidence on her clothing.

Were any knives missing from the apartment & if not, were they tested forensically??

What I feel happened:

The killer was known to Alice and was in the apartment with her & had already deadlocked the door so she couldn’t get out without her own key. The killer was stood between Alice & the telephone so she couldn’t ring for help. Alice in desperation ran to the door only to find it deadlocked. After being grabbed around the waist & hauled back onto the rug & the killer cut her throat from behind so she couldn’t scream for help. Alice collapsed forward onto the rug facing the door with the killer possibly lowering her down onto her knees. The killer thought she was dead and went into the bathroom to clean & replace the razor & possibly clean themselves & wash the blood off their hands & didn’t realise Alice was still alive. Alice crawled into the bathroom and tried to grab the killer by the legs, possibly covering the killer in the blood that was on her hands. The killer could have easily avoided contact with Alice and just stepped around her as she fell forward and died.

The killer may have been disturbed by Alice’s boyfriend trying to get into the apartment, but may have known the boyfriend didn’t have a deadlock key with him to get entry. Nothing else is disturbed in the apartment and no major struggle signs are evident as it all took place in this small area. The killer left at their leisure, confident in knowing they wouldn’t be pointed at and they had a deadlock key to lock the door with when they left. There was very little blood on the killer when they left the apartment but I think they may have left their fingerprints on the faucets in the bathroom. Alice’s boyfriend may have been trying to get into the apartment just as Alice had her throat cut as she thought she’d been saved and made a dash towards the door until the blade silenced her from shouting out for her boyfriend to help her.

These are my initial thoughts. I find myself leaning heavily towards the Landlord as being the major suspect at this time.

Thanks guys, Miriam.