In today’s #cclivechat, Sue Carney covered body fluids testing, limitations of tests and forensic interpretation of body fluids with us. It brought a few surprises such as that urine and feces contain very little DNA, that some cells look identical and are thus less suited for forensic purposes. Sue also indicated the difficulties with several tests and […]
Forensics
Book alert: “Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery” by John Leake
“Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery” about Duncan MacPherson by author John Leake is my new “must read” for this summer. Duncan Alvin MacPherson (Feb 3, 1966 – Aug 9, 1989), a Canadian professional ice hockey player, went missing during a short stay in Austria. John emailed to give me the heads up about the book. I scanned […]
Sentencing in Keith Combs & Eugene Ellis
Edward Jesus Elias and Leopoldo Chavez II, both 36, were found guilty of first-degree murder and special-circumstance allegations including murder during a robbery of Keith Combs & Eugene Ellis. They were teenagers at the time they killed Keith Combs and Eugene “Cliff” Ellis. Elias and Chavez were both sentenced to serve life without the possibility of parole. […]
Elizabeth Heath autopsy details
More details have appeared in the Hartford Courant about Elizabeth Heath‘s violent death. Dr. H. Wayne Carver, the chief state medical examiner, was in charge of Elizabeth’s autopsy. It was not easy for him. Elizabeth’s remains covered 188 separate envelopes. “Gough Heath’s maxilla — the upper jaw — had been traumatically amputated from the skull, the […]
Arrest in cold case Elizabeth Heath
Police have arrested John Heath for murder in connection with the killing of his wife, Elizabeth Heath, 28 years ago. Elizabeth was reported missing in 1984. Her skeletal remains were found beneath the subflooring in a barn in April 2010. Heath, 68, of Bridgewater was arrested by warrant last Monday. He was charged with murder and held […]
The 1985 cold case of Lisa Cay Kroeyr
Lisa Cay Kroeyr (22) from Saginaw, Michigan, was found drowned, partially clothed, and her hands were bound before she died. Two divers from the Saginaw Area Water Rescue and Recovery Team pulled Lisa’s body from the river. She was floating face-down about 100 feet south of the bridge. Lisa was dressed from the waist up in […]
Is this the car that killed Karen Caughlin?
A 1970 Plymouth Road Runner, could this be the car that killed Karen Caughlin? The paper Sarnia This Week wants to know. Several people have wondered about this. They remembered that they used to own a car just like that. So they called Crime Stoppers and waited. When nothing happened they went to the authorities. Nothing […]
Zeigler, Part XX: The False Arrest Report
Zeigler, Part XX: The False Arrest Report is based on the documents filed in Mr. Zeigler case as per the previous post. The documents were sent to me by Mr. Zeigler’s lawyers and I thank them for that. On Dec 29, 1975, Detective Frye from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office wrote in his arrest report: […]
Guest post: Road death investigation by Dave Thomas
Guest post: Road death investigation by Dave Thomas. Dave has been a police officer for 15 years with the last 3 years on road policing. _________________________________________________________ Road death investigation and the importance of forensic evaluation. As a road policing officer based in the United Kingdom, I have seen advances in the last few years in automobile […]
Recap #cclivechat March 30, 2012
Today’s CCLiveChat centered on postmortem toxicology and pharmacokinetics. Neither topic can be discussed within the hour but we got some good questions in for Peter Mullen! In general, pharmacokinetics is understanding the “time-course” of a substance in the body or, how fast does it travel through the body? All depends of course on what was taken and in […]