NCJ Number
156774
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 40 Issue: 4 Dated: (July 1995) Pages: 675-680
Date Published
1995
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article reports on the chronology of a murder investigation, along with evidence collection and analysis, which resulted in a guilty plea to second-degree murder even though the victim's body was not recovered during the investigation.
Abstract
On October 19, 1992, the area police station received a report of a missing woman. Neighbors reported they had witnessed a female wearing pants, trench coat, and hat leaving the missing woman's house that morning, who proceeded to walk down the street. The neighbors thought this odd, but assumed she was taking the Metro that day instead of driving her car. The woman never arrived at work. A flurry of speculation developed during the next 5 days when a bloody pillow and pillowcase that were recovered from a wooded area not far from her home changed the direction of the investigation. The evidence collection and analysis involved hair and fiber analysis, a luminol test for invisible blood stain patterns, and blood typing that included RFLP profiling, with the use of the victim's family members' blood, since a control sample from the victim was not available. Investigators compared the large number of questioned hairs to the known samples from the primary suspect, a part-time gardener, and the missing woman. One head hair fragment consistent with the known sample of the victim's hair was found on a sheet recovered from the back of the suspect's truck and from more than the 150 hairs recovered from her bedroom; one head hair found on a flat sheet was consistent with his. 8 figures and 15 references