The Atlanta Police Department and the FBI had formed a surveillance team. On May 22, 1981, the team was situated under the James Jackson Parkway Bridge over the Chattahooche River in northwest Atlanta. Around 2:00 a.m., the surveillance team heard a loud splash and observed an automobile driving slowly off the bridge. The vehicle was stopped, and was Wayne Williams was identified as the driver on the bridge. Two days following the incident on the bridge, the nude body of Nathaniel Cater was pulled from the Chattahoochee River, approximately 1 mile downstream from the James Jackson Parkway Bridge (Deadman, 1984). “A yellowish green nylon carpet-type fiber, similar to the nylon fibers discussed above, was recovered from the head hair of Nathaniel Cater (Deadman, 1984). Authorities were unable to confirm Wayne Williams’ reason …show more content…
On June 3, 1981, a search warrants for Williams' home and automobile were obtained. Upon entrance into the home of Williams, agents noted a green carpet that seemed to be a match to the fiber found in the head of Nathaniel Carter. Other fiber found on victims were associated with a bedspread from Williams' bed and with the Williams' family dog (Deadman, 1984). After an intensive investigation law enforcement concluded that it was very unlikely that the fibers and hairs found on the victims came from any location other than Wayne Williams home and car. Investigator determined that it would be virtually impossible to have matched so many fibers found on Cater and Payne to items in Williams' house and car unless the victims actually came in contact with environment of Wayne Williams (Deadman, 1984). Though Carter and Payne cases had the strongest amount of evidence against Williams, fiber consistent with those in his home and automobile were
On October 3, 1974, at around 10:45 pm, Elton Hymon and Leslie Wright of the Memphis Police Department were responding to a “prowler on the inside” call. They made the scene and observed a woman in the house next to the intended home of the call. She was standing on her front porch pointing at the house. She advised that she had heard glass breaking and someone was breaking into the house next door. As Wright showed both officers on the scene on his radio to dispatch, Hymon went to the rear of the house.
On December 23, 1981, Thomas Sophonow, a Canadian man, was wrongfully accused of murder. 16 year old Barbara Stoppel was ruthlessly killed at the washroom of her workplace. Unfortunately, eyewitnesses mistakenly chose Mr. Sophonow as being the murderer. Eye witnesses stated that a man, whose appearance was very similar to that of Thomas Sophonow, locked the door and made his way to the back of the shop where he was presumed to have strangled Barbara Stoppel to death. Furthermore, while Thomas Sophonow was in custody, he showed an undercover officer a door locking technique.
What caused police to reconsider Williams as a suspect? A body was found 2 days later, after the night Williams was stopped on the bridge. What type of evidence did police gather during a search of Williams’ house and car? In his house, the police collected fibers and a leather object that was assumed to have been used to beat some of the victims.
In September of 1961, a woman from District of Columbia had an intruder break into her apartment. While the invader of the home was there, they had taken her wallet, and also raped the woman. During the investigation of the crime, the police had found some latent fingerprints in the apartment. The police then established and processed the prints. The prints were then connected back to 16 year old Morris A. Kent.
The majority of the evidence pointed toward Wayne Williams is the connection of fibers in Williams life (ie dog hairs, carpet, etc.). He has not been tried or convicted
The perpetrator left a fingerprint on the doorknob of one of the victim’s bedroom doors and a herringbone pattern tennis shoe print in one of the victim’s front yard near the front door. The police questioned about thirty to forty men in the area and focused on one main suspect, Hayes. The police went to Hayes home and requested a fingerprint, and Hayes
The terrified woman ran with her child to the closest house that, thankfully, had a telephone. Los Angeles Examiner reporter Will Fowler heard the call come over the radio. He was two blocks away with photographer Felix Paegel. It was hard to miss the pale, bloodless corpse lying in the weeds. Before long, reporters and law enforcement swarmed the area.
A red polystyrene fragment was obtained from the material shed from the jeans. A particle of red brittle paint was found on the outside of the jeans, in the area of the left buttock. • Shirt of the deceased. Fibres were tape lifted form the shirt. Other than these fibres, no other artefacts were found on the shirt.
On Sunday, November 13, 1842 a double murder occurred at Smith Farm in Old Fields, Long Island. The victims, Alexander Smith and and Rebecca Smith, were a wealthy, well- respected married couple who ran Smith farm. George Weeks, the Smiths farmhand, was reporting for work the monday after the murder and heard the dog barking from the work-shed by the Smiths house. George Weeks then became suspicious since the dog was usually inside with Mr. Smith. George then looked in the house and saw that the east room window was broken and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were lying on the floor covered in blood.
Wayne Williams was found guilty of the killing of two people. Even years after William’s still tries to persuade the idea of him being innocent. Just like fingerprints, hair analysis is following the same path. I think that DNA fingerprints will become bigger and more accurate of accusing killers, the use of hair analysis will decrease, but I do not think hair analysis should be taken away.
When investigators at the crime scene unlatched and then re-latched her seatbelt, the wife’s chin was directly above the bloodstain. She was shot under the chin, therefore it was previously concluded that it must have been her blood present on the seatbelt. However, the Illinois State Police crime lab proved that it was in fact Christopher Vaughn’s blood on it. His wife’s blood was also found on the center console, but it was disturbed before it began to congeal.
Introduction The FBI has done two case reviews on hair analysist. One of these reviews were done in 1996 and the other is still on going. The latter review came about because of three exonerations. One of these exonerations was that of a DC man, Santae Tribble.
In 1984, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino was the victim of breaking and entering and sexual assault. While being raped, Thompson-Cannino attempted to study her attacker’s face so that she could identify him in a police lineup. When she picked Cotton from the photo-lineup of six men, she said, “I think this is the guy” (Hughes 2014). When a detective asked her if she was sure, she said she was positive (Hughes 2014).
Introduction The book that I selected is called “Getting Life” by Michael Morton, who is a man that was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife in Texas in 1986. This book takes us from a happy young couple to the day of the murder, through the investigation into his wife’s murder, Michael’s trial and conviction, 25 years in prison, appeals, release from prison, and reintegration into society. One unique fact about this case is that is the first case where the prosecutor in a wrongful conviction case was subsequently convicted of prosecutorial misconduct, stripped of their law license and sentenced to serve time in jail.
The Incident In 1998, Dr. Linda Reynolds of the Brooke Surgery in Hyde reached to John Pollard, who was the coroner for the South Manchester District, about Dr. Harold Shipman’s high rate of deaths of all of his patients. This was brought to the police attention and the police did not pay so much attention to it, assigning some of the newer police officers, which of course had little experience in being a police officer. These assigned police officers were unable to find enough evidence to charge Dr. Harold Shipman. Shipman’s investigation was then dropped and that same year Shipman killed 3 more people, with last victim being Kathleen Grundy, whose death certificate was recorded by Shipman stating that the cause of death was “old age.”