… really, I do. But take the help, Yonkers Police Department. I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about the Yonkers Police Department’s reluctance to let a writer see the case files for the 1952 murder of labor leader John Acropolis.

I don’t want to downplay their concerns, but they can be addressed while still allowing the writer access.  I just know so many cases where a sincere and caring writer has helped an investigation.  I’m not just saying this because I’m a writer!  

For instance, for the past couple of years writer Weston DeWalt has been helping West Coast law enforcement on a bunch of cold cases involving children.  It has been a mutually satisfactory situation that has benefited all involved.  Satisfactory really doesn’t even begin to cover it.  I know that at a recent dig for one of the bodies of those poor children, the people there, law enforcement, family members, and DeWalt, were moved to tears.

If you have a writer who can work 24/7 on case it’s not surprising that sometimes they come up with something useful.  It’s not a comment on your work on the case, you don’t have the luxury of devoting all your energy to one case that’s more than a half a century old.  Check the person out.  If they are responsible, caring and hard working, take the help.

NOTE: I didn’t know Yonkers had a cold case squad and I’m adding them to my list right now!  If you know of a cold case unit that is not on my list (which is on the left, under “Information”) please let me know.

From time to time I get email asking about volunteer cold case units, And I had a link to an article from a Daytona Beach online newspaper here, but the link no longer works.

If you know of other volunteer efforts of the behalf of cold case, please let me know!

Pictured here are Ron Conklin, Steve Miller, Ray Stevens and Robert Brandsma (from the Daytona beach article).

An arrest has been made for the 1988 murder of 26-year-old Selina Cooper and her 9-year-old daughter Joi Little.  I brought up this case in The Restless Sleep, although it is only a small section. But I wanted to bring attention to this case for a number of reasons. One, it takes a special kind monster to rape and kill someone, but to rape and kill both a mother and a 9 year old child??

However, the thing that made this horrible story even worse, and frankly the shame of us all, was the fact that before the detectives had enough to arrest the guy for murder, they had the DNA evidence to prove he had raped the child. The problem was the statute of limitations had passed, so they couldn’t do anything about it.

There may be some legitimate reasons for having a statute of limitations for rape involving adults (although I think the arguments are weak). But the main argument for having a statute of limitations for rape is that it is difficult to prove years later that the sex was consensual. But sex with a 9 year old is never consensual. It is never okay.  Why on earth have a statute of limitations for this crime?  It’s immoral. 

I know there has been an effort to modify the statute of limitations to exclude cases involving children—has this happened yet?

In any case, good work Detective Wendell Stradford (that’s a picture of him at the book party for The Restless Sleep).  I really look forward to the trial.  I hope there’s a trial.  I want to see Nancy Borko have at this guy.  There’s an article about the arrest in the New York Times here.

Oh God. I don’t want to believe this is even possible. A February 23rd Los Angeles Times article by Harriet Ryan about the Phil Spector trial begins, “When it came to hiring expert witnesses for his murder defense, Phil Spector went for the top of the line. The scientists he retained to analyze evidence in the fatal shooting of an actress are a who’s who of American forensics, the men who wrote the textbooks for their fields and whose faces stare out from the television when a criminal case goes national.

“But if the conclusions of this high-profile scientific team have helped Spector’s cause, the conduct of two members has left his defense vulnerable to criticism. In his first trial, a judge concluded that Dr. Henry Lee, the criminalist who gained worldwide recognition for his work on the O.J. Simpson murder trial, hid or destroyed a potentially important piece of evidence from the death scene.”

I have posted that I believe evidence should no longer be stored and held by law enforcement, but instead by a disinterested third party.  I never thought about evidence collection, but maybe a disinterested third party should be collecting crime scene evidence as well.

Before I forget, I want to thank retired detective Mike Bosak for his regular police related email. Every day he clips article about law enforcement and sends that around.  I would miss so many pieces, like this one, if it weren’t for Mike Bosak.  Thank you, Mike!

[The picture is from the Los Angele Time article.]