Crime Con 2021 in
Austin Recap
Was it foul play, abduction or a
nature take?
Six years ago on July 10, DeOrr
Kunz Jr., 2, was camping in Idaho with his parents, Jessica Mitchell and Vernal
Kunz, and great-grandfather Bob Walton and his friend where there was no cell
reception. An unpaved seven-mile road takes you to the remote location.
DeOrr’s not been seen since. Even
outhouses were pumped and drained on Day 3.
This was my favorite Crime Con
session and it was conducted by reporter Nate Eaton. I have since listened to
Nate interview Sheriff Steve Penner on Zoom. He discussed the divers in the
reservoir, 70-person foot searches, helicopter surveillance, use of horses and
all-terrain vehicles to no avail.
Penner said most children that
age are found within four-tenths of a mile from where they are lost.
DeOrr was either abducted, which
would have been difficult, or lost or taken by a wild animal. Or could one of
the four with him have done something to him? His blanket, cup and his monkey
were at the site. But was he ever there?
There are bears, wolves, mountain
lions and eagles there, but his over-sized boots were never found had he been
scooped up into trees. They would have fallen off, it was stated. They did
search trees, too. One small bone has been analyzed at Quantico, but nothing
definitive has been discovered. Cadaver dogs have scoped out the site. A
suspicious man was seen buying diapers in Walmart. But he was not the guy.
DeOrr was the same age as Nate’s
child at the time. There have been only one or two days in six years that Nate
says he hasn’t thought about this case.
Jessica has married and grandpa
has died. His friend, Issac Reinwand, has cooperated, though oddly answering
the door naked when Nate arrived one time. Grandpa Bob and Issac met in
Alcoholics Anonymous. The camping trip was said to be spontaneous, a place grandpa
liked, and he asked Issac to come at the last minute.
Three private investigators have
worked the case. Frank Vilt, retired U.S. marshal, used his personal funds. The
parents declined offering a cash reward and many media opportunities—Good
Morning America and Nancy Grace. They have failed lie detector tests, even on a
question about what they had for breakfast. Their home was searched and the
grandfather and Issac say DeOrr was at the campsite, but the parents thought he
was with grandpa and grandpa thought he was with the parents when they went to
look at minnows.
The grandmother had an auction to
hire Philip Klein of Texas. David Marshburn had a dog that found a bone, but it
was an animal. A diaper was said to be tied to a tree.
Jessica had two previous children
who lived with their father. She has never retained counsel. The ex doesn’t
point a finger at her, but does believe something is not right.
Issac did get a lawyer. He is not
a sexual offender, but does have a sealed juvenile record, likely related to
something he must have done in school. He had a butcher knife in the yard and
twirled a bullet case when Nate interviewed him, but is not believed to be a
serious suspect and he passed the lie detector test.
Vernal is a truck driver.
It was dark upon arrival and the
parents and DeOrr slept in their vehicle and the two older men slept outside.
The couple drove to a store the next morning to get snacks and feminine
protection, produced a receipt, but no one there recalls seeing the son. There
are some gaps in the timeline.
Searches for DeOrr continue.
Penner said a hunter who was missing since 1975 was found in 2007.
I suspect maternal foul play, but
could DeOrr be the next Elizabeth Smart?
Zooms with Nate after Crime Con:
These parents had different
stories, sequential lies and opposite timelines. They failed five lie detector
tests. After a lengthy FBI interrogation, they went straight to a sex store for
a Clone-A-Willy, investigator Philip Klein said. They actually made two trips
to the store, not one. If you were seeking feminine hygiene products, why
didn’t you get them on the first trip? There are receipts and interviews there.
The first trip was for Monster drinks and Swedish fish. The second trip was 17
minutes later. Grandpa kept saying what’s done is done; she can have another
baby. He urinated on himself when being questioned. Following through on Vernal
saying DeOrr sat in someone’s truck and honked the horn was tracked down to be
a lie. DeOrr was not in Vernal’s truck’s car seat. Vernal was not 1.5 miles
down the road when he proferred to call 911. No fishing rods or tackle box were
found at the site. Sounds fishier each time I hear about it. I am obsessed with
this case. Klein has spent $150,000 of his own money and $100,000 on legal fees
when sued by the family for infliction of emotional stress, libel and slander. His
team searched for 18 to 20 days. They did field time distance studies. Klein
believes DeOrr was run over and put in a cooler.
Trina is the daughter of
great-grandpa. She said her father had prostate cancer and needed oxygen.
Jessica was his caregiver. She was on a new job when the incident happened. I
think she is hiding something. I asked
if DeOrr was thrown in the campfire, but was told it would take very long for a
body to burn.
The Charley Project
The Charley Project is the second
largest missing persons database online. The largest is NamUs, run by the
government. God forbid you ever need it.
More than 14,000 cases have been
profiled, both active and resolved. It is updated several times a week. It was
created in 2004 by a woman who was 19 and in college at the time. She said that
she had autism and is emotionally detached and named her work for Charley Ross
who was kidnapped in 1876 in Germantown, Penn.
A person must be missing a year
to be added. Ninety percent of missing persons cases are resolved in a year,
she said.
The oldest case is from
1910--Dorothy Arnold. Thirteen are from Shreveport and four from Bossier.
The Charley Project is a resource for police, journalists,
podcasters, armchair sleuths and true crime aficionados.
One of the worst of the missing
is Peter Kema who was abused and fed dog feces, she said.
An interesting solve was Troy
Darren Grumbine who disappeared from Irving, Texas in 2004. The night after he
disappeared, he was accidentally struck by a vehicle and killed on Interstate
10 in Arizona. Grumbine wasn't identified until August 2014. For years, all his
parents knew was that his car was found empty 19 miles west of Deming, N.M.
Police found it with the engine still running, one of the doors open, with Grumbine’s
wallet inside and a still-warm container of chicken from KFC in the passenger
seat.
Police surmised that he
hitchhiked into Arizona. They ruled out foul play.
The case was solved by Henrike
Hoeren, a German woman living and working in Ireland, whose hobby is using the
Internet to research missing person cases.
What caught her attention was
that Grumbine had possibly been wearing a gold chain and a cross. Hoeren also
learned an unidentified man wearing a gold chain and a cross was struck and
killed by a car along Interstate 10 near San Simon, Ariz., the same night Troy
Grumbine’s car was found in New Mexico.
Both were described as big men,
standing more than six feet tall. Hoeren also was able to view a photo of the
man killed in Arizona 10 years ago and thought it looked like Grumbine.
Included with the photo of the then-unidentified Arizona man was another photo
of something he’d been wearing — a gold chain with a cross.
DNA resolved the case with
exhumation.
Meaghan Good said donations are
accepted for her project on a voluntary basis.
Kim Goldman
America has heard a lot of “Say
her/his name” lately.
Twenty-seven years ago, Kim
Goldman went through her murdered brother’s name not being said because the
media focused on Nicole Brown Simpson. Goldman heard news on the car radio
mentioning Simpson’s name and “her friend.” Ron Goldman was treated as
collateral damage, she said.
She began with telephone
answering machine messages left for her brother when the word got out that he
was killed. She said she thought that was a good introduction a few weeks ago,
but was met by tears listening to them on stage. She “tortures herself” because
people show up to hear her speak.
Goldman was a student in college
“living in sin” when the murders happened. When she came home, her boyfriend
was white in the face and she could see his pulse. He kept telling her to call
her father, but she wanted to freshen up because she thought he might be about
to propose because of his nervous demeanor.
When Goldman’s father called to
tell her about her brother, she thought he must have died in a car crash. She
said she had a pit in her stomach and that she did not know who O.J. Simpson
was.
Her mother left the family when
she was three and a half and Ron was 6 and her father had sole custody. She
called them “three peas in a pod.” They eventually moved from Chicago to California
and Ron was excited--sunning, getting buffed up and wearing puka shells, which
she called a horrible style.
Regarding the trial, she said the
Kardashians were not there every day, but Bruce Jenner was there “when he was
Bruce Jenner.” The family had to endure autopsy evidence. They could not wear
pins with Ron’s face so chose angels instead. Prosecutors Marcia Clark and
Christopher Darden could not wear them. She described the trial as a circus and
her book is called “Media Circus: A Look at Private Tragedy in the Public
Eye.” The Goldmans were in a fishbowl.
They were described as gold diggers during the civil trial against Simpson.
She has interviewed jurors for
her podcast. One thinks Simpson is guilty now. She said the jury indicated
being sequestered was tiring and that they “wasted time” before coming up with
the not guilty verdict so as not to be ridiculed. She believes jury duty should
be an honor and that the system is faulty because it is easy for some people to
get out of it, but has no suggestions to make it better. Goldman is angry
because “the SOB is on Twitter and got away with killing my brother.”
She takes a vested interest in
victim advocacy and is co-chair of the National Center of Victims of Crime.
She wonders what kind of uncle
Ron would be and how he could help when their dad, Fred, gets older. Her father
calls her son Ron, but she doesn’t want to correct him. Fred and his wife live
in Arizona and work in real estate.
Goldman said they are no
different than other crime victims, they just happen to have “an A-hole as a
defendant.” She also called Simpson a disgusting piece of sh--. She said it is
hard to forgive someone who has not asked for it.
Goldman said it was Doris Tate,
mother of murdered Sharon Tate, who helped get the Victims’ Bill of Rights,
which allowed for victim impact statements, passed in California in 1982.
She said when enough victims’
families band together, “we kind of kick ass.”
She also mentioned Marsy's Law,
the California Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 2008, enacted by voters. It is an
amendment to the state's constitution and certain penal code sections. The act
protects and expands the legal rights of victims of crime to include 17 rights
in the judicial process, including the right to legal standing, protection from
the defendant, notification of all court proceedings and restitution, as well
as granting parole boards far greater powers to deny inmates parole.
Goldman does grief work and said
David Kessler said grief needs to be witnessed. She said she has gone to
mediums and Ron has come through and she believes he is proud of her.
She said she doesn’t really keep
in touch with the Brown family anymore, but Darden is a friend. “Pay attention
to your district attorney and judges,” she said.
She said the week of June 12 is
horrible, but she speaks of the murder to remind people of the loss. She said
there is no closure. She said the shower
is one place of torture for her, but says she might as well cry there since she
is already wet.
Goldman said love overpowers
trolls. She said she feels both full and empty and empowered and defeated. She
still wears Ron’s ring and necklace.
Lying
Mark McClish
My husband said he was going to
the store for three things (milk, bread and creamer) and comes back with $80
worth of items. I should have known he was “lying” because the night before I
watched a Crime Con session by Mark McClish on how to know if someone is telling
the truth. He is a retired marshal who teaches interview training.
Three is “the liar’s number.” If
someone says three men, 3 p.m., $300, beware. He is not sure why, but it could
go back to nursery rhymes as to why that number stands out for liars. The Three
Bears. The Three Little Pigs, Three Blind Mice. Three Wishes. Or birth, life,
death; body, mind, spirit.
The presentation is better than
my reporting of it, but McClish said Anthony Weiner said he Tweeted “no more
than three” nasty photos.
Other tips: When the suspect says
we/they. No “I” is a lack of commitment. Another act of untruthfulness is
swearing on a grave or the Bible. Also, saying “to tell the truth” or
“honestly” or “frankly.”
Passing of time is another. Going
from Point A to C with no B. Words such as after, later on or the next thing I
knew should cause pause. These words seem to make it “less of a lie.” Less for
the suspect to keep track of.
Order also plays a part. If they
say on and off or more downs than ups (O.J. Simpson) said this about his
relationship with Nicole Brown Simpson), light up.
Does the subject answer the
specific question? Ding. Ding. Ding. Al Gore when asked about marijuana avoided
the question with a long, stupid answer that McClish played.
Answering with a question. “Did I
take the money? No” means it’s sensitive and they are stalling. Miss America
contestants do this. Jen Psaki does this.
Signs of deception were seen in
the famous Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald case. He said there were THREE “people”
instead of intruders in his home. He said WE were struggling. He said he told
the “asshole” operator he needed MPs, then a doctor, then an ambulance—wrong
order. He said some “people” have been stabbed. It was his wife and two
children! He called the intruders people, too.
Other key words to look for are
“tried,” “most of the time” and “can be” instead of “will.”
I’m going to start putting these
lessons into play with politicians and while watching “Dateline.” I immediately
think of analyzing the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note, but McClish has already
done it for me on his website. He believes the parents know who did it and it
was an accident.
Think about this: Two frogs are
on a log and one decided to jump off. How many are on the log? What is your
answer? This was really how he began. Words are tricky.
Traci Brown
Traci Brown is a deception
detection expert and is trained in body language. She specializes in lie, fraud
and identity theft detection skills in billion dollar business deals, crimes
and politics. Now I know more tools to tell whose pants are on fire. “Time”
named her one of the nation’s top experts on the subject of body language.
When President Clinton said he
did not have sexual relations with that woman, she could tell he was lying
because he was nodding while saying no. She showed clips from Lance Armstrong,
Tom Brady, Prince Harry, Sarah Palin (yes it pains me) and the Bachelor.
Defocusing eyes means something is being constricted. There is a difference
between convince and convey. Truthful people say the minimum. You go on Oprah
to admit and on Dr. Phil to talk. Armstrong admitted on Oprah. Burke Ramsey
talked with Dr. Phil. She said everything heavily points to John Ramsey killing
his daughter, JonBenet. Burke smiled during the interview, but she pointed out
that could be because his mother was a beauty queen and taught him to do so. A
big smile before a humiliating question is called Duper’s Delight. Tonya
Harding and Tom Brady did it. A closed mouth with no wrinkles around the eyes
can be a fake smile. It is done when trying to please and shows submissiveness.
It’s called the Pan Am smile. Stewardesses would do anything to make you happy.
If Burke seemed a little messed
up, you might be too if your sister was killed and the media hounded and your
family was in every magazine. Burke admitted that he heard something but it
wasn’t a police interview so Dr. Phil went no further, but Brown does not
believe he committed the murder.
Taking out contractions is
deception. John Ramsey said I did not kill my daughter instead of didn’t. In 77
percent of murders of children in homes, it’s the parents. Ninety-five percent
of sexual abuse is by men. One shoulder shrug is deception. Pauses longer than
five seconds are, as are softer voices. At any rate, I’m using my sensory
acuity to detect liars. Types of lies are fabrication, omission, deceptive
denial, minimization, exaggeration and the new one: alternative facts.
Women are the best liars and best
detectors. Naturally curious and have more to lie about. You look great today.
Ask no questions and you’ll hear
no lies. --James Joyce, Ulysses
Session Two: When people flash
their palms, they’re telling the truth. People hide their hands when they’re
hiding the truth like hands in pockets.
When people’s lips disappear, the next thing out of their mouth will be
a half-truth. People will cover their mouths when they are holding back. If
they scratch it’s because they are anxious and the blood rushes to their face
in case they need to run as in fight or flight. If they cover their face or eyes
or close their eyes, it’s because they don’t want to see the truth. If they
look up, they are making a picture of it in their mind before the words come
out. If they look level right, they may be remembering how something sounded.
When people look down and to your right they are often going through the
criteria needed for the answer. They will answer with facts, figures and what
makes sense. When they look to your left, they are constructing and
fabricating. When someone defocuses their eyes, they are going into their brain
space of constructing the image of what they’re saying instead of remembering
it. If someone is confident and shifts to cracking knuckles, tapping fingers or
toes, coughing, swallowing hard, clearing their throat, rocking, wiggling, crossing
their legs, hair twirling, sitting on their feet, hand wringing, humming,
whistling, it’s a big hot spot. If the
answer is lengthy, it’s a hot spot. If they challenge you with that’s a dumb
question, repeat, start their answer with I knew you’d ask that, well, you’re
not going to believe this. Anything other than no is a yes. Did you hit your
brother? I didn’t hurt him. Maybe it is a hot spot.
Austin Serial Bomber
This case created 19 days of
terror in 2018. Detective David Fugitt said 680 federal agents investigated the
bombings. The first was a package on a recessed porch and the second was a 17
year old taking it inside. Both of them died. The screws in the bombs came from
a garage door company, not standard issue. The third was that same day and it
was purposely put on a porch with the address of a neighbor so the lady would
walk it across the street and possibly destroy the block. She survived.
Police checked residents’ devices
to see if they picked up an IP address of the suspect on routers when driving
by. They managed to see if any of the residents had been Googled. All owners of a Ring in a geocached area had
videos studied.
The fourth incident was a
tripwire by a park that got two cyclers. It was attached to a sign that said
Drive Like Your Kids Live Here. The next was on a Fed Ex conveyor belt, one of
the two other headed toward the airport. It was stopped in time. Law
enforcement talked to the Fed Ex site where the suspect shipped from and it was
noted that the sender had on a blonde wig and parked down the street. The
employee noted that as strange, even though Austin is known to be weird. They
got video of the suspect and his vehicle and license plate that way. The Drive
Like Your Kids sign was sold at one store and only six had been sold in 90 days
and his was bought with cash, not credit, the law found out.
They had helicopter surveillance
over the suspect in the middle of the night and SWAT would not let him get on
the interstate. He blew himself up in his car when they veered him off the
road. You should see the SWAT people coming out of those vans. There was no
rhyme or reason why he chose the victims nor a real motive. His parents were
just as scared about the bombings as everybody else. One good thing was package
thefts were at an all-time low during these days.
There was evidence he was
planning the crimes since 2015. He had 20 cell phones to use for bombing.
Shortly before the detective went on stage, he said there was a bomb scare in
the baggage claim area at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Of all his
homicide investigations, serial bomber was the only one using that type of
weapon.
Kerri Rawson
Kerri Rawson is the daughter of the BTK killer who murdered 10 innocent people.
She discussed how she suffers from anxiety and PTSD.
She said she had a normal
childhood. Dad Dennis Rader was not a loner; he had a family.
Rawson has two degrees, but thought
she was going insane and got trauma therapy. Cops and badges can still set her
off. Her husband can’t keep black leather gloves as they would set her off.
She focused on being a mom and
going to church in 2014. Her daughter asked why she didn’t have two grandpas.
Rawson said it is therapy to talk
about the case. “If you help one person, you’ve won,” a criminologist told her.
This was her first Crime Con and
she never expected to be embraced by such a community. She calls herself the
big mouth in the family. Her mother read her book and said she couldn’t put it
down even though she knew what was going to happen. She said her brothers
turned out fine. Her mom said not to be a victim and refused to let him
win. She divorced Rader and has no
communication with him. He’s offered no real apology.
An oddity: Law enforcement got a
warrant to match her DNA from a Pap smear to help catch her father.
I just learned of one of the
victim's son's impact statement at the trial. He said he was confronting a
walking cesspool, a pervert masquerading as a human being. He said the victims
were BTK's family, too.
Denise and Aaron
Quinn
The couple who appeared on “20/20”
the Friday night of Crime Con have a bizarre story. He was in post residency
rehabilitation and she was a physical therapist. Denise was taken from his
house in the middle of the night. His ex-fiancé had lived there and all three
worked at the same hospital. The ex was cheating on him with a police officer
and her ex-husband had family money. Someone in the FBI used to date her, too.
Aaron’s brother was a special agent in the FBI.
The voice used in the invasion
was pre-recorded and had instructions with wind chime music in the background.
It’s a saga that law enforcement believed to be like “Gone Girl” with Aaron a
person of interest. Then there was Denise’s “proof of alive” and she was
released from a trunk on her parents’ street. They spent $140,000 on attorneys
to clear Aaron. Some of the attorneys were at their wedding when they
eventually married. They have a child and just released a book.
Aaron was in the interrogation
room a very long time and he said there is a new Illinois law that says
children cannot be lied to there. It was said only 28 states record such
interviews.
Five Names in
Alexandria
Betty Lafon Johnson Malone Flynn
Sills Gentry Neumar died in Alexandria prior to her trial. This woman married
five times, all were military, and all died. Her son, Gary, also died. She was arrested for arranging the murder of
her fourth husband. But some investigations continue. She married Flynn right
after her divorce from Malone. Malone was shot years later in Ohio. “That’s
called a clue,” said the Crime Con speaker. Flynn was shot on a pier in New
York. Sills died from an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound in their Florida
home. Gentry was said to be a nice man who never missed a day of work. Betty
would come back and forth to him from Florida. He was shot by someone Betty
hired for insurance money. Neumar’s death could be arsenic related. His son did
not know of the death until it was in the newspaper. Betty said he was cremated
even though he had bought a burial plot.
Delphi
Abby and Libby, the two girls in
Delphi, Ind., were murdered in broad daylight but managed to get some blurry
video and the voice of the perpetrator. Their relatives spoke at Crime Con. The
town has only 3,000, so half are male, but the case has not been solved since
Valentine’s Day 2017. At a news conference, it was said he could be in the
room. The family looks at people in cars next to them and friends on Facebook.
They look at Dairy Queen customers, at sporting events, restaurants and the gas
station. The girls would have graduated this year. Libby’s family had her cap
and gown at the cemetery. They do things on vacation Libby would like to do.
What can you do to help? Keep spreading the word because when you do, it makes
his world smaller.
Colonial Parkway
Eight families were impacted by
murders near the Colonial Parkway in Virginia from 1986-1989, an area that is
inundated with military training facilities. Half of their parents have now
passed away since the case is so old. All were white, two people in a car,
isolated like on a Lovers Lane, not killed inside the car and the car was moved
and on a weekend or holiday. All of their wallets were on the dashboard, so
these were not thefts. One man spoke of his sister and her girlfriend. They
were the first victims. She was in the second class where the Naval Academy let
females in and was a lesbian. They could have been followed. They were not supposed to spend the weekend together so went here to celebrate. It was very violent, almost overkill for lack of
a better word. Theories are the killer could be someone posing as a law
enforcement officer. They may or may not be related. The third couple was never
found. The fourth was found six weeks later, but weren’t really a romantic
couple. I personally don’t think the same person did each and every one of
these.
I later heard the podcasters. They said 90 percent of the FBI's money is now spent on anti-terrorism. There are 230,000 cold cases in the U.S. They get tips from as far as New Zealand and from second generations. One reporter has followed this case since Day One.
Rebekah Gould
To all Brooks and Dunn friends
and fans from around here, Dr. Larry Gould, the father of murdered Rebekah
Gould said their song “Believe” represents his inner peace. He went on because
the song helped him. Rebekah was murdered in Arkansas and the case was cold for
16 years even though her on and off again boyfriend was looked at. He did not
go to the funeral. He did not look for her. Bloody sheets were in his washing
machine. Her car, purse and dog were at his place. She was bludgeoned with a
piano leg. She was found a week after being missing in a T-shirt and panties
down an embankment. Boyfriend now has a wife and two kids. His cousin was
arrested for the murder.
The Vidocq Society was approached
for help, but declined. It is a members-only crime-solving club in
Philadelphia, Penn. It is named for Eugène François Vidocq, the groundbreaking
19th century French detective who helped police by using the psychology of the
criminal to solve cold case homicides. Vidocq was a former criminal himself and
used his knowledge of the criminal mind to look at murder from the
psychological perspective of the perpetrator. Members are forensic
professionals; current and former FBI profilers, homicide investigators,
scientists, psychologists, prosecutors and coroners who use their experience to
provide new insights for investigations that have gone cold. Membership is
capped at 82, one for each year of Vidocq's life. The society was formed in
1990 and solved its first case in 1991, clearing an innocent man of involvement
in the murder of Huey Cox in Little Rock. Vidocq will only consider cases that
meet certain requirements: they must be unsolved deaths more than two years
old, the victims cannot have been involved in criminal activity such as
prostitution or drug dealing and the case must be formally presented to them by
the appropriate law enforcement agency.
Murderabilia
Seriously, who buys this stuff
called murderabilia? No one should rob, rape and murder and make a buck off of
it. The Son of Sam case disallowed selling books and rights for movies. eBay
said it is not the morality police and apparently allows it. Dealers set up
their own sites, too. Facebook allows it except for nude drawings. Crime Con
speaker Andy Kahan wrote 20 people in prison and 12 wrote back. He became a
buyer of their items, well known, and got first dibs. There is actually a site
called Murderauction.com. Kahan did this to help craft notoriety for profit laws
to stop this.
Charles Manson and John Wayne
Gacy sold shirts they cut up. The Virginia Tech shooter’s calculator was going
for $3,700 and a screenplay he wrote was for sale. Prisoners sell hair, nails
and autographs. There is a Jeffrey Dahmer blow-up doll. There are serial killer
bobble heads and snow globes, action figures and wall clocks. And grave dirt
and schoolyard rocks.
Somehow some on Death Row turn
into Rembrandts?
Kahan’s desire is to make a dent
in the market. He has worked on a Texas law to reduce public access to crime
scene pictures.
He is from Houston and works in
victim services and advocacy.
Susan Cox
In 2009 Susan Cox’s husband Josh
said she vanished when there was two feet of snow outside. It’s still a no body
case.
However, fans were drying his
couch. She was the only breadwinner and he had life insurance on her that was
trying to be collected nine days after she was missing. And the $250,000 taken
on a child was unheard of at the time.
The kids drew a picture of their mother in his trunk. Her phone was in
the van, but the SIM card gone. He made her and the boys eat from the garden.
Josh had molested his sister and
killed her gerbil.
Steve Powell was known as his
creepy dad. He had an obsession with Susan and collected her fingernails and
had a used tampon. Josh moved in with him six weeks after Susan went missing.
Steve attempted suicide and son Michael actually did four months later. Michael
once ran for office and Josh was his campaign manager. He killed himself by
jumping off of a parking garage. Their brother John ran around in a diaper
naked.
There was a noose and gallows in
Steve’s house. He had a poster with a sword through a vagina. He had videos of
Susan washing her face, brushing her teeth, putting on her hose. Josh knew his father
wrote songs about her. Josh had cartoon incest porn. He was given a
psychosexual evaluation, which measures arousal. It’s called a plethysmography,
new word for me.
One story floating around was
Susan ran off with another man who was missing.
When Josh killed himself and his
boys, the Powell family tried to bury him by the boys, but Crime Stoppers
bought all the plots around the location. This was one of my favorite parts of
Crime Con.
Washington found negligence in
the death of the boys and the case is in appeals. Susan’s parents said the
state prioritized Josh’s parental rights over the safety of the boys. They have
also pushed for lawmakers in Washington and Utah to pass bills that would
restrict visitation rights for parents being investigated for murder.
There is work on the Charlie
Braden Law (the children’s names) so that if a parent is a murder suspect, he
can’t have the kids visit in the home.
Libby and Strangulation
Did you know there is a Training
Institute on Strangulation Prevention? Yes, and it is trying to reopen the case
of Libby Caswell in Room 319 at a hotel in Independence, Mo., in 2017. Police
ruled it a suicide when a doctor on a Crime Con panel clearly proves why it is
a homicide. He has presented the case to 600 forensic experts who agree. The
attorney general, prosecutors, police chief and mayor refuse to take another
look and Libby’s mother is asking for letters to be written to the U.S.
Attorney General. Dr. Bill Smock proves that tongues would disengage from the
grommets in a belt hanging. The victim was in the bathroom and blood clots were
outside of the door. Her boyfriend noticed her when he opened the door to the
bathroom, called 911 and fled. There is a shoe imprint on her back and two
fingernails were missing. Her hands were bagged, but no tests were run at the
scene. The autopsy revealed dried fluid on her breast, but no evidence was
taken at the scene. Another male had
also been in the room and a sex worker next door heard a woman scream no. Dr.
Smock said the scene was staged.
If a man chokes a woman once in
an intimate relationship, the likelihood of him eventually killing is 800
percent. The institute educates police, prosecutors, medical personnel and
victim advocates about the hidden dangers of strangulation. One clue in
strangulation is hemorrhage in the eyes much like small bleeds occurring inside
the brain.
Apparently, Independence needs
some lessons from the institute. Very sad situation.
The speaker mentioned there are
seven mistakes in suicide investigations and I found them:
Assuming the Case is A Suicide
Based on the Initial Report
Assuming “The Suicide Position”
At the Crime Scene
Not Handling “The Suicide” as a
Homicide Investigation
Failure to Conduct Victimology
Failure to Apply the Three Basic Investigative
Considerations To Establish if the Death is Suicidal in Nature
1. The presence of
the weapon or means of death at the scene.
2. Injuries or
wounds that are obviously self-inflicted, or could have been inflicted by the
deceased.
3. The existence of a
motive or intent on the part of the victim to take his own life.
Failure to Properly Document any Suicide Notes
Failure to Take Each Factor to its Ultimate Conclusion
Toolbox Killers
The psycho-geographic profiler
was rudely cut off so the Crime Con presenter could promote her TV show and a
book that will probably have many spelling errors as her PowerPoint did. The
Toolbox Killers were sadists who rode around in a van they called Murder Mac
with a bed, disabled locks, a toolbox and police scanner. They tortured and
killed five women and threw them into the mountains, using icepicks in the ear,
pliers and screwdrivers in body parts. They would record the taunts. One who
was found was strangled with a coat hanger going down to the size of a quarter.
These creeps are Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris from California around 1979.
They met in prison and when released pretended to scout for models, tapped
phones to find out where girls were going and once followed and took a photo of
a couple that didn’t turn out well, but they used it for blackmail. They used
degrading language and loved seeing the fear of the victims. One had a
childhood where he was kept with an upside down crib over him so his mother
could go out drinking. He had never been to a birthday party. He didn’t like it
when people were “better than him.” He schemed he would kidnap women and then
live as aliens. These were not low IQ men. They also began using squirt guns
with chemicals in them. One victim was killed on Halloween and passersby
thought she was in her costume in an ivy bed in a neighborhood. She was
different than the rest. Some got away. But these criminals did not. Glad they
were captured.
Pravin Varughese
Not to shame law enforcement, but
to get answers about the murder of her son, Lovely Varughese, R.N., shared
Pravin’s story and how the first autopsy differed from the second. A judge
ended the trial over a comma that he thought would confuse the jury. I’m all
for good grammar, but she still has no justice. Her son was a college student
in Illinois, found 400 yards from the hotel the family stayed in while he was
missing. They were first denied seeing him. The death was ruled hypothermia,
but when Lovely finally got to view him, she noticed bruises on his face. His
shoes were never found. There was no evidence of frostbite in the family
autopsy, but there was blunt force trauma. The first autopsy identified his sex
as female and spelled his name wrong. The dude arrested was not at the same
party as Pravin. He was looking for cocaine. He sold drugs from jail after
being arrested. No new trial date has been set.
Gil Carillo
One reason to go to the dentist
is teeth (and feet) can be main identifiers of criminals. Gil Carillo, Los
Angeles detective, said Richard Ramirez was the most vile criminal in his
career. The serial killer’s teeth were identified as bad by victims who
survived. He had a size 11.5 shoe. Very early on, police noticed Avia Aerobic
shoeprints at the murder scenes (including one on the face of a victim). It was
a relatively uncommon shoe: there’d only been six pairs of the Avia Aerobic
shoe sold in Los Angeles, and only one in size 11.5.
Mayor Dianne Feinstein gave a
speech to reassure citizens that police were on the trail of the killer. She
mentioned the unique shoe print. Ramirez, after hearing her speech, threw the
shoes over the Golden Gate Bridge. His teeth, however, could not be as easily
disposed.
Before Ramirez was arrested he
was pulled over for running a red light in a stolen vehicle. He fled. Searching
the car for clues, the officer found a wallet with a dentist appointment card.
Police attempted to stake out the dentist’s office, but Ramirez never showed.
The dentist felt he would be back because his teeth were in awful condition.
The dentist still proved useful. During his trial, Ramirez’s defense team
called his father—Julian Ramirez—to the stand. Julian claimed his son had been
with the family in El Paso on May 29 and 30, the days he raped and killed
Florence Lang (81) and brutally raped Mabel Bell (83) and Carol Kyle (42). But
Dr. Leung’s records showed that Ramirez had been getting dental work done in
Los Angeles on May 30, not in El Paso.
Gina DeJesus
Gina DeJesus, who was missing in
2004 for 9.5 years in Cleveland, spoke about the Cleveland Family Center for
Missing Children and Adults. The organization “begs” for food and paper for
missing posters. It is located 300 feet away from the house in which she was
held against her will. The center doesn’t care the age of the missing or how
they are missing. One biological mother kidnapped her child. They know there
will be some unhappy endings. Family members of missing people can’t sleep,
work or take care of other kids. They prep the families for media questions and
tell the media what they prefer to be off limits. Once escaped, DeJesus learned
to drive in a cemetery with a neighbor because that is a place you can’t hurt
anyone. Once the three girls gained their freedom, they went their own ways but
do remain friends. As if her first ordeal wasn’t bad enough, she was carjacked
at gunpoint in May. Apparently unrelated. When she would see her family on TV
during the capture, she told herself if they were going to fight to find her,
she was going to fight. That was her main message.
Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid
You have to make them static to
cinematic! Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid were never as famous as Bonnie and
Clyde, but Glenn Stout told of how he wrote their story. Interesting to a
journalist like me. He just happened upon them while doing some research for a
book and stumbled across a headline with the nicknames of the criminals. This
was 1925-26 and there were no reels, but he dug through newspaper and library
archives to form their story. He went through thousands of stories. There were
no police records, trial transcripts or living witnesses to be found. Stout
said crimes are stories with whys and hows. They operated in New York, but she
was once in a Miss Baltimore contest. He used birth and death certificates,
obituaries and genealogy since his brother was good at that. He said historical
societies are a great help. He drove by buildings mentioned in the research and
found one that he could describe in his book as having letters two stories tall.
Candy Kid was given the name because he was a sweet talker. Their real names
were Margaret and Richard Whittemore. He was a thug; she was a flapper. They
were major jewelry thieves and killers. Stout said the FBI asked for money from
Congress after Bonnie and Clyde. The case helped put the FBI needs on the map.
Serial Killers
John White, a former police
officer and now psychologist, said he can’t understand how serial killers treat
people the way they do, but much of it dates back to childhood. He has spoken
before and I remember his line: How many of you are wearing something from your
husband? Were you with him when he bought it? See the receipt! There could be a
speck of blood on the necklace. Forty-seven percent of serial killers take
trophies. Twelve percent take hair or body parts. Sixteen percent of serial
killers want a sex slave. Pins in nipples is a fetish.
Some he has dealt with were
preparing the victim for Thanksgiving dinner. Richard Chase thought his blood
was turning to powder so drank others’ blood. Juan Carona accidentally left a
receipt in a grave. Sean Vincent Gillis had crurophilia. Leg fetish. He had a
girlfriend and he would bring victims home. His tire tracks were so unique,
there were only two others in Baton Rouge. Joseph Kallinger thought there was a
devil in his penis. He ironed his daughter’s thighs to they would bubble up if
she ever had sex. Ricky Lee Green’s dad had him eat throwup. Larry Gene Bell
had someone write a good bye note.
Some just have to talk, some are
turned in by a partner (4 percent), some get apprehended at a traffic stop (4
percent) and some confess (5 percent). The top three ways they are caught are:
Linked to victims, 29 percent; turned in by someone, 15 percent; victim
escaped, 10 percent.
Paul Chalmers
Phil Chalmers, counter homicide trainer
and criminal profiler, has interviewed hundreds of teen killers, school
shooters, mass murderers and serial killers. He has been studying killers for
35 years, with the goal of profiling these individuals and identifying the
causes, warning signs and triggers. He said he was led to it because he was
raised in poverty and destruction himself. Signs of possible future murders by
a juvenile are hurting animals, setting fires, bed wetting and drugs. Having a
negative father figure creates problems as does being dumped or not being
allowed to date someone of their choice. So does being bullied and video games.
Some may want to seek fame. He mentioned Nathan Brooks, who killed his father
by decapitating him and putting the head in a punch bowl and killing his
mother, wanting to crucify her. He was an altar boy and a devil worshiper.
Chalmers said their first kill is the hardest, then they get overconfident and
sloppy. He said it is hard to catch a killer who may be a truck driver who
picks someone up in Arkansas, dumps the body in Nebraska and the clothes in
Idaho.
Hostages
Dr. Kris Mohandie began in the
Los Angeles Police Department. He switched to sieges and crisis because of
being a sensation seeker. Most hostage takers are spontaneous, not deliberate.
They can be depressed or suicidal, have a personality disorder, be a substance
abuser or an extremist. One technique the police employ is stalling. They hope
the person gets hungry or sleepy. Most are resolved in nine hours, many in
four. Suicide building jump threateners do it as a low-tech method that is
dramatic. He worked the O.J. Simpson case and noticed statues on the lawn and
many photos inside the house. This indicated Simpson was narcissistic. (The
photos were taken down when the jury toured the scene). They were trying to
lure Simpson inside the house and out of the car. Not the usual strategy; it is
usually vice versa. Guns were drawn on Simpson at all times. He did not so much
care what would happen to his kids or that the woman he once or maybe still
loved was dead. He was worried about people not liking him. The things he
requested were to talk to his mother who was in the hospital, to use the
bathroom and to have something to drink. One of the cops rattled around the
refrigerator to find orange juice to give to the Juice. A little police humor.
He said perpetrators of animal
abuse were 3.2 times as likely to have a criminal record and 5.3 times more
likely to have at least one record of violent crime. 48 percent of convicted
rapists and 30 percent of child molesters had a history of animal cruelty. 85
percent of women who sought a shelter for domestic violence reported incidents
of pet abuse.
Crime Show Music
Dan Brown Jr. was a “guest of the
state” in Madison County at 13. He composes crime show music. He has used
police chatter sourced from Chicago. His grandpa is in the Bluegrass Hall of
Fame and his dad was a bass player in a rock band.
If the show is set in the 1990s,
he said crime was different.
The sub genres are crime scenes,
forensic science, cybercrime, percussive pursuits, somber cello, detective, eerie vibes, killers, sorrowful
piano and reservations.
He played his creations and one
was called In the Well (looking up). Some sounded like you can see the magnifying
glass or hear glass breaking.
Another was described as
metallic, dark, general tension. He used the word so “crimey.”
He created the Twizzler’s Cold
Case music. You can Google this.
Something about infamy is
interesting to me, Brown said.
He is working on Caribbean,
criminal Christmas and cartoon crime that someone asked about.
The Safety Trap
Spencer Coursen, a threat
management expert, said that coming out of COVID, people are re-emerging,
creating some powder kegs. They are on edge. Uneasy. Awareness and preparation
equal safety. You have to be more willing to defend rather than be unwilling to
offend. Outcome is not about chance. Don’t shirk responsibility when a threat
is presented, say to a principal, who later had to deal with the student who
reported suspicion and later escaped being kidnapped. Tools are great, but your
mindset is better. Run, hide, then fight. When traveling, a restaurant is a
great safe haven. They probably have a first aid kit, restroom and water.
Polygraph
Lisa Ribacoff, a polygraph
examiner, said 28 states allow them as do all federal venues. The first liar
was Adam. The brain works harder to lie. She is not a fan of voice analysis,
but eye detection can be successful with polygraphs. Polygraphs can be used in
criminal cases and infidelity. Rules are to be rested six to eight hours, no
illegal drugs for a week, no alcohol for 48 hours, be older than 13 and have an
IQ over 55 to be sure you understand what she is asking. Caffeine is fine. A
maximum of four yes and no questions are asked. Polygraphs are not 100 percent
accurate. Micro expressions are important, saying yes with your head but no
verbally probably means yes.
Dr. Phil McGraw
All human behavior is on a
continuum. From Pollyanna on. This is how Dr. Phil McGraw began his Crime Con
session.
Do you know when you are in the
presence of evil? They don’t all look like Freddy Krueger, he said.
Was President Harry Truman evil?
McGraw says hero. He said Truman saved lives ultimately.
Evil can be mental and emotional
abuse, manipulation, molestation, murder, cruelty, torture, rape, killing and
home invasion.
McGraw said back in the day man
against the lions was entertainment.
How do you spot evil? In this
Dark Triad: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism.
Here were some examples of evil
he shared.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s mother
DeeDee conspired with her boyfriend to stab her. He later said it was meant to
be a warning that got out of control. “That’s an understatement,” McGraw said.
Her mother actually posted that bitch is dead. Gypsy had no teeth and was on a
feeding tube. They Fed Ex’ed the knife to his house.
Gigi Jordan had an autistic son.
She gave him Xanax and Ambien and hugged him while he asked do you think God
will forgive you? She survived the double “suicide” attempt, but knew how much
to give him. Jordan was in Rikers, but is now free because of a technical
glitch in the trial.
Another evil: One fiancé of
Steven Avery ate two boxes of rat poison to go to the hospital to get away from
him. He also burned a cat and ran her cousin off the road.
Lastly, seven people were
arrested after mummified remains of a dangerous cult leader (“Mother God”) was
found wrapped in Christmas lights. Followers of the Love Has Won group were
staying at the house.
You can’t see these evil people
because you don’t have that in yourself, McGraw said.
In 80 percent of mass shootings,
one person knows it is going to happen. In 65 percent, two know. But nobody
does anything about it. Sometimes that person is the FBI, McGraw said.
He quoted Edmund Burke’s “the
only good thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing.”
Don’t name your son Damien is how
he ended the presentation.
RatSnakes
Rat Snakes is a name for
undercover agents in Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Vincent Cefalu, author
of a book with the same name. He said they are not in it for fame because you
are anonymous, he never had a “wig man,” the money is laughable, you can’t have
a stable family and the environment is trailer parks and shoddy motels. You have
to make sure you are sanitized going out--no government pens on you and no
wedding ring finger tan if you are not supposed to be married. You have to know
the exits and who has arms. Snakes ate rodents and that’s how the name came
about. The agents cheat death by living a lie, he said. You can't be part-time
undercover.
Pulse Killing
Two victimology panelists offered
red flags on Omar Mateen, the Pulse Nightclub killer who murdered 49 and
injured 53. The fifth anniversary was June 12, also being the date Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered.
Mateen had a fascination with
guns and was disturbing and abusive in elementary school. There are 31
detention documents. At 8, he was making sexual comments.
He studied forensic science. One
professor had dinner with the family at Christmas and received a thank you note
for teaching Mateen. Mateen once handed him in a manifesto of eight pages of
people who wronged him. The red flag is that he was treated “less than,” Pierre
Pacheco said. He said over the phone to him that he knew how to handle things
when things don’t go his way.
Mateen was on the radar of the
sheriff and Homeland Security. When working at a courthouse, he would always
mention he was related to whomever committed a terrorist act. He called Osama
bin Laden his uncle.
Cycle of Torture/Dagger in Back Every Day
In a Brian Laundrie poll, 51
percent said someone is hiding him, 31 percent said suicide, and tied at 9
percent were in the reserve or in Mexico or Canada. The case is an FBI case, not
Wyoming’s, because it was in a national park. It was pointed out that if there
is a trial, most federal ones do not allow cameras in the courtroom. Someone
else asked a good question as to why some cases get more media coverage than
others. It was said that the more information that is put out, the better
chance the media will use it. Plus, this went across multiple states. In other
words, speak up, people.
Maura Murray’s whereabouts have
been unknown since a 2004 car crash in New Hampshire. Some bones have recently
been found near the site and are being analyzed. Retired U.S. marshal Art
Roderick, said there are five causes of death: natural, accident, suicide,
homicide and undetermined. There is news about Faith Hedgepeth, where an arrest
has now been made, since her murder with a blunt instrument in 2012 at Chapel
Hill. The police were not shy in asking for DNA and now have a match. Semen was
part of the evidence. The arrested dude was said to be a pizza deliverer, but
there is likely more to it than that. Connie Dabate’s 2015 murder was briefly
mentioned. The trial has again been delayed. This is the Fitbit murder case.
Her husband was arrested. The Fitbit was shown to have movement an hour after
he said intruders killed her.
