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Texas Rangers Use Internet To Breathe New Life Into Cold Case Homicides
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Katherine Rosenberg reports that the Texas Department of Public Safety has unveiled a new web site dedicated to unsolved cold case homicides to make sure the victims are not forgotten and to try to catch a break in even the coldest of cases. DPS spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger says continual strides in technology make focusing on cold cases more important than ever because there are more opportunities to solve them with each emerging process or device. The web site was created because the more readily available information is the more people may be apt to pick up the phone and report what they know. 'It helps to refresh these cases in the public's mind and hopefully we'll shed new light on it. In some cases, we can also re-examine evidence if there's an opportunity or need there as well,' says Cesinger. One featured case from 1993 is Kathleen Suckley who was 29 when her throat was slashed and she was stabbed about 40 times inside her rented duplex, while her two sons, ages 4 and 1, were home. Officials said they interviewed numerous witnesses but never got enough information for an arrest. Capt. Tim Wilson maintains that in any homicide case there always is someone who knows something. At some point, he believes, the murderer will tell someone out of guilt or pride, or simply the pressure of holding it in. Cesinger points out that over time as relationships change, if prompted by something like the website or a news article, that confidant finally may come forward. 'I think we owe it to Kathleen to be this tenacious. It drives me nuts that somebody can do this and get away with it,' says Kathleen's mother-in-law Luann Suckley. 'I think the website is great ... maybe someone will finally speak up because I'm tired of sitting back and waiting.'"
Are we going to talk about the story, or just have ad hominem attacks on unrelated subjects?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
And IANADPS detective, but I am not without an impressive resume'. I've some perfectly brewed coffee, a mild Investigative Discovery addiction, and I've been reading /. all morning: forty stab wounds is personal. It's a spurned lover.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
You breathe breaths. One's a noun and the other is a verb. They're pronounced very differently. English isn't even my native language, but even I know the difference.
Right now, there's an assault case in Texas waiting on somebody coming forward. A young lesbian parent at a public playground was seriously beaten by a much larger male parent. This case has not been classified as a hate crime by local authorities despite that being clearly in line with Texas law, and those same authorities appear to be quite comfortable with letting this become a cold case. It looks like the case will only come to justice if some non-police person fingers the perp, and does so loudly enough that the local prosecutor can't ignore it.
It's laudable that Texas is taking steps to clear some cold case murders, but it will be up to some of the very same people who implemented this to figure out what their state government should do when a local government clearly doesn't want to help and thinks it has unlimited authority to decide which laws to follow, and judging by this recent assault case, they had better start planning for that problem yesterday.
Who is John Cabal?
Aside from the bad grammar of TFA, I found this little puzzle: "DPS spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger says continual strides in technology make focusing on cold cases more important than ever because there are more opportunities to solve them with each emerging process or device."
How do "continual strides in technology" make focusing on cold cases "more important?" I can see how it might make focusing on cold cases more convenient or more efficient or more productive. It doesn't make it more important. Old unsolved cases become less important over time because it becomes increasingly likely that the perpetrator has either already been imprisoned on a different charge, has died or has changed their life so that they are less of a danger to the public.
Multiple stab wounds doesn't mean it's personal. It means the killer was extremely angry for reasons we do not know. But I agree it is probably personal, which means the investigation should focus on former lovers and close family members.
I'm not completely sure that attacking all of Texas is 'ad hominem,' but that's ok with me.
My point is this: Texas has lots bigger problems with their judicial system (and their police system) than improving their cold case closure rate.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
"At some point, he believes, the murderer will tell someone out of guilt or pride, or simply the pressure of holding it in."
Dostoyevsky gently smiles from his grave.
I have a few family members that work in the Texas justice system. The number of people that have sat in jail for years to later be exonerated by DNA or new modern evidence methods are staggering. Put to death even when there was only the most circumstantial evidence that they were even involved (or other evidence that suggested they were not).
Though adding the cold case site is a good measure, over time people who commit crimes do think they have gotten away with them and may give up information they shouldn't have (to stay free).
They're taking the time to investigate homicides?! If they had focused on what they were SUPPOSED TO be doing, maybe they wouldn't have done so poorly in the 2012 season.
They just need Chuck Norris. He'll close every cold case with his fists.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
The web site was created because the more readily available information is the more people may be apt to pick up the phone and report what they know.
Their email in-box is probably full and they are still waiting for the phone to ring.
Have gnu, will travel.
Okay, you got old cases, that have gone nowhere. Now, you are hoping that the chance that someone will browse the website and be able to give a clue to an old case? Seriously?
I guess this makes old detectives feel better for not solving cases during their careers, that by putting this out there, maybe, just maybe, after cars start flying, someone with info will browse the website and say something!!!!
Be seeing you...
came here to make this reference, surprised it took scrolling down this far to find it :)
YOU say he's innocent. And, you can even find people who agree with you, therefore reinforcing your opinion. The arson investigator isn't the most qualified of arson investigators, and I'll agree that he either needed further training, or to be replaced. But - the case was tried, judged, and execution carried out, all within the guidelines of existing law. I don't believe an innocent man died in this case. It does happen, but not this time.
The couple hundred thousand murders? I'm more interested in the death of a culture, than those supposed couple hundred thousand murders. Sorry, I disagree with your numbers.
Anyway - politicians are well protected, and can't be touched.
And, people on a political crusade are protected by the bill of rights in this country. Aren't you glad to be an American? You're full of shit, but you have the RIGHT to be full of shit!!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Yeah, we can probably dismiss current lovers.
The extreme anger thing? Hmmm. That's usually personal. You don't seek out a random victim to stab them 40 times or more. That kind of rage is usually reserved for an ex-spouse, a hated and detested sibling, an abusive parent - something of that sort. Unless a rapist used and abused a random victim, who then laughed at his inadequate equipment. "Aren't you started yet, Shorty? Who ya gonna rape with that 1/2 inch stub?"
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
[insert baseball joke]
But I agree it is probably personal, which means the investigation should focus on former lovers and close family members.
Was looking into being a LEO(law enforcement) a few years ago, couldn't cut it because I broke my back during the training, it's very hard to complete the training when you can't run or hardly walk. In Canada LEO training is about half of what a marine takes to get on the force. Really you'd investigate everyone, but at 40 stab wounds? It could also be someone with a deep psychosis or mental health issue as well. It's getting stuck in the "well it probably is..." that limits your field of view and screws up your investigation.
One thing I always did find odd between Canada and the US with the investigation of homicides. In the US you'll abandon a murder after a period of time, in Canada we never do, ever. There's always someone working on the case, there are cold case teams that are dedicated to it. One of the instructors I had, had a pretty good example of this about a major drug runner from the US, who wanted someone removed and suggested killing the guy in Toronto. Which was quickly put down by his partner. He pointed out that in Canada they'll hunt you down till the end of your days. While in the US they'll give up after a few months. Part of the reason is, in Canada an indictable offence(the equivalent of a felony) never expires. And there is no such thing as a I/O at the provincial level.
What I find odd about this article though, is that the rangers are doing what we've been doing up here in Canada since the 70's at a lower tech level(they used flash bulletins sent by intra BBS memos via CPIC). Then again, you guys copied our crime stoppers program too. Well if it works, it works right? But pretending that it's new and shiny is just silly.
Om, nomnomnom...
> But - the case was tried, judged, and execution carried out, all within the guidelines of existing law. I don't believe an innocent man died in this case. It does happen, but not this time.
Complete non-seq. I know the story you speak of, and it wasn't so that people believed he was innocent and sought out evidence to support it. The reason we've heard of the case at all was the egregious "evidence" of a cocky, pseudoscience-peddling arson investigator, and this was the basis for the whole case (there was no reason to suspect the guy otherwise). If you think the arson investigator needed further training or should be replaced, then by definition this was a gross miscarriage of justice, even if you for some voodoo intuition believe he was guilty. Even if he WAS guilty it would have been miscarriage of justice if the conviction was based on bogus evidence, which it plainly was.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
There was reason to suspect that arsonist.
The man had a car parked close to the house. Witnesses saw him, as he struggled to save that car. His children? He made no effort to save his children.
If you don't see that action as suspicious, then I question your grasp on reality.
That house was not set afire accidentally. An accelerant was used to spread the fire widely, and quickly. There were no other suspects. None.
If you wish to call the verdict into question, then you might advance some theory that might supply an alternative suspect. The arson in question couldn't even supply a theoretical alternative from dreamland. He murdered his children, but tried to save his old car.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I read the title as "Texas Instruments ... "
And I thought the baseball team was getting training in forensics. That didn't scan too well either.
John
And IANADPS detective, but I am not without an impressive resume'. I've some perfectly brewed coffee, a mild Investigative Discovery addiction, and I've been reading /. all morning: forty stab wounds is personal. It's a spurned lover.
Or a deranged person with a semi-automatic knife thrower with large capacity clips, person that mistaken the duplex for a school?
Or a flock of angry birds with a slingshot?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
In fine slashdot fashion, you didn't read the article.
No, there was no accelerant. Tests disproved accelerant.
And yes, standard Texas procedure proved an innocent man guilty.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I spent a summer in college working in Tyler, TX. Nice town, friendly people, surprisingly good restaurants for a small city (~100k). Also is the seat of Smith County. There's a statue of Justice in the entryway of the courthouse. I kid you not, she is not wearing a blindfold.
Murder does not have a statute of limitations in the US. It's just harder to solve cold cases, especially when they're crime-related (as most murders in the US are - drug deals gone wrong, etc.).
They may not get the right answer every time, but...
They'll be in the ball park!
I'll be here all week.
It may be an attack, and only obliquely on-topic, but it isn't ad hominem.
Um, the headline correctly used breathe. What is your point?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
The extreme anger thing? Hmmm. That's usually personal. You don't seek out a random victim to stab them 40 times or more.
You do if you're a homicidal maniac, a serial killer or just plain psychotic.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it