A young mom was strangled to death back in 1988. As a young Investigator (me) working with an old pro, we were called to the scene to start the investigation. We knew the clock was running to solve this crime. At the time, the local police had very little resources to carry out a murder investigation, so the state police was asked to take over the case. It was pounded into our heads that we needed to solve this case in 48 hours. I couldn’t sleep, eat or doing anything, except work this case. It was my first true investigation.
After only working the case for 14 hours, I told the old pro that I thought I knew who killed the young mom. He told me knowing who did it and proving who did it was two different things. He said to bring him some proof. We didn’t have DNA back then, except for a very few instances and even then, it took months to get the results.
After working the case for another two weeks, I had to admit that I just didn’t have the evidence to prove who did it, but I swore the man that I fingered as the killer was for real. We continued to work the case for
another 2 weeks, but still no evidence.
Then in 2018, my suspect died. The Coroner was smart enough to keep some samples from the corpse and later DNA testing was finally done. The results came back as being our man. To this day, I have felt nothing but guilt because I couldn’t get the family the closure they deserved. Even though there is no such thing as closure in a murder, finding arresting and convicting the murderer does give the family some relief. I wished I could have at least done that, but it wasn’t to be.
So all we ended up with was a dead man that killed a young mom, but we couldn’t arrest him or convict him. This case has tortured me for years. I also learned many lessons from it. I became smarter and wiser. The case taught me to use not just the physical evidence or even my senses, but to speak with people. Someone always knows more than they are telling.
Murder Case
After only working the case for 14 hours, I told the old pro that I thought I knew who killed the young mom. He told me knowing who did it and proving who did it was two different things. He said to bring him some proof. We didn’t have DNA back then, except for a very few instances and even then, it took months to get the results.
After working the case for another two weeks, I had to admit that I just didn’t have the evidence to prove who did it, but I swore the man that I fingered as the killer was for real. We continued to work the case for
another 2 weeks, but still no evidence.
Then in 2018, my suspect died. The Coroner was smart enough to keep some samples from the corpse and later DNA testing was finally done. The results came back as being our man. To this day, I have felt nothing but guilt because I couldn’t get the family the closure they deserved. Even though there is no such thing as closure in a murder, finding arresting and convicting the murderer does give the family some relief. I wished I could have at least done that, but it wasn’t to be.
So all we ended up with was a dead man that killed a young mom, but we couldn’t arrest him or convict him. This case has tortured me for years. I also learned many lessons from it. I became smarter and wiser. The case taught me to use not just the physical evidence or even my senses, but to speak with people. Someone always knows more than they are telling.
Murder Case
