5 Tiny Pieces Of Evidence That Blew Murder Cases Wide Open
Solving murders doesn’t work the way you see it on television – it’s way more difficult than shoving some obscure piece of evidence into a science machine and waiting for it to spit out the results. Entire teams of investigators can devote years to solving complex puzzles with little or no success. But occasionally, the universe aligns just so, and the tiniest of things left behind at crime scenes can blast cold cases wide open. Take, for instance ...
Busted By A Single Dog Hair
There are plenty of reasons why dogs are the best, not the least of which is being just the goodest of boys. In this case, however, their awesomeness came in the form of a hair that helped catch two murderers.
In 1998, Elizabeth Ballard’s body was found in a New Mexico desert, dumped in a shallow grave. Her killers were detailed in the cleaning and cover up, from the room she was murdered in to the trunk her body was transported in. But as anyone who shares their home with an animal knows, pet hair gets everywhere. We don’t care if you’re Mr. Clean himself – at least a few of your furry friend’s sheddings are on you somewhere at all times.
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It is inevitable.
One such hair was discovered on Ballard’s sock and sent to a California lab known for its advancements in forensic animal DNA. From there they were able to match the hair to a pit bull mix named Hercules (good boy!) who belonged to one of Ballard’s killers. And if you’re wondering, “Wait, how was the dog’s DNA in some database? Had they sent its slobber to one of those genealogy services or something?” Well, no, because it was 1998 and Ancestry.com wasn’t really a thing quite yet and they don’t even offer that service for dogs (a statement that is true at the time of this writing).
Hercules was already known to police, because Ballard and her murderers were actually involved in some crazy love triangle, so the killers had already been questioned about her death. Of course, they denied that Ballard had ever been to their place, but when the hair turned up on that sock, a hole turned up in their story, and it eventually led to a murder conviction for both men.
So keep that in mind the next time you find yourself annoyed with the persistent layer of animal hair that seems to coat every surface of your home -- that stuff helps solve murders.
A Quarter-Sized Piece Of Plastic Solves A Hit And Run
Back in August of 2000, Tracy Tomko from Akron, Ohio went out for her usual morning run, and because you read the title to this article, you probably already guessed that she never found her way back home. A search did turn up Tomko’s body, drowned in a puddle, where she had been dragged after being hit by a car. Everything about the case was awful, including the fact that police had no suspects, and the only evidence left at the scene was a few tiny fragments of broken glass and a piece of plastic the size of a quarter.
It took a while, but the police eventually identified the correct make and model of the vehicle as a 1990 Ford Tempo after months of looking for something different. But fortunately, the universe throws do-gooders a bone every now and again, and a police officer happened across a Ford Tempo with a suspicious piece of plastic missing just hours after learning of this new information. Which, of course, finally gave law enforcement an actual suspect in the case.
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“But officer, it was like that when I bought it.”
As it turns out, the suspect just happened to have their windshield replaced around the same time as the murder ... and traveled out of state to have it done. And since crossing state lines for auto glass replacement on the very car that’s missing a too-perfect-to-be-coincidental piece of plastic is a bit of a red flag, they decided to bring the vehicle’s owner in for some questioning. Which resulted in a confession and a ten year stint in prison for involuntary manslaughter, because of course it did.
Thankfully, with advancements in forensic science and cameras recording pretty much everything all the time, hit and run cases have been steadily decreasing sci- what’s that? They’re not? They’re increasing? What the hell, you guys. Quit being dicks.
Three Grains Of Pollen Shed Light On Where A Murder Victim Came From
In 2006, a 27-year-old murder case had a slight break in it thanks to three grains of pollen recovered from a teenage victim’s jacket and pants pocket. If that sounds like some horribly-unrealistic plot-pushing device from a terrible TV crime show, you’re probably not up on the radness of forensic palynology.
As you might imagine, given the context, forensic palynologists study plants and plant material to help solve crimes, and this highly-specific-yet-extremely-important job has been used to crack many cases. Vaughn Bryant was one such scientist, and he was recruited to assist in the identification of a teenage girl who had been found shot in Caledonia, N.Y. in 1979.
Bryant found three grains of Australian pine pollen on the victim, which proved to be fairly revelatory, as the pollen could only be found in Arizona, Florida, and South Carolina. The victim was found in western New York, though, meaning she was either from or had traveled to one of those places, or the murderer had.
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And probably not for leisurely purposes.
Unfortunately, as important as this find was, it didn’t lead to a firm suspect and the crime still hasn’t been officially solved. Police did find two men that could have committed the murder: well-known serial killers Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas. Both men, without knowing the other had spoken to authorities, gave the exact same details about the crime when questioned by the police. But a lack of other corroborating evidence prevented the men from being tied to the murder, and both ended up dying before the pollen breakthrough.
The one piece of good news is that the victim was finally identified with the help of an online community of volunteers that help try to solve cold cases. It turned out that “Caledonia Jane Doe” was 16-year-old Tammy Alexander from Brooksville, Florida, which you may remember as one of the places you can find the Australian pine.
An Unassuming Tree Tells The Story Of Body Disposal
If you’re familiar with true crime, you probably already know that it’s nearly impossible to convict someone of murder without a body. Which makes sense – it’s difficult to say, “You’re responsible for this person being dead,” when there’s no actual dead person to reference. That’s (at least part of) what makes this case so wild.
Fred and Charlotte Grabbe’s relationship was a tumultuous one, and when Charlotte disappeared in July 1981, the couple’s children immediately suspected their father. Fred became a leading suspect in the case when a letter written by Charlotte was found stashed away in her safety-deposit box. It was to be opened and read in the event she disappeared or died, and in it, she basically said, “If you can’t find me, Fred did it.”
Sure, that seems pretty damning, but the most important piece of evidence turned out to be a tree that Fred’s ex-girlfriend led authorities to. Years after Charlotte’s disappearance, Vickie Jane McCalister was tracked down by police and eventually confessed to seeing Fred strangle and kill Charlotte before disposing of the body by burning it in a barrel under a tree and dumping the remains in a river. Of course, with no body it was just a “he said, she said” scenario, so scientists went to the purported crime scene to have a look.
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Which we imagine was every bit as creepy as it sounds.
What they found was a tree that showed obvious damage from something petroleum-based, on the same side of the tree McCalister had said, and that it had occurred in 1981 (the year Charlotte went missing), which they were able to determine because trees have very convenient growth rings to reference. That, along with McCalister’s testimony, was enough to convince two juries to send Fred away to prison for 75 years.
Contact Lenses Poke Holes In A Murderer’s Story
In 2005, 26-year-old Janet Abaroa was found stabbed to death in her North Carolina home office by her husband Raven, after he arrived home from playing soccer with friends. The murder weapon was never recovered, police had little evidence to go on, and the case went unsolved for nearly 10 years.
Janet’s family strongly believed Raven was responsible for the murder. The couple had been going through their fair share of marital strife, with Raven having multiple affairs early in their marriage. When Janet became pregnant, she confided in her family that she was worried about raising the baby as a single mother.
In October 2004, the couple’s child was born. Janet was murdered six months after his birth.
After the murder, Raven fled to Salt Lake City and eventually remarried, prompting Janet’s sisters to reach out to Raven’s new wife to warn her. The two eventually separated because of Raven’s abusive behavior, and his now ex-wife was so freaked out that she spoke publicly about how she suspected that Raven had killed Janet, eventually testifying as a witness for the prosecution.
After some time, a new detective was assigned to the case, and in reviewing the crime scene images he noticed something: The contact lens case on the dresser was open, meaning the contacts were most likely on Janet when she died. This discovery was important, particularly because Raven claimed his wife was in bed, watching TV and preparing to call it a night when he left. But as anyone with contacts knows, you pop those bad boys out before going to sleep.
At least if you value things like keeping your sight.
Detectives exhumed Janet’s body and found that she was, in fact, wearing her contacts when she was buried (and murdered). From there, they did a contact lens simulation study by placing the same brand and make of contacts on some pig eyes and burying them to see if they’d decompose the same way. They did, which meant the contacts on Janet were the ones from the dresser and that whole bit about her getting ready for bed when Raven went to play soccer was a lie.
In 2013, with the evidence mounting against him, Raven entered an Alford plea deal for involuntary manslaughter, spent some time behind bars, and was released from prison on Christmas in 2017. So maybe keep that in mind if you’re swiping through Tinder and find an attractive Mormon soccer player you’d like to date in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.
