| dbp:shortsummary | - 0001-11-09 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- 3.15576E10
- 4.418064E8
- In July 1988, 42-year-old drifter Sandra Cwik was murdered in Buckman Springs, California, outside of San Diego. Abandoned in a remote area, her body wasn’t discovered for several days and was covered with maggots. By analyzing the species of fly discovered at the recovery site, forensic entomologist David Faulkner was able to provide the compelling time-of-death evidence that convicted serial rapist/killer Ronald Porter. (en)
- In 1976 when 180 Legionnaires contract pneumonia-like symptoms after a convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and 29 of them die, doctors and scientists are mystified. The determination of one scientist helps to determine the cause and likely vector of this deadly disease now known as Legionnaires' disease. This is one of the most famous medical detective stories. (en)
- In November 1986, 39-year-old Helle Crafts, a Danish flight attendant residing in Newtown, Connecticut, is reported missing, and police suspect her pilot husband, Richard, of foul play. A snowplow driver thinks that he saw Richard using a wood chipper near a river at 4:20 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm, shortly before he reported his wife as missing. In a small eddy downstream, police find fragments of what would be identified as human bone, a fingernail, a tooth, and a few strands of hair. Investigators deduced Richard bludgeoned Helle to death in their bedroom, hid her in the freezer until their kids were out of the house, and then cut up her frozen body with the wood chipper, hoping her remains would end up in the river and be washed away, which most of them did, but the very few that didn't were still enough to uncover the truth. Richard Crafts was subsequently arrested for killing his wife and sentenced to 50 years. This was Connecticut's first murder conviction without a body. (en)
- Damion Heersink, an eleven-year-old boy from Dothan, Alabama, almost died in 1992 after eating an improperly cooked hamburger teeming with E-Coli. Escherichia coli bacteria can be found in meats, in milk, and in water. When food is properly processed, prepared, and stored, E-Coli are harmless. But in the absence of these simple precautions, E-Coli can have deadly consequences. (en)
- At the Dallas, Texas 'Pistol & Revolver' club in 1991, 14-year-old Leland Harold "Trey" Cooley, a young spectator, was watching a shooting competition his father was judging while seated behind an air gun range. Out of nowhere, he was struck and killed by a stray bullet. Forensic scientists were able to pinpoint the origin and path of bullet, which exposed the faulty design of the outdoor shooting range. The Cooleys subsequently sued the gun club, winning millions in compensation, and the outdoor range was promptly shut down. (en)
- Troubling clusters of deadly cancer cases strike concerned communities across the country. In 1987, residents of Maryvale, a Phoenix suburb, realize that too many children are fatally stricken with leukemia. And, on Meadow Street in Guilford, Connecticut, there is a disproportionate amount of illness, including four cases of brain cancer which garners national attention in 1990. Modern environmental agents such as buried poisons and electrical substations are found... Could these be the culprits? (en)
- FBI psychological profiling and DNA evidence identify Timothy Wilson Spencer, who raped and strangled five young women in Virginia from 1984 through 1988. The U.S. criminal justice system's first use of DNA profiling in a serial murder case frees an innocent man after he spent five years in prison and convicts the real killer. (en)
- In 1985, alarmingly high levels of thyroid hormones pump through the systems of over 100 residents of South Dakota and Minnesota. A similar case had occurred in Nebraska in April 1984. Investigators study one family who all got sick, except their 12-year-old son who is a vegetarian. It seems that when drug companies started manufacturing synthetic thyroid hormones, they stopped buying thyroid tissue from butchers who did not trim these parts, but rather sold them as 'extra lean beef.' The outcome: the USDA bans meat plants from using meat in or near the gullet for beef and pork products. (en)
- In 1992, 32-year-old single mother Denise Johnson was found strangled to death in a deserted area outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Local investigators asked a molecular geneticist to pick out a tree in a 'lineup' when unidentified seed pods were found in suspect Mark Bogan's truck. The judge rules into evidence DNA profiles linking the pods to a tree near where the body was found. This proved the truck had been near the crime scene. Bogan claimed Denise tried to rob him, but investigators were sure he and Denise were having sex in the truck, and when he got too forceful and she objected, he killed her. This is the first US case where plant DNA was used to convict a criminal. (en)
- English detectives team up with a pioneering scientist to solve a case of sexual assault and serial murder. In 1983, a quiet country village in Leicestershire County, England is gripped with fear as authorities search for the killer of 15-year-old Lynda Mann. Clueless, they start again when Dawn Ashworth is killed three years later. They enlist the help of Dr. Alec Jeffreys, a molecular biologist who uses his breakthrough technique of genetic fingerprinting to rule out one suspect by comparing his DNA with that of semen found on the victims' bodies. Police set up a DNA dragnet to trap and convict the real killer, but are stymied when Richard Buckland confesses to the crime and his DNA does not match. Later, it is discovered that the true killer, Colin Pitchfork, had avoided giving a DNA sample during the dragnet and this brings the focus on him. This 1986 murder case is the first to use DNA as evidence in a criminal case. (en)
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