Stop and Smell the Blossoms!

By Tad DiBiase

In Washington, D.C. at this time of year the cherry blossoms burst into view and thousands of residents and tourists come out to walk and drive through the areas of D.C. and Maryland where the trees and their fabulous blooms are located.  Seeing these blossoms every year is one of the reasons I love living in this beautiful city.  The sight of the millions of pink and white flowers is awesome and the idea that they bloom each and every year without fail is soothing.


 Most of us in the "victim community" (sort of an awful name but what else can we call ourselves?), whether we are victims ourselves, law enforcement or folks who support victims, lead very stressful lives. The dark side of humanity is never very far from our thoughts whether it is because of what we have experienced in our own lives or what we've witnessed in the lives of others.  It's important, yet rare, that we learn to both manage and relieve the stress of what we do and what has happened to us in a constructive way.  


The cherry blossoms always assist me in this process.  Their beauty reminds me of the power and presence of God and his presence in and around each of us even in our darkest hours.  The recurrence of the blooms each year reminds me that life moves on, in cycles, and whatever stress or sadness that envelopes us will, in time, if not pass in full, diminish, just as the flowers on the trees will die and fall to the ground.  


Too often those of us who are victims or advocates for victims fall prey to negative ways to manage stress.  We eat too much, drink too much or self-medicate too much and we simply ignore our own needs on the theory that we're too busying helping others to tend to ourselves.  But what good comes of this if we end up failing ourselves and can no longer help others?  


For me, running has been an important stress reducer throughout my life.  Although I also use it to help me prepare for trials (many an opening and closing have been composed during runs), often I just run. I just run.   I don't usually run with others, just with my thoughts and my music.  The things that seemed so important and stressful before the run, seem less so after.   


We all need the types of releases and hopefully this time of year reminds us to stop and smell....the blossoms.

Advances In Science Help Find The Missing

By Tad DiBiase


There are two clear trends I've seen in no body murder/missing persons cases over the past few years.  First is the shortened length of time between when a person goes missing and an arrest for that person's murder. 


The second is advances in forensic science that make no body cases easier to prosecute.  As a result, the past ten years have seen a huge increase in the number of no body murder cases where there are arrests and prosecutions.  Advances in technology are behind both trends.


 Years ago, if you told people your wife or girlfriend ran off with another man or ran off to Europe, it was difficult to verify this.  In the days before cell phones, credit cards and other electronic trails that we all leave behind nowadays, it was virtually impossible to disprove what a murderer might say about his victim. 


However, today is different.  Upon hearing that someone is missing, police (at least the good ones) immediately start checking cell phone and cell tower (which report the physical location of the cell phone) records.   Computer databases contain a wealth of data that police can access. Credit card records show where purchases were made.  Bank records that show if accounts were accessed.   Social security records that reveal whether the "missing person" got another job, made an unemployment claim, or tried to collect benefits from the government.  Airline records showing passenger manifests.  Virtually every person leaves some form of electronic trail, and most of us leave these trails every day.  


The British have such a sophisticated system of surveillance cameras in public places that it is virtually impossible to go about a normal day and avoid being surveilled (if that's a verb) multiple times a day.  Although the United States is not quite as camera friendly, we're getting there.  Therefore, it is very difficult for someone to just disappear and even harder for a murderer to argue that his victim went somewhere but left no trace.  


Many jurisidictions have seven year rules where a person must be missing for seven years before he or she is declared dead.  These laws are not only anachronistic given the modern communication age but are sometimes used by police as an excuse not to investigate a missing persons case as a homicide.  Luckily, over the past ten years,  the police's ability to more quickly determine that it's unlikely the victim just disappeared has meant that the police treat cases as homicides more quickly.  (I believe it is also true that changes in attitudes regarding domestic violence have caused police to be more suspicious when the missing victim was in an abusive relationship.)  We now see a lot more cases with arrests within months of the person going missing as opposed to years later.  


Second,  forensic advances over the past 20 years make it much easier to investigate, close and prosecute a no body case.  Because of its prevalence, we sometimes forget that DNA testing is a relatively new technology and its first use in court was less than 25 years ago.  Moreover, DNA advances now permit forensic scientists to test not only microscopically tiny pieces of evidence but old DNA and degraded DNA to an extent not possible even ten years ago.  


These scientific advances have led to the reopening of thousands of cold cases and missing persons cases from years ago.  Previously getting a tiny speck of blood from a crime scene years after the murder was not much help because even if it could somehow be tested, forensic science would only permit a conclusion as to the blood type of the person who spilled the blood.  With there only being four blood types, this information was hardly damning.  


Today, a speck of blood (or other body fluid) many years old can prove a suspect's identity to a reasonable scientific conclusion.  And it's not just DNA advances.  Searching fingerprints is easier and faster than 20 years ago and trace evidence (hair, fiber, etc.) has also advanced.  New sciences come online  every year that hold out the promise of improved crime solving, including controversial scientific techniques such as DNA tests that claim they can type race.  


As I tell families all the time, never give up hope because you never know when the next scientific advance might be the one that solves your case.

Investigation 101: Tips For Law Enforcement and Family Members

By Tad DiBiase

I’m often asked by both the families of missing persons and law enforcement what the police and family should be doing once a person is missing but presumed dead. Here are five things the police should focus on early in an investigation and one thing the family can do. In any murder investigation, time is of the essence and the faster the police can gather clues, the greater their chance of finding the victim’s body and making an arrest. Note that all of these techniques are useful even if the victim is merely missing and not actually dead.  Moreover, although this are things done by the police, the victim's family can assist the police with these techniques by giving the police the ideas and the information that enables the police to investigate the matter.

1. Cell phones

Cell phones have a wealth of information and their widespread use in today’s society make them a valuable source of information. The police, often with the help of a subpoena issued by the prosecutor’s office, can get the records from the victim’s phone and see who the victim was calling, when the calls stopped and who called after the outgoing calls stopped. Checking the frequency of calls also help police determine who was close to the victim. Cell phones utilize cell towers to make calls and obtaining cell tower records tell police where a call was coming from. Indeed, the cell towers to which a phone sends a signal can change during the duration of a call, so police can track the path of the victim. However, phone companies keep cell tower records for very limited periods, often as few as 20 to 30 days so police must move quickly to get these records. Of course, all of these techniques apply to potential suspects as well.

2. Interviews

Police should immediately interview as many who know the victim as possible. Close family members and friends must be interviewed in detail to gather information. Videotaping these interviews is best because if the story changes down the road, the police have an accurate record of what was said initially. Any suspects should also be interviewed and their story thoroughly checked out.

3. Search warrants

I have seen over the years the difficulties police have in getting search warrants for suspect’s houses or other possible scenes in missing person’s cases. First, police should aggressively pursue consent searches if possible. If that fails, they must at least try to get a search warrant. There’s nothing wrong with putting in a search warrant that the police suspect foul play and that the victim’s characteristics are inconsistent with having simply left town, e.g., left behind children, is a child, have not accessed bank accounts, failed to show up to work, etc. Citing other cases of missing persons who were later found dead or were never found, increase the chances a judge will agree the victim may be dead. Getting inside a suspect’s house often leads to very valuable scientific evidence. Any search should include a cadaver dog. You’d be amazed at how often suspects bury a body nearby, sometimes temporarily until they can move it to another, safer location.


4. Pressure suspect

If there is an obvious suspect, pressure must be applied. Through effective interrogation techniques, a suspect will often confess early on since the guilt is fresh and the suspect’s story not quite thought out yet. A suspect should be placed under surveillance to see if he or she returns to the crime scene or where the body was disposed of. Advances in GPS technology have led police to placing GPS tracking devices on a suspect’s car and using the information to see where the suspect goes. For an interesting recent article from the Washington Post about this see, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081203275.html

5. Think creatively

Don’t treat the case like a missing person case, treat it like a homicide where the best evidence of the crime is missing: the body. Police must think outside the box. In one case, the family had not heard from the victim for sometime but was receiving letters allegedly written by the victim. The family, suspicious that the victim was actually dead, wrote back and reminded the victim to send the money he owed to another family member and to not forget that same family member’s birthday. A few days letter a birthday card arrived along with a check for $25. Of course, the victim did not owe that family member any money and it was not his birthday so the family knew that it was not the victim writing the letters. This is just one example of police and a family thinking creatively to ensnare a killer. Someone with the ability to conceal a body is not a criminal who is likely to make stupid mistakes like the bank robber who writes a stickup note on his own deposit slip. These cases are huge law enforcement challenges and require creative solutions and investigative techniques.

What can the family do?

First, never, ever give up.  No body cases are often solved many years after the fact.  Although forensic advances making solving these cases easier, many cold cases still exist and a family can never lose hope. 

Second, keep the pressure on the police and the DA.  don't be shy about calling to see what the status of the investigation is.  You're not being a pest, you're being  a squeaky wheel that needs oil! 

Third, try to keep the case in the media if possible.  Anniversaries of disappearances and landmarks for family members (victim's children's graduations, birthdays, etc.) are good hooks to get the media involved and interested.  Media coverage keeps pressure on the cops, suspects and witnesses alike, always a good thing. 

Fourth, consider, if you can afford it, hiring an investigator or attorney to conduct your own investigation.  Often third parties can get more information from police and prosecutors and look dispassionately at the case in a way you can't.

Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy