Case #4- The Night Stalker

Between 1984 and 1985 13 people were victims of murder and assault. Investigators were dealing with a Southern California serial killer. August 24, 1985 a young man saw that there was a suspicious vehicle strolling through his neighborhood, and immediately notified police after writing down the license plate. Turns out that on that same night, The Night Stalker had struck again in that area of the neighborhood. The car was soon tracked down but when found it was abandoned. All investigators had a lead on was a fingerprint they found inside the car. This fingerprint was matched to 25 year old Richard Ramirez. His face was everywhere and local citizens soon recognized and captured him. He was sentenced to death and is still to this day awaiting death row.






http://www.criminaljusticeschools.org/blog/10-famous-cases-cracked-by-forensics/

Case #3- The Atlanta Child Murders

In 1982, Wayne Williams was convicted of killing two adults. He was sentenced to life in prison, but Atlanta police did announce that he was responsible for at least 22 of the child murders. There had been many murders going on between 1979 and 1981 almost all 29 people killed were children and all were strangled by a serial killer- Wayne Williams. At a local river where other bodies had been dumped and found, police staked it out and arrested Williams as he was driving away from the sound of a splash where a body was recovered days later. Although they never physically saw him dump the bodies in the river, they did have forensic science link several-30 to be exact- fibers taken from the victims to items in his house, vehicles, and his dog.






http://www.criminaljusticeschools.org/blog/10-famous-cases-cracked-by-forensics/

Case #2- The Lindbergh Kidnapping

In 1936, a man named Hauptmann was convicted and executed for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. He was only 20 months old when he was kidnapped on March 1st, 1932. His father paid the ransom of 50,000 dollars in order to get his son back but once Hauptmann received the money it seems he was taken back and never returned the child. The body of Charles was found two months later just miles away from his home. With how the ransom transactions went, it led investigators to Bruno Hauptmann. Once found and confronted, there was over $14,000 in his garage which he claimed not his. All the while claiming this money to have belonged to a friend, forensic science was used to match his handwriting from the transactions to the ransom notes. More forensic science was used to connect the wood in Bruno's attic to the wood used to make a ladder in order to get into the bedroom of this innocent child.




http://www.criminaljusticeschools.org/blog/10-famous-cases-cracked-by-forensics/

Case #1- Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy was about to be convicted of kidnapping, because of the lack of evidence tying him to all those 30+ murders. Two years of having been convicted, there was trial that he didn't attend due to his escape to Florida. Three more people had been killed in early 1978. In February that year he was captured and this time they had enough evidence to tie him to these murders because of a bite mark on the buttock of his victim Lisa Levy. To prove that it was him, Bundy had crooked and chipped teeth. Another one of his victims was Kimberly Leach, she was 12 years old. He was responsible for her death and to prove it, there were fibers from her clothes that matched the ones Bundy had in his van.




http://www.criminaljusticeschools.org/blog/10-famous-cases-cracked-by-forensics/

About

This blog will be talking about homicide cases that involve Forensic Science to help solve what is needed. I will be interviewing a teacher from Palo Verde High on Forensic science because I count her to be as an expert in this topic, she teaches this to mostly Juniors and Seniors. Other posts will be talking about and explaining some cases I will research that have been both solved and unsolved and that include this use in this science. Also throughout the posts I'll be explaining the different types of methods there are and how to get DNA samples by just using a lock of hair.