All Things Crime

Detective Steve Conner spent 15 years investigating crimes, most of those in homicide, and helped his department solve hundreds of cases.  But what changes and adaptations did he have to go through in order to keep up with the times?  Many of our listeners may not even know what a carbon copy is.  You should look it up cause that was a major pain!  And as the amazing technology of the typewriter c...

In 1984 the city of Aurora, Colorado was horrified by the news of the brutal murder of three members of the Bennett Family - the husband, wife and oldest daughter - had all been beaten to death with a hammer.  The youngest daughter, despite being beaten as well, somehow survived the ordeal.  There were other murders that had similarities as well. All the victims were beaten to death with a hammer...

How did you end up where you are?  I think that's a question most of us ask ourselves on a regular basis.  Hopefully you also have a good answer for it!  When I was a kid I always wanted to be an army general. Lead troops into battle. Be a GI Joe type. I achieved some of those dreams, but definitely not all of them!  Detective (Ret) Steve Conner had those kinds of dreams as well, but they wer...

Father's Day is in 2 days.  How do you celebrate Father's Day?  Do you celebrate it at all?  All of us had a biological male that contributed half of who we are genetically, but sadly not all of us have a Father, and some in society don't even have a man to look up to.  We need to change that.  Why?  There's a direct correlation between not having a positive male role model in...

Warriors.  Throughout history there has been a warrior class - those willing to defend what they hold most dear - whether that is their family, their tribe, their community or their nation, they have always existed.  And societies that didn't were quickly destroyed or defeated and whatever assets they had were given to the victors.  Most modern day competitions are based on teaching warriors...

What are the signs of domestic violence and abuse?  Could you readily spot them?  Most of us can't. Partially because many of the forms of domestic violence and abuse are not physical so we don't see the bruises etc that we typcially expect in a DV case.  Before abusive people like Josh Powell reach the point of physical violence there are lots of ways he or she can abuse - manipulation,...

HOW do you kill another human being, let alone your own family member?  What kind of mental derangement do you have to be in to do that?  Clearly, now that we have the ability to review Josh Powell's actions before he killed (assumingly) his wife, Susan, and then murdered his two little boys with a hatchet, then burned himself and the two boys to death, we know at least what his mindset was....

Any murder is tragic.  But when it involves children we all draw a sharp breath in shock.  When we learn a family member killed their own family and likely themselves as well it takes our disbelief to an entirely new level.  Such is the Powell Family Tragedy.  Josh Powell, the father, was a psychopath. But like most psychotics, he was able to hide his behavior from all but the closest to him. Sadl...

In Matrix Resurrection Captain Nairobi says "Nothing breeds violence like scarcity". That statement made me rewind and listen to it again.  Because it's ABSOLUTELY true.  Good times brings contentment, lounging, easy living. Take away people's resources and see how quickly that changes, especially if those resources include the bare necessities - food, shelter and security.  I&...

What happens when you get Jim Clemente, Sheryl McCollum, Karyn Greer and Jared Bradley on the same stage with the M-Vac system?  An amazing discussion!  CrimeCon Las Vegas 2022 was the perfect place to talk about everything from why crime is rising to the status of law enforcement agencies, rape kit processing, crime labs, the Emmy Award winning tv show CSI Atlanta and of course, how the M-Vac sys...

Dr Colleen Fitzpatrick and Jared wrap up their discussion, including the first case the M-Vac helped solve, the media's reaction and how the first ever mention of Colleen and a colleague from Identifinders International were described.  Sometimes you just have to shake your head right?  Forensic genealogy is changing the way cases are solved, and many of them are years if not decades old. If...

The Phoenix Canal Murders occurred in 1992-93.   The murders took place in Phoenix, Arizona, and each of them involved a young woman that went for a bike ride in the early evening along the Arizona Canal, and neither one of them ever returned.  The victims names were Melanie Bernas and Angela Brosso.  While at a conference in Phoenix Dr Fitzpatrick met with some members of the Phoenix PD and expla...

Dr Colleen Fitzpatrick has a PhD in nuclear physics. So how did she become one of the leading experts in the world in forensic genealogy?  It's all about the numbers. Statistics.  Getting rid of the data that is not relevant and identifying what is.  And when two of the most knowledgeable homicide detectives we know recommend we talk to her, we do it! After all, aren't both Lindsey Wade...

Being a homicide detective isn't the glamor you see on TV.  When a murder happens, which is usually at night, the detectives are called in and they must drop everything they're doing and head immediately to the scene. The clock is ticking and time is not on the side of the detectives.  It takes grit, determination, persistence and years of training to solve the more complicated cases. So...

Detective Lindsey Wade had been working on Jennifer Bastian's murder case for years. She had grown to love her mom, even received strength from her to keep moving forward, somehow.  'If Pattie Bastian, who's 12 yr old daughter can put a smile on her face and keep going, then I can too' was Detective Wade's mindset.  But the cold case was 30 years old! Evidence was almost n...

In 1986 Tacoma, Washington was a beautiful, quiet and safe community. Or so all the residents thought.  In May, 1986, 12 year old Michella Welch was riding her bike in a city park. She never came home. Search dogs found her body that night. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered.  Just a few months later another young girl, Jennifer Bastian, was riding her bike in a park just a mile or so aw...

There are over 230,000 cold case homicides in the United States.  If you add unsolved rapes and assaults that number becomes staggering. Imagine the impact if the populace thought about how many un-convicted rapists, murderers and violent criminals there are!  Would it help if serial killers like Ted Bundy were in the database?  Of course it would! Then why aren't all major crime offenders in...

What do you do when you are investigating a 1961 cold case and you learn one of the most prolific serial killers in American history (Ted Bundy) may be a suspect? You get to work!  Cold case detective (retired) Lindsey Wade was reviewing cold case files in Tacoma, Washington, and realized Ted Bundy could have killed the victim from their oldest case. It was a long shot, but one that needed to be e...

Forensic evidence can be fickle.  Sometimes it easily yields a perfect, one contributor DNA profile, and other times it's a jumbled mess that is completely uninterpretable and can't contribute anything of value to solving the case.  Pure Gold Forensics is a private crime lab in Southern California and since their inception just a few years ago they have been making huge waves, acquiring...

Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, is a playground bully - just on a much grander and deadly scale. He believes he can act however he wants, take what he wants, and there's nothing of significance anyone will do about it, especially the "leaders" of the Western World.  So two days ago he invaded Ukraine. Not at the minor scale all the intelligence agencies indicated, but a ful...

Episode 4 - Where do we go from here?  Forensic DNA testing has advanced to the point that DNA analysts only need a few cells to produce a profile. Some say 10-12 cells. Could that many viable cells of the killer still be on the shoelaces that were used to tie up the boys? Could that many cells still be on the sticks that were used to shove the boy's clothing into the mud? It's certainly...

Episode 3 - Our justice system has become a conveyor line of cases moving through, many without trials and only plea deals, and as many as 10% of the people currently serving in prison may actually be innocent but faced a much longer sentence so took a deal. The West Memphis 3 is a tragic case in so many ways it's almost difficult to describe, because there are actually two sets of three vict...

Episode 2 - Bob describes the crime scene, how the boys bodies were found and how the police honed in on three unsuspecting teenagers.  The West Memphis 3 is a tragic case in so many ways it's almost difficult to describe, because there are actually two sets of three victims, and then the trauma associated with the victims families and the community continue to this day. The murders happened...

The West Memphis 3 is a tragic case in so many ways it's almost difficult to describe, because there are actually two sets of three victims, and then the trauma associated with the victims families and the community continue to this day.  The murders happened in 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas.  The first set of victims are three little 8 yr old boys who were murdered, stripped of their clothi...

Several years ago the host, Jared, had the opportunity to visit Hanoi, Vietnam. While there he and a few others from his business group visited the "Hanoi Hilton" POW Camp.  From the moment you step inside that place, a feeling of dread, darkness and evil descends on you like nothing else that is unimaginable. The primary thought is "I just want to get out of here", but morbid...