True Crime Stories

  It amazes me sometimes just how inept and careless some perpetrators can be, especially in this day and age. The idea of collecting fingerprints and being able to compare them came about in the late 1800's. The idea of DNA formed in the mid 1980's. The first conviction using DNA occurred in 1987 in the United Kingdom, that same year Tommie Lee Andrews was convicted in Florida using DNA, making his conviction the first in the United States. In between you have things like surveillance cameras, telephone records and a multitude of other things that can piece together a case. Some could argue, and maybe successfully, that not all of these things are completely reliable. For example, while the use of cell phone tower evidence has been used often it is often debated on whether that information can be completely accurate considering it cannot place a perpetrator in a particular area and it is theorized that a cell phone may not always bounce off the closest tower. Things li...

  I started researching this case and then I almost decided not to continue. Since the case ended in a guilty plea and ultimately in the suicide of the defendant in prison there is not a lot of information out there that can really be “nailed down” and verified. But, I decided to continue for a few reasons. First, there are the heinous crimes that Rios committed, first the murder of an innocent young girl and then five days later to his own family including his wife and three young daughters. Secondly, there were questions raised as to why Rios was not deported to his home country of Mexico prior to committing murder. I will try to discuss both issues at length and explain what I can. In the end, and as always, I welcome feedback to possibly explain some of the things I could not or to clarify any confusing issues that I may have. Simon Rios lived in Fort Wayne Indiana with his wife, Ana and their three daughters, Liliana, Katherinne and Thannya. In 2005 the girls were ten,...

  While researching this case I often thought about the case of Sylvia Likens. If you do not know about Sylvia's case I have blogged about it here (it was one of my very first ones in 2012) and there is a lot on the Internet. In short Sylvia Likens and her sister had been left in the care of a woman in Indianapolis while their parents worked the carnival tours. Sylvia was beaten and tortured not just by the woman, but by her children and children in the neighborhood. She would be found dead in the home in 1965. At the time neighbors had seen things that today we would expect to be reports. I have often been put in the position of explaining to people when this case is discussed on the Internet how I defend these people a bit because of the time period and how people reacted to things. Of course I have never believed that Sylvia's death was justified and there were people in position that should have done more. What I never expected was to see a someone similar situatio...

  I am not sure how I stumbled across this story but it is once again another one that I have absolutely no idea how I ever missed. Maybe over the years we have all just been numbed by stories of police shootings that we do not even notice them; maybe, despite the fact that it was said to make national attention, it really did not as much as we would like to think. Police shootings are not a new thing, nor were they in 2016 when this one occurred. But, let's be fair in stating that most of the high profile cases we hear about are cases that involve a white officer and a black victim. Later I will get into studies that have been done and maybe show you why this is true. However, before we jump into this case I have a few things I want to delve into first. If you are a regular reader of this blog you may, or may not, have noticed that very few of the blogs mention the race of anyone involved. I have only done so when it was relevant to the story and off the top of my head...