True Crime Stories

  I have seen more than a few different television shows based on this case and while I cannot say for sure what I think happened, the tactics used by law enforcement, as well as family members, have bothered me. We have seen many cases that involve both criminal and civil cases. In a criminal trial the standard to reach a guilty verdict is said to be “beyond a reasonable doubt” while in a civil trial a jury only has to consider “the preponderance of evidence” and determine if it is “likely” that a defendant committed a crime. Some say in a civil try one only has to be convinced 51% to in order to reach a verdict. In most, although admittedly not all, a civil case is generally not conducted until after a criminal trial has taken place. The civil case is some times filed before the criminal trial but is often delayed until after the criminal trial is conducted. Now, part of the reason for that is that in most case criminal charges have already been filed so the defendant is...

Yesterday while out with a relative it was suggested that I should look at this case.  I was given only enough information to allow myself to fall into a rabbit hole that I had to FORCE myself out of after a few hours.  Despite the fact I have been working through a list I had decided to take on this case next.  By the time I was done I had amassed more pages of notes than most cases that I discuss here.  In fairness, seeing as this case was from near the Evansville Indiana area I had a lot to work with as there is a website that I can access that has articles from the local newspaper, especially from this era.  This case took on national attention and the fact that today it officially remains unsolved added to the information available. Sometimes a case remains unsolved because there are no clues leading to a suspect. There are even cases in which someone has been found, tried and even convicted only to die during their appeals process which from a legal stan...