This month two convicted pedophiles were charged in decades-old murder cases of young girls after more sophisticated DNA tests linked these killers to their victims. Evolving technology has triumphed over previously inconclusive or contaminated samples. The ticking clock just might end up being a time bomb for the perpetrators of the OCCK murders as well. Even where the medical examiner in three of the four cases was an incompetent drunk and the state lab appeared to have no interest whatsoever in making sure the evidence in this case was properly stored, filed or cross-referenced. Rerun those autopsy kits and the kids’ clothing again. Technology has evolved over the past few years. Inaction is not an option.
The Oakland County Prosecutor played her hand. They do have hairs from Mark and Tim’s bodies that allegedly match a hair from Arch Sloan’s Bonneville. This all contrary to the cops’ wailing all these decades that there was no evidence! None!! Those hairs have to be rerun again given the unbelievable technological advances and the use of genetic genealogy in other decades’ old crimes. The hairs from Tim’s body were “misfiled” as animal hairs at the state lab. Apparently no one ever thought to compare the hairs found on Mark and Tim, or to compare those hairs to the hair recovered from the Bonneville (very soon after Mark’s murder) until the mid-2000’s. But now we know about their existence and the alleged match. You can’t sit on those things now. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28993934/.
There is a good chance that DNA will not match anyone in an offender data bank. But it will match someone who’s name has come up in discussions with police. Even if that person is dead, living relatives could provide DNA samples. And there could well be viable DNA on the victims’ clothing that was not previously detected, even in tests run 3-5 years ago. Too much work? What if California law enforcement had said that in the Golden State Killer case?
Earlier this month a convicted pedophile who ran an international child pornography ring was charged with the 1993 abduction, rape and murder of Angie Housman, a 9-year-old Missouri girl. See: https://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/convicted-pedophile-earl-webster-cox-charged-with-1993-murder-9-year-old-angie-housman, and https://www.denverpost.com/2019/06/05/convicted-pedophile-charged-1993-missouri-killing/. Investigators got a huge break when they found previously undetected DNA on Angie’s clothing that matched a DNA profile in a national crime data base. St. Charles, Missouri, Prosecutor Tim Lohman described the DNA match as follows: “They were looking for a needle in a haystack without a magnet and still found the needle.” Maybe because they wanted to find it.
A couple of very interesting things about this case. One, this piece of shit ran an international child porn ring (“Shadowz Brotherhood”) AND he was a child rapist and murderer. Two, police stated that this fuck was not the only suspect. That someone else was involved. Any of this sound familiar? Three, he had a history of child-related offenses and was kept in custody for years after his scheduled release in 2011 after a court deemed him a sexually dangerous person likely to re-offend if set free. I have news for you. ANY pedophile is a sexually dangerous person likely to re-offend if set free. But thank god this court kept him incarcerated or there would have been more victims. Contrast this to how Chris Busch was treated by prosecutors and courts in Michigan.
And this past Friday, a 53-year-old suspect was arrested in the 1986 kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Kathleen Flynn. It is one of Connecticut’s most infamous cold cases. https://www.14news.com/2019/06/16/maine-man-arrested-cold-case-slaying-year-old-girl/. According to court documents, this animal was a suspect from the start, “but it took years of testing evidence to find a DNA connection between him and evidence found on the young girl’s body.”
The medical examiner in this case determined that Kathleen was raped while still alive. Believe it or not, the statute of limitations in Connecticut has run on that crime and rape charges can no longer be pursued. Death does not toll the statute?? It is time for these antiquated and misplaced statutes of limitations on sex crimes be reevaluated with an eye toward NOT favoring the rapist (or the Catholic Church). Let’s hope police look very closely at other crimes this man may have committed since 1986.
These and other cold cases are being solved at a remarkable pace given DNA technology advances. It could happen in this case. While we may have to wait for someone to find snuff films in a safe deposit box belonging to one of the men who’s name has been given to police over the years, it may happen the way it did in these two cases.
The perpetrators of the OCCK abductions, captivity, torture, rape and murders may be long gone, but people with knowledge are still alive. And some of those people participated in one way or another. Others with knowledge include a few people in authority who made this thing go away. Some are dead, but some are still alive. I hope cases like the two described above make you very nervous. No unpunished child predator or protector of same should ever feel safe.