Thursday, April 19, 2012

Evidence: part 1

 In the early 1980’s, DNA testing technology was very underdeveloped. So police had to rely on strong circumstantial evidence and matter-of-fact DNA. Police detectives did not have much to go on other than the numerous bodies they found. And since most of the bodies were found in the river, all possible DNA evidence was washed off or too small a sample to be tested immediately. When the remains of the first six victims were found, police were only able to conclude the method of death. The bruises found around the necks of each victim showed the medical examiners that they were strangled to death. Because there was no way to use skin-graphing to test the victims, police were unable to narrow down any suspects on the basis of solid DNA. Police then moved on to depending upon eye-witness reports as evidence. At first, several reports were filed by anonymous sources claiming that a man in a blue and white truck was seen frequenting the same strip as the victims. When the body of Marie Malvar was found, the police questioned her boyfriend. From him they learned that she had indeed gotten into the same blue and white truck from the reports. He claimed that he followed the suspected vehicle. Police used this to trail down Ridgway, who owned a truck matching the description. However, when given a polygraph test, Ridgway passed claims saying that he had never had any contact with Malvar. (Timeline: DNA Testing Helped Lead Investigators to Green River Killer) A year later, five more sets of remains were found, all of which had enough genetic material to let the police narrow down on Ridgway once again. But lack of evidence set him free. The body count continued to rise and police struggled to find usuable evidence.

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