Talking about the article about Eyewitnesses mistakes and trying to remember them all game the idea for this thread. I don't know how many were wrong in UM but they were a lot of them.

Of course we start with

1) Kari Lynn Nixon -the one that may have been the worse of all of them

2) Gayle Delano

3) Kimberly Pandelios

4) The Dede Rosenthal case- another disturbing one.

5) Wendy Von Huben- although not technically an eyewitness, the mom did do the normal eyewitness mistake. She claimed the girl in the videotape was her and that she had all the body language and characteristics of her. Of course she was way off. I get that she may really wanted to believe it and it's understandable but it shows how the mind is so unreliable at times. On the other hand the father looked to be totally uncertain about the phone call though.

6) Lisa Marie Kimmell

7) Wanda Jean Mays

I'm sure I'm missing a lot but this is just a start. Also there cases where we can't confirm the mistake but there is pretty good chances they are off like the "AJ Breaux is selling frozen fish" lady.

Hmm, how about the dude that claimed he saw David Dowaliby from 75 yards away on a moonless night and said he could tell it was Dowaliby because of the man's nose structure? I mean incredible.

I can remember going to an employee safety seminar for my company hosted by the local police department. There were about 20 - 30 of us there. In one segment, they brought in this guy for about 2 or 3 minutes to talk to us about something seemingly unimpotant and then he left the room. Then they immediately asked all of to write down a description of him. We all wrote down our observations and then they brought the same man back into the room and we all shared our descriptions we had written down. Height, weight, hair color, clothing, etc. just the basic stuff. The answers were all over the board! They explained that, that's why it was difficult to rely on eyewittness information. I failed miserably but did have to laugh when we learned that he was 5'8 and I wrote down 6'2 and he just said he take that as a compliment.

Then, yes, we also had so many false eyewitness sightings of our daughter, Lisa and her car when she went missing that were mistaken.This only hampered and frustrated the investigators.

Then, yes, we also had so many false eyewitness sightings of our daughter, Lisa and her car when she went missing that were mistaken.This only hampered and frustrated the investigators.


This is the case that strikes me as the most egregious example of mistaken sightings. There was one woman on the UM segment who swore up and down she had seen Lisa at a specific place, at a specific time, and on a specific day. I believe this woman believed she was telling the truth but, unfortunately, she was incorrect.

Corky - Yes, she would have been a very complelling witness if the case were based primarily on eyewitness testimony. Did this woman ever she my daughter or her car? I am sure she had two weeks prior when she traveled thru WY. So there is no doubt that she saw what she saw but was wrong about the dates.

Amy Billig is one that stands out with me. I did read the mother's book and apparently there was a lookalike that she basically spent some time chasing down but in all probability all the Amy sightings were false and she died the day she went missing.

Obviously, this is a little different, but this thread also brings to mind the Judith Hines case. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to get in contact with a detective several times, misrepresent themselves as a radio talk show host, and then claim that a woman missing for decades was alive when all other evidence points to the contrary. Who does that??? :confused: There must be a category of people - I'm sure there's some kind of medical term for them - who like to insert themselves into criminal investigations. I think that we've come across a few of those nuts on this board as well (i.e., "true" from the Tammy Leppert threads, that troll from the Connecticut River Valley killer threads).

Somebody went to a lot of trouble to get in contact with a detective several times, misrepresent themselves as a radio talk show host, and then claim that a woman missing for decades was alive when all other evidence points to the contrary. Who does that???

Histrionic Personality Disorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder

I believe this category includes several people you tend to come accoss in investigations
1. Serial Confessors
2. "Attention Whores"
3. People who love to be arrested and accused.
4. "Wanna be detectives, lawyers"
5. False Witnesses-people who just go to crime scenes just to say they witnessed something.

Dan Wilson, the guy whose car was found abandoned in Montana with the door left open. Workers at a homeless shelter in Billings, MT claimed that he matched the description of a homeless man who signed the register with the name Daniel Wilson three months after he disappeared. In 1997 his remains were discovered five miles away from where his car was found.

Similar to the initial sightings of A.J. Breaux: Kurt Sova's friend, who claimed he saw Kurt with another guy running towards a van yelling, "Franco," the day after he was reported as a missing person. Kurt was found dead two days later.

Similar to the initial sightings of A.J. Breaux: Kurt Sova's friend, who claimed he saw Kurt with another guy running towards a van yelling, "Franco," the day after he was reported as a missing person. Kurt was found dead two days later.

Well the Sova friend as well as the initial Aj Breaux sightings are I believe a lot more authentic and not mistakes because the person knew the guy and I believe would be lot more able to know who he was and not confuse him. Plus in the Breaux segment, those 2 sightings make a lot more sense and are more related. The one I really think is iffy is the one of the frozen fish. That one was describing a totally different scenario and was very out of place compared to the other two. Plus the fact the lady didn't know him personally makes it out to seem that she could really be confused and totally not credible in comparison to the first two.

Then again after the Wendy Von Huben case, I really don't know if it means anything and maybe all 4 are wrong.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Thanks! I knew there had to be some name for it, but I didn't want to go digging through the DSM-IV. That's always bad news...I end up diagnosing myself with lots of different disorders.

Yeah it really annoys me when these eyewitnesses says for certain they've seen the person then it turns out they were wrong. Dan Wilson's case comes to mind.

I don't know how much you consider this but in the Ashley Freeman/ Laura Bible case where the local police DPT missed the body of Danny Freeman after a fire while investigating the fire for clues and Laura's dad found Danny's body.

Then an inmate confessed to the murder of every one and took back his confession when no bodies for Laura or Ashley were found. He just wanted better meal privileges

Hmm, how about the dude that claimed he saw David Dowaliby from 75 yards away on a moonless night and said he could tell it was Dowaliby because of the man's nose structure? I mean incredible.

That was an incredible statement for sure. I think they just wanted to see David burn for his daughter missing. To be honest that is a perplexing case and I never ruled out David being involved somehow (although if he wasn't I wouldn't be shocked either). But that grandmother was out coincidentally the same night as her granddaughter went missing. Something has never matched in that case. But the 75 yards thing, that's just going fishing. I don't think I could recognize my own wife 75 yards away in the dark.

Dede Rosenthal case was a clear case of a bad eyewitness mistake. She never said it might not have been her, she was certain for sure. Way to build up a false sense of hope lady :crazy:

Hmm, how about the dude that claimed he saw David Dowaliby from 75 yards away on a moonless night and said he could tell it was Dowaliby because of the man's nose structure? I mean incredible.

Sounds like something right out of a Matlock mystery - after which Ben would get up to cross-examine and shred him to pieces on the stand.

The lady who saw the other fish guy on the train was likely wrong as well.

The lady who saw the other fish guy on the train was likely wrong as well.

I'm getting old. I know Craig Williamson was "fish guy."

Who was the OTHER fish guy?

I'm getting old. I know Craig Williamson was "fish guy."

Who was the OTHER fish guy?

I think that was still Craig Williamson. I know on the reruns on Lifetime they edited that portion of the train witness out of the segment.

I think in general UM is a show that really (unintentionally) highlighted how poor eyewitness testimony really is. The better question would be when have eyewitnesses actually gotten it 100% correct?

A lot of eyewitnesses were mistaken, but I think a small subset were completely fabricated.

-All Curt Borton sightings
-all encounters with the Men In Black
-dancing through the evening with a ghost of a young woman
--Gulf Breeze UFOs

Let's not forgot all of the sketches of the East Area Rapist when only one of the sketches looks like a younger DeAngelo.

Talking about the article about Eyewitnesses mistakes and trying to remember them all game the idea for this thread. I don't know how many were wrong in UM but they were a lot of them.

Of course we start with

1) Kari Lynn Nixon -the one that may have been the worse off

2) Gayle Delano

3) Kimberly Pandelios

4) The Dede Rosenthal case- another disturbing one.

5) Wendy Von Huben- although not tecnichally and eyewitness, the mom did do the normal eyewitness mistake. She claimed the girl in the videotape was her and that she had all the body language and charachteristics of her. Of course she was way off. I get that she may really wanted to believe it and its understandable but it shows how the mind is so unreliable at times. On the other hand the father looked to be totally uncertain about the phone call though.

6) Lisa Marie Kimmell

7) Wanda Jean Mays

I'm sure I'm missing a lot but this is just a start. Also there cases where we can't confirm the mistake but there is pretty good chances they are off like the "AJ Breaux is selling frozen fish" lady.
for the AJ Breaux comment, I think it was a mistaken witness and I could have done without that part of the segment. The first two witnesses seem more credible because they knew AJ, but they are also strange considering there was never any trace of him afterward.

Another worth mention is the Bird Road Rapist case. the victims wrongfully ID'd a suspect when put under pressure by poor investigation and they did not know their attacker. I always felt bad for him.

Arnold Archambeau. I really don't believe he was spotted three weeks after the accident then placed in the ravine later. I believe he and his girlfriend perished shortly after the accident because they succumbed to exposure.

This one I'm iffy on, but I'm curious to know what others think of Ricardo Caputo possibly being spotted in the elderly murder victim's building before the crime. It doesn't seem to suit his MO to kill a random person, as he usually attacked girlfriends or people he knew. I think this could have been mistaken identity, and in reading about the case it appears he was never charged with this crime.

The trucker who gave a lift to who he thought was John Cheek. Or the woman in the Kari Lynn Nixon segment.