Mishandling of a case...

[FarinaforBrkfast]

Which case do you think was mishandled by police the most?

[Matt C]

Kurt Sova's case comes to mind. It seemed to me that Kurt's mother Dorothy did most of the investigating herself. I also read that no photographs were taken of Kurt's body when it was found [although someone would have to confirm that].

[ScaryFog]

Eric Tamiyasu

"County Sheriff Joe Wampler, believing that Eric had died naturally, had his bed and bedding burned. The corner's autopsy revealed that Eric had been shot three times in the head."

Vital evidence was possibly destroyed when the mattress was burned.

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by ScaryFog

Eric Tamiyasu

"County Sheriff Joe Wampler, believing that Eric had died naturally, had his bed and bedding burned. The corner's autopsy revealed that Eric had been shot three times in the head."

Vital evidence was possibly destroyed when the mattress was burned.

I have been meaning to reply to the Eric Tamiyasu thread which I will tonight:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/...ad.php?t=87387

I think that Sheriff Wampler made an error - a large error at that - but did so sincerely. To say something good about his mistake, at least it was not an issue of laziness. When I hear stories of police being given leads in cases such as those of Tara Calico or Jeremy Bright and simply not following up on them at all, it really bothers me. Police are human and they will make errors in judgment at times and those errors should be looked at and scrutinized accordingly, but simply being too lazy to follow up on a lead is a lot less acceptable to me.

[1990 UM fan]

Tommy Burkett, Tony Lombardi, Danny Casolaro, etc.

[TheCars1986]

Keith Warren, Su Ya Kim, and Doug Johnston

[RobinW]

Even though their incompetence wasn't featured on UM, the murders of Harold & Thelma Swain has to be one of the worst police investigations I've ever seen!

It seems very likely that Dennis Perry, the suspect convincted of the murders, is actually innocent. Many pieces of evidence in the case have been lost, including the pair of glasses that Robert Stack held up in the UM segment! Since Perry has perfect 20/20 vision, those glasses could have exonerated him, but nobody seems to know what happened to them after they left Stack's hands! Even if it wasn't LE's fault, how could they not keep major tabs on such an important piece of evidence?!
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/...d.php?t=206594

[Steve W.]

Originally Posted by Matt C

Kurt Sova's case comes to mind. It seemed to me that Kurt's mother Dorothy did most of the investigating herself. I also read that no photographs were taken of Kurt's body when it was found [although someone would have to confirm that].

A newspaper article stated that one or two Polaroids were taken of his body being loaded either onto a stretcher (or already on the stretcher) or into an ambulance. Those Polaroids were put into a manilla folder and that was it.

[UMFaninMD]

Debbie Wolfe

Michael Rosenblum

Doreen Picard/Susan Laferte---the mishandling came out years after the initial UM broadcast though.

[owenrock]

Eric Tamiyasu has been mentioned thats horrible, I think another one would have to be Joyce Chiang

[1990 UM fan]

Originally Posted by owenrock

Eric Tamiyasu has been mentioned thats horrible, I think another one would have to be Joyce Chiang

Hers fortunately was solved last year

[owenrock]

I know that they had said that she didnt commit suicide in May of last year and that they had 2 suspects, but I didnt know that it was solved.....its good though that it is. Because even the idea that she committed suicide was just so beyond believable it made you wonder what the cops there were on

[1990 UM fan]

Originally Posted by owenrock

I know that they had said that she didnt commit suicide in May of last year and that they had 2 suspects, but I didnt know that it was solved.....its good though that it is. Because even the idea that she committed suicide was just so beyond believable it made you wonder what the cops there were on

They reopened her case and changed the status of it from "suicide" to "homicide" last year after learning that the 2 men were involved. Unfortunately, one of the men can't be charged because the country he is living in has no extradition treaty with the US. The other man is currently in prison on an unrelated murder charge I believe.

[TracyLynnS]

Originally Posted by Matt C

Kurt Sova's case comes to mind. It seemed to me that Kurt's mother Dorothy did most of the investigating herself. I also read that no photographs were taken of Kurt's body when it was found [although someone would have to confirm that].

Have you had a chance to read through Kurt Sova's case here? Those cops were disgusting! Practically the whole department was run by thugs and that's why Mrs. Sova had to do all the investigating herself.

That's something folks never really think about, imo. When you need detectives to help solve a crime, you expect that they're trained cops who want to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. It's mind boggling to think that in the Sova case police work was the last thing on the Newburgh cop's minds and they were just using their power to make it easier to commit crimes themselves!

Oh, another case with a lot of coverup by the cops was Kaitlyn Arquette's murder. I just read her mom's book and not only were things botched, but tons of info and evidence was deliberately covered up, hidden, removed from the file, destroyed, etc. IIRC, they even lied to the FBI, preventing them from getting involved, even though the case was so complicated the crimes spanned several states and included major drug trafficking and insurance fraud, all just to keep the FBI from nosing into their inept and corrupt police department.

Several big leads that the cops told the family they were following up on had never even been looked into even a year later, and that whole time, the cops kept telling Kait's parents that they were working those leads and things were progressing. They never intended to investigate that stuff and repeatedly lied to the family.

[Lakeboy]

The boys on the tracks who died because they smoked too much weed. Whoever made that ruling should not have a job. No one would smoke so much pot that they would lay on a train track.

Keith Warren, Tommy Burkett, Kurt Sova and Deborah Wolfe.