Another Missing Baby

by Holly HughesOnce again, another child has gone missing and another mother tells an evolving story. On Tuesday, October 4th, 2011, at approximately four a.m., the alarm was sounded when ten month old Lisa Irwin was reported missing by her parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin. The mother, Deborah Bradley, initially reported that she last saw her baby girl when she put her to bed at ten thirty p.m. Now, weeks into the investigation, it comes...

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Some Reflections on Segregation

by Katherine ScardinoI have told you before that I grew up in a small farming community in the Piney Woods of East Texas. I was up there last weekend and on Sunday I drove the three hours back to the big city listening to the radio. I tuned to CNN on my radio and learned that the Martin Luther King National Memorial dedication ceremonies were ongoing in Washington, D. C. I was a young girl during the 50's and 60's and like most young girls, I...

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Paying The Price Twice

by Diane Dimond With the U.S. unemployment over nine percent these days nearly everyone knows someone who is out of work or under-employed. It’s a tragic and desperate time for millions of Americans.But there is one sector of the population hit harder than any other – those Americans who carry the stigma of a past criminal conviction. An almost unbelievable 65 million people – one in every four U.S. adults – falls into this category. And, in this...

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Baby Lisa: Gone, Baby, Gone

by Pat BrownPretty much, that is all we know right now. Ten-month-old baby Lisa Irwin was there and then she wasn't. Two weeks have passed since her disappearance and she hasn't reappeared, dead or alive. Wait, we know one other thing: she didn't climb out of her crib and go for a walkabout. Someone removed her from her home, so we know someone knows something. We just don't know who. In missing baby cases where proof of abduction is weak,...

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A Rape Case In Sweden

by Andrea CampbellI am never surprised at the results that can be achieved with forensic science. It is comforting to know that as time moves on, so do improvements in evidence collection and evaluation. Today’s story illustrates these ideas and even though it happened in Sweden, we are happy to see a righteous outcome.High-Intensity UV LampsBody fluids are an important part of a crime scene, in murder and especially with sexually-based crimes....

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Emotional Pain of Seeing Michael Jackson’s Dead Body Language During Opening Arguments

by Dr. Lillian GlassSeeing Michael Jackson’s dead body language in this shocking photo which was presented by the prosecution on the first day of the Conrad Murray is beyond devastating and painful for me. The photo says it all. In my view, it will also have a lasting effect on jurors just as it has an indelible effect on me and anyone else viewing it.It shows a helpless Michael Jackson lying on a gurney covered with a sheet on the lower half...

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The Limits of Eyewitness Testimony

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.A few years ago I attended a concert with my husband and our two teen-aged boys. After the concert, as we filed passed the aisles toward the exit, a drunk heavy-set man shoved my smaller son out of his way so he could pass in front of us. The shove was violent enough that my son was knocked into me.Most mothers find, at some point in their lives, that a ferocious beast resides inside of you. This bear of a beast only appears...

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Dr. Oz and the Arsenic Thing

By Deborah BlumLet me get this out of the way first: I don’t watch Dr. Mehmet Oz on television.I did see a show the year before last while I was keeping an older relative company. I can’t tell you what it was about, though, because we weren’t that long into it before my relative suggested that that I take myself, my twitches, and my sarcastic mumbling to another part of the house.Consider this a full disclosure of attitude toward Dr. Oz. Consider...

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Greek Cabby Drives Home Unfortunate Truth

by Donna PendergastHaving recently returned from a two-week trip to Greece, I continue to ponder the provocative conversation I had with a taxi driver in Athens. On a late-night ride back to Athens after returning from the islands to the port of Piraeus, George the taxi driver, a Greek raised in Boston, had a captive audience for his opinions on what is wrong with Athens these days."We have crime crime," he stated. "I mean we have always had crime,...

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COLD CASE: Morgan Harrington Unsolved Murder Approachng Two Year Anniversary

by Michelle Sigona Morgan Harrington was last seen at a concert outside the John Paul Jones arena in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was October 17, 2009. Police say Morgan separated from friends around 8:30 p.m. when she walked out of the front entrance of a Metallic concert. Morgan never returned, and it was the last time she was seen alive. Investigators say Morgan called her friends inside and told them she was finding a ride home. State police...

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