Cold Cases Solved: True Stories of Murders That Took Years or Decades to Solve (Murder, Scandals and Mayhem Book 8) by Mike Riley Page A
Authors: Mike Riley
Ads: Link
must have led a stressful life, the first thought of some at the school was that she had committed suicide. It was soon confirmed however that Weidner had been murdered.
Captain Jack Geilker from the Sheriff’s office, one of the first on the scene, said it was one that he won’t forget. Weidner had lacerations to her head, and was lying naked. There were bloody prints across the crime scene, and it was obvious her death had been a violent one. Police discovered that she had also been raped before death. Worse yet, two-year-old Emily had been left on her own with her mother’s dead body.
A police officer specializing in interviewing victims was at the scene, and he talked to Emily. He used finger puppets to help Emily explain what she remembered, the two year old showing how she ran back and forth from her own room to Weidner’s, and then to her grandmother’s bedroom. Emily said that “Mamy was mean”, her word for fighting.
Investigators’ first thoughts were that Weidner’s death was a robbery gone wrong. Stereo equipment and money were both missing from the home, and a back door was found open.
Police questioned many people close to Weidner, including her friends and family. Some of the interviews were accusatory, including the one with her older brother, but no one was arrested or charged with Weidner’s death.
The outpouring of grief over Weidner’s death was large, with many students at the school finding it hard to understand. Attempting to find further leads, detectives attended her funeral. One of the people who came to their attention was Tony Abercrombie, Emily’s father. However, he spoke fondly of Weidner and had an alibi. He had been at work when a friend called him to tell him what had happened.
Attention then turned to another man, Troy Jackson. Jackson lived in the house behind the Weidners, and police discovered that he had known about the stolen stereo equipment already on the day of the murder.
Police photographed his hands, noting that he didn’t have any injuries himself indicative of being involved in a struggle. He also passed a polygraph test. DNA was still in its infancy, but a hair sample he submitted did not match anything found in Weidner’s room. Investigators moved on.
Weeks turned into months and with no arrest. Weidner’s friends and family found themselves wondering if there would forever be an unknown killer in their midst. Police believed that Weidner had known her killer, and with no leads, fear and suspicion grew every day.
In 2002, a call came in to the Indianapolis Police cold case squad. The officer who took the call, Lieutenant Spurgeon, was not personally familiar with Weidner’s case, but the caller seemed to know many details. However, there was not much revealed that couldn’t have been seen in the media of the time.
The call ended up being a dead end, but it sparked Spurgeon’s interest in the case. He read up on the case and investigated a few persons of interest, but nothing new was uncovered. Spurgeon moved on to another area, but the case remained with the cold case unit.
In 2011, in response to a newspaper article, friends of Weidner created a “Remembering Amy Weidner” page on Facebook. No one in the cold case department was overly familiar with Facebook, but they knew someone who understood it intimately, Detective William Carter, who was a nuisance abatement officer. He was asked to go over the memorial page on Facebook, but not knowing anything about the case himself he decided to read the case file as well.
Carter found he could not forget Weidner’s face from her photo, and started working on the case on his own time, re-examining more than two decades worth of evidence. Collating all the old evidence into digital form, he noticed that some original possibilities had been overlooked.
For example, many friends of Weidner’s had been talked to, but none had ever given a DNA sample.
Captain Jack Geilker from the Sheriff’s office, one of the first on the scene, said it was one that he won’t forget. Weidner had lacerations to her head, and was lying naked. There were bloody prints across the crime scene, and it was obvious her death had been a violent one. Police discovered that she had also been raped before death. Worse yet, two-year-old Emily had been left on her own with her mother’s dead body.
A police officer specializing in interviewing victims was at the scene, and he talked to Emily. He used finger puppets to help Emily explain what she remembered, the two year old showing how she ran back and forth from her own room to Weidner’s, and then to her grandmother’s bedroom. Emily said that “Mamy was mean”, her word for fighting.
Investigators’ first thoughts were that Weidner’s death was a robbery gone wrong. Stereo equipment and money were both missing from the home, and a back door was found open.
Police questioned many people close to Weidner, including her friends and family. Some of the interviews were accusatory, including the one with her older brother, but no one was arrested or charged with Weidner’s death.
The outpouring of grief over Weidner’s death was large, with many students at the school finding it hard to understand. Attempting to find further leads, detectives attended her funeral. One of the people who came to their attention was Tony Abercrombie, Emily’s father. However, he spoke fondly of Weidner and had an alibi. He had been at work when a friend called him to tell him what had happened.
Attention then turned to another man, Troy Jackson. Jackson lived in the house behind the Weidners, and police discovered that he had known about the stolen stereo equipment already on the day of the murder.
Police photographed his hands, noting that he didn’t have any injuries himself indicative of being involved in a struggle. He also passed a polygraph test. DNA was still in its infancy, but a hair sample he submitted did not match anything found in Weidner’s room. Investigators moved on.
Weeks turned into months and with no arrest. Weidner’s friends and family found themselves wondering if there would forever be an unknown killer in their midst. Police believed that Weidner had known her killer, and with no leads, fear and suspicion grew every day.
In 2002, a call came in to the Indianapolis Police cold case squad. The officer who took the call, Lieutenant Spurgeon, was not personally familiar with Weidner’s case, but the caller seemed to know many details. However, there was not much revealed that couldn’t have been seen in the media of the time.
The call ended up being a dead end, but it sparked Spurgeon’s interest in the case. He read up on the case and investigated a few persons of interest, but nothing new was uncovered. Spurgeon moved on to another area, but the case remained with the cold case unit.
In 2011, in response to a newspaper article, friends of Weidner created a “Remembering Amy Weidner” page on Facebook. No one in the cold case department was overly familiar with Facebook, but they knew someone who understood it intimately, Detective William Carter, who was a nuisance abatement officer. He was asked to go over the memorial page on Facebook, but not knowing anything about the case himself he decided to read the case file as well.
Carter found he could not forget Weidner’s face from her photo, and started working on the case on his own time, re-examining more than two decades worth of evidence. Collating all the old evidence into digital form, he noticed that some original possibilities had been overlooked.
For example, many friends of Weidner’s had been talked to, but none had ever given a DNA sample.
Similar Books
