Suspect arrested in 1985 killing of Hollywood TV director

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press



This photo taken from video provided by WSOC-TV shows suspect Edwin Hiatt after his arrest Thur ...This photo taken from video provided by WSOC-TV shows suspect Edwin Hiatt after his arrest Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Burke County, N.C. Hiatt is charged with bludgeoning and strangling to death a Hollywood TV director more than three decades ago. Authorities say the FBI arrested Hiatt after DNA evidence linked him to the 1985 death of Barry Crane in Los Angeles. (WSOC-TV via AP)

The Associated Press
May 9, 2019 - 8:16 pm

LOS ANGELES — A man charged with bludgeoning and strangling to death a Hollywood television director more than three decades ago was arrested Thursday in North Carolina after police said DNA and a confession linked him to the crime.

Edwin Hiatt was arrested in Burke County for the 1985 death of Barry Crane in Los Angeles. He has been charged with murder in California and will be returned there, Los Angeles police announced.

A housekeeper found Crane, 57, dead in his garage in his Studio City townhouse on July 5, 1985. He was naked and had been wrapped in bedsheets. He had been beaten with a large ceramic statue and strangled with a telephone cord, the News Herald of Morgantown, North Carolina reported, citing court documents.

. . .

“This is something that supposedly happened 30 years ago, the man’s changed,” Hall said. “Christ has come in and he’s become a new creature. If God’s forgiven you, you’re forgiven. That’s it.”


Read more: https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nation-and-world/suspect-arrested-in-1985-killing-of-hollywood-tv-director-1660225/

[emmaverybo]

1. Genealogical find?

[neohippie]

2. No

They found a fingerprint at crime scene that they just recently matched and then went and got dna from discarded cigarette at his job

quote from article

Crane’s death went unsolved until police said they matched a fingerprint from Crane’s stolen car to Hiatt last year. FBI investigators then obtained discarded cigarette butts and a coffee cup from the parking lot of the auto repair shop in Burke County where Hiatt worked.

DNA from some items matched that from cigarette butts found in Crane’s stolen car, which was discovered shortly after his death on a mountain road, investigators said.

On March 8, homicide detectives went to North Carolina to interview Hiatt.

“During the interview, Hiatt admitted to killing Barry Crane,” an LAPD statement said

[emmaverybo]

12. How LE identified him as a suspect is still a question this article and others don't yet answer. nt

[emmaverybo]

13. Just read LE recovered Crane's stolen car and recently matched fingerprint in it to suspect nt

[treestar]

17. Maybe his fingerprints weren't in the database until recently?

He may have never been arrested but then recently had some smaller contact with the law? Or was printed for some other reason.

[emmaverybo]

19. Think that possible. I don't think LE is telling us all of it. For good reason. nt

[3Hotdogs]

3. What a waste of taxpayer money. Jesus already forgave him.

[Hugin]

4. How come the "Jesus forgave me" defense doesn't work for abortion?

[3Hotdogs]

6. By that question, I can tell you have not been saved. You see, there are categories of sin.

There's mortal, venial, chocolate sin (as in Death by Chocolate), and so forth. Just as there are different levels of punishment, like limbo, pergutory, hell, Liberty University, being in a waiting room with Fox News on, and on and on.

God was very creative when he thought of punishments, depending on how badly we screw up our lives. So abortion is its own category and punishment.

[Hugin]

8. From what little I understand, Dante in his tours found there was a very special Hell reserved for..

Hypocrites.

The inner most 9th circle of Hell.

Must be getting awfully full these days.

[JHB]

11. The 9th circle has been expanded several times since then...

...which forces all the other circles to expand too. A lot of misery from the disruption, the worst of which are the predictable "this is Hell" jokes.

[NewDayOranges]

15. Very good...

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

20. Oy! Hook, line, and sinker! n/t

[UpInArms]

5. Busy spending his "get out of hell, free" card

Hmmm ... if I remember correctly, isn’t one of the commandments “thou shall not kill”?

[getagrip_already]

7. well, a more logical reading if you are religious...

Is that god has not, in fact, forgiven him and let the evidence of his crimes arise so he can be punished in this realm.

Since god doesn't exist, and in any event can't be called as a witness, we have to go on available evidence.

Guilty in god's eyes. Punished in this world.

[oldsoftie]

9. Sorry, but being forgiven by God doesnt absolve you of human punishment.

Even God said to obey the law!

[Maeve]

10. Forgiveness means no punishment? Au contraire!

"We must suffer some punishment for every sin, even if forgiven. Thus Adam, Moses, Aaron and King David were forgiven their sins but were nevertheless punished."

This one sent me to the old Baltimore Catechism #3 (yeah, but it quotes the Bible, so it's applicable to Protestants, too, so there!)
That is from the note to question 275.

And....God isn't part of the US judiciary system. So, until he is, his opinion is not legally binding.

[marble falls]

14. Let him go present his case.

[mulsh]

16. "I don't remember" + God's forgiven me Trump's "totally innocent" no need for a trial now.

See we can still be a country of laws as long as they're the "right" laws. OH wait, he'll be extradicted to CA for trial, never mind. we still have those nasty old laws on our books.

[treestar]

18. He certainly got away with it for a long time

Should have been in jail since his early 20s.