Update on my neighbor's murder: The PD canvassed the neighborhood again last night.

[Coventina]

8 months later....

They came by, asking all the questions they did before with the addition of: "Do you know of anyone in the neighborhood that seems strangely interested in the case?"

I'm starting to think that they really do think it was one of us that killed her. (By one of us, I mean someone within a few block's radius).

[cwydro]

1. Wow, I remember when you first posted about this.

Scary, but on the other hand it looks like a killing based on a relationship.

Sure doesn't make you feel better, but in some ways it should.

[ailsagirl]

2. I remember how surprised I was when I first learned that most homicides are committed by...

someone known to the victim. It still amazes me because you'd think it would be some stranger.

But that it's someone who knows the victim... that's just the freakiest thing.

I hope they find the perpetrator soon, Coventina. Eight months must seem like an eternity.

[Snobblevitch]

7. Why would you think that most homicides are

committed by a stranger? Those kinds of crimes (rape and/or murder by a stranger) are extremely rare.

[ailsagirl]

8. I should have said, when I was a kid I thought murderers were strangers

I was always cautioned not to talk to strangers, not to take rides with strangers, etc. because of the danger
involved. I was never told that it's those we know (and are oftentimes close to) that are the ones who typically
do harm to us. I don't think my parents had the guts to tell me that.

That's all

[Initech]

10. That is the most likely outcome.

I just watched the movie True Story on a plane on the way back from London. If you haven't seen it, it's a pretty fucked up movie starring James Franco and Jonah Hill based on a real life story. I won't spoil it, but do a Google search on what happened. It really does dispel the theory that the people who are initially accused of a crime are the ones who are the most likely candidates, as opposed to the popular belief that the least likely are the ones who commit the crime.

[Skittles]

3. it's not unusual to requestion

they look for inconsistencies

[Chan790]

5. This.

Many cold cases are solved because people forget the lies they've told...our recollection of our excuses and alibis tends to drift if they are untrue.

[Skittles]

6. also, people who are afraid to speak out at first

may reconsider

[shenmue]

4. :(

[Initech]

9. Wow that is fucked up!

The police must be out of ideas if they are resorting to that.

[mackerel]

11. Or possibly there is new information and they're trying to corroborate.

It's creeping but at the same time they are trying.

[R B Garr]

12. Hmm. This jogged my memory about a Peeping Tom case in the San Diego area...

a long time ago. A neighbor spotted the man peeping into the same bedroom window of the trailer home where a young teenager was raped and killed 3 years prior and that is how they found her killer. He was there in the neighborhood all along. There was another young girl living in the trailer and he had started watching her. The police came and tested his DNA, which was a semen and blood match and that's how he was caught.

I didn't want to respond about this if you're already nervous, so I hope you don't mind reading this. Maybe the police just match up bits and pieces of the murder scenario based on a database and they are trying this theory. There may not be a real neighborhood threat. Maybe if her friends/lover contacts came up clean, they are just drilling down on some other possibilities. Of course, a neighbor would have been known to her and could have accessed her by asking to borrow something if there was no forced entry. Some of the details about this San Diego case were that she was killed right after she hung up from talking to her boyfriend so the killer was obviously aware of his window of opportunity with the mother being gone. It all happened within about 19 minutes (if I remember correctly...?)

Here's the case if you want to read more about it and Google the trial, etc.
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-11/local/me-68_1_mobile-home

[Coventina]

13. Yes, the boyfriend has been cleared by DNA and airtight alibi

Murderer's DNA was under her fingernails and doesn't match any probable suspects or anyone currently in the database.

A month after the murder, the PD asked all of us to be on the lookout for anyone in the neighborhood with unexplained scratches on their face and/or arms!!!!

Could you not have told us this right after it happened?!?!?!



Very interesting to read about your case.

There does seem to be some possible parallels.....