Is ths Good Police Work?

[ralph124c]

Cape Cod, MA. Truo police announced the arrest of a suspect in the 3-year old Christa Worthington murder case. The suspect was a trash hauler, who came to the victim’s house every week. He (the suspect) had sumitted a DNA sample more than 3 years after the slaying…while the Truro police were attempting to get DNA samples from EVERY male inhabitant of Truro.
To add to this, the State Police crime lab took 13 months to analyze the sample.
This raises a few questions: the suspect was male, with a long criminal record (including assault upon a woman in Florida), and had been to the victim’s house many times. Why wasn’t he one of the FIRST to have his DNA identified?
Granted, there hadn’t been a muder in Truro in nearly 30 years…but t seems to me that the investigation was run pretty sloppily. I should add that the suspect no effort to flee or evade the police…so three years went by, and this criminal has been free. I guess the real world isn’t CSI Miami.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

The Boston Globe has a story about this. Some relevant parts:

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said McCowen, whom authorities identified as a person of interest early in the investigation, worked for a private trash-collection company on Cape Cod and probably knew Worthington only from his job. The day of the slaying was not a regular trash day.

''The evidence would suggest it was a person who knew Christa only in the sense that they were familiar with her comings and goings," O’Keefe said during a press conference. ''They were not personal acquaintances. They were not friends in any way."

[snip]

O’Keefe said police first became interested in McCowen in April 2002, three months after the slaying, when they were investigating ''everyone in the orbit" of Worthington’s life, including not just trash collectors but handymen, mailmen, or repairmen.

At that time, McCowen agreed to give investigators a sample of his DNA, O’Keefe said. But it wasn’t until March 18, 2004, that investigators took a swab of his saliva. O’Keefe blamed the delay on McCowen’s frequent moves.

More than a year later, on April 7, McCowen’s DNA was matched to that recovered from Worthington’s body. O’Keefe blamed that delay on a high volume of cases and limited resources at the State Police crime lab.

So that’s the DA’s explanation. “LImited resources” sounds reasonable given the budgetary woes in Massachusetts government over the last few years.

I don’t know how familiar you are with this crime, but at the time it happened, there were two men who were or recently had been romantically involved with the victim, and not surprisingly the investigation initially took a close look at them.

[ralph124c]

Yes, but my point is: The Truro police were about to DNA sample about 300 men in the town! Why didn’t they investigate this guy first? Why sift a haysatck for a needle, when its right out in front of you?
Now, I’ll grant you, the Stete Police crime lab probably is very busy…that’s why youpay a manager a big salary-to use his brain and “prioritize” current work.
It makes no sense tome (anyway) to tie up a lab with 300-odd analyses that are unlikely toyield anything.
Just looking into this guy’s criminal recored-he was a known abuser of women, and had served time in Florida.
Gret police work-looks like they took their time.

[Finagle]

@ralph124c

Yes, but my point is: The Truro police were about to DNA sample about 300 men in the town! Why didn’t they investigate this guy first? Why sift a haysatck for a needle, when its right out in front of you?
Now, I’ll grant you, the Stete Police crime lab probably is very busy…that’s why youpay a manager a big salary-to use his brain and “prioritize” current work.
It makes no sense tome (anyway) to tie up a lab with 300-odd analyses that are unlikely toyield anything.
Just looking into this guy’s criminal recored-he was a known abuser of women, and had served time in Florida.
Gret police work-looks like they took their time.

You’re making an assumption here that there weren’t 50 or 100 OTHER men in Truro with blots on their record. For all you know, Truro might be the Mos Eisley of Cape Cod.

[Paul_in_Qatar]

If a murder happens in Mayburry, don’t the more-experienced State Police sort of take over the investigation? While allowing the glory to go to the locals of course.