Fingerprints would not be useful in identifying a body unless there is already a record of the person’s fingerprints on file somewhere. Usually that means the person would have to have been arrested during their lifetime. If they were never arrested (or otherwise made a fingerprint record for some reason) you are SOL.
Reports say the murderer removed her teeth and fingers, leaving her breast implants as her only unique identifier. Usually identifications are made on dental records for those with no fingerprints on file.
Update: The alleged killer has, allegedly, killed himself.
Firstly, let me tell you something about reality TV. The evolution of which is akin to a similar activity that’s become popular recently, competitive poker.
On a visceral level, competitive poker is three to five guys sitting around a table with completely blank expressions and showing no emotion whatsoever, and a bunch of retangular pieces of glossy paper and plastic circles which they shuffle around. Definitely not an exciting activity. So once the World Series of Poker really took off and it became a big TV sport, the TV crews had to be very creative in how they presented these events. Find the few emotional outbursts and put them front and center. Show the all-ins, the big bluffs, the incredibly tense decisions. And of course, hype up the climactic final and have a nice, big victory celebration for the champion.
Pretty soon, the more savvy competitors catch on to the fact that it’s the biggest actors, the most colorful personalities, and the boldest plays that get the most screen time. So now you have guys deliberately hamming it up, playing to the camera, bantering, creating signature looks/moves/celebrations. And then it becomes obvious to everyone else that if you want a shot at the limelight, that’s the way to go, and we get the likes of Mike Matusow putting on Broadway-level performances every event.
Reality TV has gone a similar route. There was a time when all the producers had to do was make a contest with a few simple rules and pull a varied sample of contestants with a fair number of quirks among them. As long as there was enough banter, scheming, grumbling, plotting, celebration, etc., there wouldn’t be amy problem filling two time slots. Now the bar has been raised so high (can you even imagine Rudy Bosch getting the time of day anymore?), and all the weirdos, drama queens, hotheads, mopes, etc. know that cranking it up makes them more likely to get picked, well, you can imagine the results.
As for the Megan Wants a Millionare tragedy in question, I don’t think there’s anything here. I remember this one case (a talk show) where a man was brought onstage to meet someone who had a crush on him, it turned out to be another man, and the patsy (not gay, of course) was so infuriated that he murdered the crush bearer. In this case, you could at least argue that there would have been no motive had the show not run. Ryan Jenkins killed his model ex-wife, someone he already knew and presumably would not have much trouble finding no matter what. I agree that putting him on the show was a moronic decision (especially since it’s now a total loss), but saying that it somehow facilitated the murder of someone not invovled with the show is ridiculous. If anything, VH1 should sue for obtaining a service under false pretenses and loss of income. (I don’t know what the exact lawyery charges would be, but you get the idea.)
On the subject of fingerprints…even if the victim didn’t have any on record, couldn’t the police go into her house and get them off her toothbrush or something like that? Don’t they do that to get DNA samples…take hair from the victim’s hairbrush or whatever?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090824/ap_on_en_tv/cn_reality_contestant_slaying
We’re both behind the power curve, twickster. Larry Mudd had it at 10:49 pm.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. <sigh>
How would they know where the victim’s house is if they do not know the identity of the victim? I was talking about identifying an unknown victim rather than confirming the identity of a victim whose identity is already known or suspected.
This is maybe off topic, some, but I’m looking at the picture of the murdered girl, and what happened to her face? Her cheeks seem strange, and her face seems out of proportion somehow in those photos. It’s like her cheeks and her lips belong on a bigger face.
I was wondering, too. I kept combing the article for something that “set him off.” Like, did they throw him off the show and that’s what made him snap and kill his wife? I’m getting the sense that the scary side isn’t that the reality show made him do it, but more like we’re only aware of him because he was a contestant.
…
Well let’s do some math here:
Moved to LA + [ex] husband trying to break into the entertainment biz + seems to have been some kind of stripper/model + breast implants = yeah, pretty safe to say she’s had some plastic surgery done. Just from a quick glance it looks like some kind of “cat eye” eyelift, cheek implants, lip injections, and possibly shaving down a pointy chin. Hard to say for sure without the “before” pics.
And another look has got me thinking “nosejob” too.
I hope this girl did not live a life of insecurity and low self-esteem only to be murdered after a brief 28 years :mad::(.
Um… actually, no. We need to stop associating “fingerprint” with “arrest record”. These days, if you apply for a job as a school bus driver you get fingerprinted, a day care worker, public school teacher, any law enforcement job, and almost any government job (I got fingerprinted for the US Census job I took). I’m finding more and more requirements for fingerprinting that not only have nothing to do with arrest, but for things that require you don’t have an arrest record, or at least not a conviction.
I thought I just read that the two people first met on the show.
Oops, he sure did. That’s what happens when you’re multi-tasking – totally missed that. Oh well.
The problem is that this guy was hired to be on dating shows. That is, he’s a potential candidate for being selected by their contestant, Megan. That means if he pulled any violent crap on her after she picked him (which didn’t happen, but this is hypothetical), then she could sue them for not screening.
I find this comment by VH1 to be pretty tacky.
Wait, so because TV shows in the past have done a poor job screening (and gotten hammered for it, don’t forget), it’s okay for you to do a poor job screening?
I agree–that is tacky, IrishMan.
But I do think this is a strange attitude to have because it’s not like he went and did something on reality TV. Even if he hadn’t been on the TV show he could have murdered that woman. I just don’t get the “Are we complicit as viewers” angle since it’s not like anything on the show made him commit the murder.
Hm, good point.
Its all crap. Don’t swallow it. Don’t watch it. Don’t talk about it.
Maybe it will all go away…
Hey! I’ll guarentee you there is something better on PBS right now! ( This even applies during “Pledge Week”)
However, now viewers know that producers (at least this group) either don’t bother to do a criminal background check, or don’t particularly care when information like this comes up. So from this point on, it’s something to think about. These producers tried to set up this woman with a man who had a criminal history of beating a woman. When will someone with another unsuitable criminal history end up on another of these shows? Would they put embezzlers on The Apprentice, child-beaters or pedophiles on some kind of “person with kids looking for love” show?
Nitpick: You don’t “build up to a crescendo” - that would be like “speeding up to an acceleration”.
A crescendo is the “building up” part. You build up to a climax.
Thank you for your attention. That is all.