When Curiosity leads to Murder, Part I
Investigating. It is what I really enjoy, whether I’m conducting the investigations, reading about them or writing about them. I am extremely interested in criminal law, always have been, and I think my naturally curious nature made me very good at what I do. As a defense investigator I may not always discover the absolute truth but I do my best to get the whole picture of what will be provided to a jury in order to verify what information they will use as they deliberate after the trial. The truth is in there somewhere; they just have to figure out whether the information they have been provided is enough to prove guilt or reasonable doubt.
Some cases are simple. Others are not.
Big Horn National Forest |
Have you had the pleasure of driving through Wyoming?
Wildlife in Big Horn |
Fallen City in Big Horn |
One particular area really caught my attention. After passing through lush green fields, we drove alongside the mountain and came to an outlook we learned was titled the “Fallen City.” An odd name, you might think, but if you look at the hillside above the valley at the rocks jutting up through the trees (called a massive boulder field) it is really quite something.
That particular trip took us through eight states before we arrived home after a 17-day road trip. You can imagine we saw quite a few attractions and distractions, any of which would have been on my mind for days and weeks to come. But even after I arrived home, I could not forget about the car, or what appeared to be a car at the bottom of the valley at Fallen City. I decided to do some research, to see why the car ended up over the cliff, who was involved and if I could find the truth behind the story my imagination was beginning to put together.
What I found was a story about a case that was said to have occurred some 28 years before. If the accounts I read are true, it involves murder, a confession, a botched investigation and two jury trials ending with a result you might not expect…