by Diane Dimond on April 16, 2012
Annie McCann Was Just 16
How did 16 year old honor roll student Annie McCann die? Her parents have been agonizing over that heart wrenching question for too long. Definitive answers have been few but these determined parents refuse to give up asking.
On October 31, 2008 Annie left a note in her bedroom which mentioned suicide but she had also added the hope-filled line, “But I realized I can start over instead. . . . If you really love me, you’ll let me go.” Then, she inexplicably ran away, taking $1,000 in cash, jewelry and the family Volvo. It was a shock to Dan and Mary Jane McCann whose daughter was a devout Catholic, quiet and studious – a child who had never given them any trouble.
Two excruciating days later the McCann’s got a phone call informing them Annie’s body had been found at a housing project in Baltimore, Maryland about seventy miles from their home. They were dumbfounded. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on April 2, 2012
Do We Really Know All the Facts Yet?
There are two sides to every story. So, why do the media sometimes run whole hogged with the most sensational version of events and why do we eat it up like candy?
It is time for some critical thinking about a widely reported crime story currently in the news.
More than a month ago a tragic incident occurred in a gated community in Sanford, Florida when a Neighborhood-Watch volunteer shot and killed a 17 year old young man. The teen was black, the man with the gun was mixed race Hispanic. The teen was walking back from the store, the adult was in his car going to the store.
When I read the first accounts of how young Trayvon Martin died I was outraged! Seemed as though a 28 year old, gun-toting man named George Zimmerman – a guy who had called 9-11 dozens of times over the last year – was one of those modern day gunslinger types who went around his neighborhood hunting for suspects to bully. Several news accounts called him a, “cop wanna-be” who likely targeted the hoodie-wearing teen because of his race. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on September 19, 2011
Sperm Banks Are Big Business
Many years ago I was assigned to cover a story about a certain sperm donor, a newly graduated doctor in Kansas who had donated on such a frequent and regular basis that he was suspected of being the biological father to 500 children. You read that right – 500 children!
My research led me to learn that professors and medical mentors had often urged their male med school residents to donate sperm as a way to a.) Put a little money in their pockets and b.) To help propagate future generations of intelligent children. The belief was that if the sperm came from a person smart enough and driven enough to study to be a doctor, well, all of mankind could benefit from the children they would sire.
An elitist viewpoint, to be sure, but a prevalent one back in the early 90’s. [click to continue…]
by Diane on August 22, 2011
Time To Hear From You!
Some of you have been delighted with me. Some of you want to strangle me. So this column is dedicated to your thoughts about my recent musings on crime and justice in America.
It’s your turn to vent.
No column lately generated as much heat as the one about women caught up in repeated domestic violence that refuse to press charges. I told the story of a New York police officer who lost his life responding to a victim’s 12th call for help. I concluded, “Society cannot remove an adult woman from a perilous domestic situation. She must walk out on her own resolved to find a better way of life.” [click to continue…]
by Diane on August 8, 2011
Frank Bender With One of His Creations
A man died recently that I want you to know about. He operated in the shadow of law enforcement and you probably never heard his name. In his own very unique way he developed an expertise that helped bring justice to those who would otherwise never get it.
His name was Frank Bender and when he died recently at the age of 70 at his home in Philadelphia he was the best known of a rare breed of forensic sculptors.
Frank Bender somehow knew how to take a fleshless mummified human skull and reconstruct its face into an eerily perfect facsimile. To compare a photo of the dead person with a finished Bender sculpture would take your breath away.
[click to continue…]
by Diane on August 1, 2011
Untested Rape Kits Add to Victim's Humiliation
The evidence had been there all along. It had been sitting on a shelf inside a cold storage facility at the Houston Police Department for 12 years. After a determined detective tracked it down and sent it off to the lab for testing the state of Texas realized it had a found a serial rapist.
The criminal’s name is Roland Ali Westbrooks and his story highlights why every state in the union should make testing of backlogged rape kits a top priority.
For more than two decades law enforcement has had the ability to take even the tiniest specks of evidence from a rape victim – bodily fluids, stray hairs, fingernail scrapings – and match the DNA findings to information stored in a national data base called CODIS.
Every time a rape kit is processed the DNA print is supposed to be entered into CODIS. And the reason for this is simple: Rapists rape repeatedly. They hardly ever have just one victim. [click to continue…]
If the Supreme Court Says Its Constitutional...
Saying, “I told you so,” is not becoming. So I won’t say it.
But I will remind folks of all those columns I wrote about the need for states to do something proactive about the problem of illegal immigration since members of the United States Congress have repeatedly fallen down on the job.
Frankly, I stopped writing about it because I figured anyone who was interested in the topic had already formed an opinion and nothing I would write would change any minds. Also, because there was the hate mail I got after I refused to call people who enter this country illegally “undocumented workers.” [click to continue…]
by Diane on April 4, 2011
DNA Technology Has Graduated
What if I told you there was a powerful crime fighting tool that could help find, convict and put away violent criminals that most of our 50 states are NOT using? Your first question would likely be “Why not?!”
That’s what I’d like to know.
We all get how important the discovery of DNA has been in identifying rapists, murderers and other criminals over the years. But DNA technology has now graduated and for the most part states just haven’t kept up.
Colorado has been leading the way on a technology called Familial DNA Search. Crime scene scientists and police investigators who have used it swear by its usefulness. Colorado has offered up special computer software it developed along with its experts to train others to use the new forensic technology – for free. [click to continue…]
by Diane on January 31, 2011
State of President Obama's Union, 2011
One of the primary functions of government is to keep us safe – not only from foreign enemies but from fellow citizens who’ve turned to crime. We function best when we feel safe and secure in the world. It allows us to unlock our creative minds, produce more and better work and give back to society in the most positive ways.
So, as I watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech I listened carefully for what he would say that would address American’s concerns about crime and justice and help us feel safer. After all, consider recent events. Shortly before the speech, in states across the nation, eleven police officers had been killed in the line of duty in a 24 period. And the country is still reeling from the shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona that left 6 people dead and 14 wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
I was disappointed with the speech. [click to continue…]
by Diane on January 3, 2011
Thinking of Ways to Make a Safer and More Just World
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the commandment to “Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself” was the only law we needed?
Strictly adhered to that would be enough to curb crime in a big way. There would be no murder, assault, fraud, burglary … well, you get my drift.
But as this New Year dawns we all understand that we’re way past biblical pronouncement at this point. Today society must have laws and rules and regulations. But I often heave a big sigh and wish they worked better to get crime under control!
In years past I’ve used this first column of each New Year to list my wishes for the crime and justice system. For 2011 the list is pretty simple … [click to continue…]
