Wednesday, April 4, 2001
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Wednesday, April 4, 2001 |
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Plastic wrapper proved to be break in F'ville home invasion robbery By JOHN MUNFORD
The major break that helped solve this home invasion case was a plastic wrapper the criminal left behind. It led to the identification of Thale Antaneal Brownlee as the main suspect and a videotape showing him buy the duct tape that was used to tie up Thaddious White and his two boys. Looking for physical clues such as fingerprints is the job of Lt. Keith McQuilken and his five crime scene investigators at the Fayette County Sheriff's Department. In this case, the fingerprint off the wrapper was a clean, unsmudged print, McQuilken said. The print was sent to the state's fingerprint lab, which identified the print as one of Brownlee's. Using a sticker on the wrapping, McQuilken traced the sticker back to the convenience store on Old National Highway where Brownlee purchased it. That break in the case led to a copy of the surveillance video showing Brownlee purchasing the duct tape from a convenience store on Old National Highway, McQuilken said. The crime scene unit is also trained to use blood pattern evidence to determine where a shooting victim was situated to corroborate witness testimony. The crime scene investigators also extensively photograph crime scenes, with the ability to develop their own black and white photos in-house. Color photos must be sent to an outside firm for processing, McQuilken added. An alternate light source is used to lift fiber and hair evidence in certain assault cases, McQuilken noted. Photos also are important in assault cases, he said. Crime scene investigators can also help a victim put together a composite sketch of a criminal by using a computer system to recreate the suspect's face, he added. But it's finding a good fingerprint to identify a criminal that can be tricky. Many times the prints are smudged and therefore not usable, so finding a good print is like finding a needle in a haystack, McQuilken said. "I will say, my people are very good at finding needles," he added. The crime scene unit has several ways of discovering and collecting fingerprints, from "lifting" the print with tape, putty, a gel-like substance ... or if that won't work, snapping a close-up photo of the print. The print can then be run through the state's Automatic Fingerprint Identification System to see if the print's owner can be determined. Chemicals can also be used to lift fingerprints off paper to determine, for example, who may have sent a threatening letter, McQuilken said. Other, more complicated tasks such as analyzing tire tracks and tracks left from shoes must be performed by the state crime lab, McQuilken added. Although he hasn't seen it yet, McQuilken keeps hearing about a new TV show called "Crime Scene Investigation" that portrays work similar to his line of duty. But it doesn't always happen as easily as it does on TV, he warned. "From what people are telling me, it's pretty much on the money," McQuilken said. "But we don't put grabs on the bad guy. The criminal investigators do that part."
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