Courtney Smith: 1990; Christine Jackson 1992: a couple of miles away in the same community: both are abductions of three-year-old girls, both are abductions in the middle of the night from their beds, both of them are sexually assaulted, and both of them are deposited in bodies of water. ibid.
If not Levon then who? … Justin Albert Johnston, 35-year-old black male, who was brought in and arrested and samples were collected; he had already been convicted of one home invasion/sexual assault … ibid.
I was out of control. I went to the house … Them demons in my head … to hurt the little girl … I reached through the window and got her … I throwed her in that creek … ibid. Johnston’s confession
Justin Albert Johnston confessed to both murders. ibid. legal dude
The much more pressing question to answer is, How did they get in prison in the first place? The Innocence Files s1e3: The Evidence: The Duty to Correct, Innocence Project dude
Part of my job is to highlight the areas where forensics have never been established as reliable evidence. ibid.
National Academy of Science: Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States. ibid.
We decided to start there: with bite-mark cases. ibid. Innocence Project
In 1989 a carpet was found buried in a garden. At the time of the burial the identity of the bones was a mystery. Robbie Coltrane’s Critical Evidence s2e1: Little Miss Nobody, 2018
‘That was the most amazing breakthrough in terms of the world of forensic science and genetics.’ ibid. lady in the know
The pathologist estimated the age at between 15 and 20 years old. But who was this young woman? How did she come to be buried in a back garden? And how did she die? ibid.
The entomologist estimated the body had been buried for at least 5 years. ibid.
She was buried in the garden between 1981 and 1984. ibid.
She was killed and left at least a few days before being buried. ibid.
Detectives were particular interested in people who had lived in the basement flat. ibid.
Detectives tracked one former resident to a pub in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay where he worked as a bouncer. His name was Alan Charlton. ibid.
‘We knew that the forensic artist could potentially put a face to the skeletal remains that we had.’ ibid. rozzer
Death Mask of Little Miss Nobody. ibid. headline
It was recognised by two social workers. ibid.
Investigators quickly tracked Karen Price’s partents. ibid.
And this breakthrough led them to a witness who led them to a killer. ibid.
This technique of copying sufficient DNA for analysis was used for the first time in the Karen Price case. And it worked. ibid.
A notorious murder on Wimbledon Common went undetected for more than a decade. How did groundbreaking forensics track down a serial rapist and killer who showed his victims no mercy. Cold Case Forensics: The Murder of Rachel Nickell, ITV 2023
The body of 23-year-old Rachel Nickell was viciously attacked and sexually assaulted while walking with her two-year-old son and pet dog. ibid.
So what had gone wrong, and could it have caused the police to miss the real killer? ibid.
For the first time two DNA profiles started to show up. ibid.
This groundbreaking work was to become known as DNA enhancement. And it was to be a gamechanger. ibid.
A murder where the traces of the killer went undiscovered for over a decade … One of Britain’s most controversial cases. Cold Case Forensics: Lynette White ***** ITV 2023
The investigation into Lynette White’s murder was to be tainted of accusations of racism and corruption. Witnesses were bullied by police and a false confession led to one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history. A suspect in blood-stained clothes was seen near the flat was white; but all the men the police arrested were black. They were to become known by campaigners as the Cardiff 5. ibid.
The racist murderers of a teenager have remained free for well over a decade. Could forensic science finally find the clues to bring the killers to justice? Cold Case Forensics: Murder of Stephen Lawrence, ITV 2023
Stephen Lawrence’s murder was a despicable crime that shocked the nation. But the investigation which followed was to cause more pain for the family and bring more shame on Britain’s largest police force. Stephen’s suspected killers remained free. ibid.
Angela and her team now had to explore the idea that there had been greater contact between the attackers and Stephen than first assumed. ibid.
‘An enormous amount of work was done on this particular case.’ ibid. Angela
[commentary]: 1982, London: When the body of a wealthy banker with links to the Mafia and the Vatican was found hanging under a bridge in London, Angela had a major mystery to solve. Cold Case Forensics s2e1: The Death of God’s Banker, ITV 2026
Robert Calvi was found hanging from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge, his pockets bulging with bricks. ibid. news
The story had absolutely everything. It had the Mafia, it had the Masons, it had the Vatican … ibid. comment
Calvi was at the centre of a major financial and criminal scandal involving the Mafia and a secretive Masonic lodge known as P2. ibid.
An inquest recorded an open verdict. ibid.
If Calvi had been murdered, were his killers sending a message? ibid.
Calvi’s shoes might hold important forensic clues. Ibid.
Scaffolding Tests: You always got some paint and some rust ground into the soles. None of that was found on the soles Calvi was wearing. ibid. Angela
The second possible suicide route involved Calvi approaching the scaffolding from a different direction. ibid. commentary
It is so vanishingly unlikely that Calvi killed himself. ibid. Angela
Who had killed him, and why? ibid. commentary
The second murder route would have seen Calvi’s body brought down the river by boat. ibid.
So was Calvi already dead when he was hanged from the pole? ibid.
This case seemed to have all the hallmarks of something that had beem staged. ibid. Angela
The killers’ message had been delivered in London. But Calvi’s downfall started in Rome. ibid. commentary
P2 was a secret Masonic network of politicians, businessmen, and senior members of the Army and Intelligence Service which exerted powerful influence over the financial and political life of Italy. ibid.
Calvi had helped the Catholic Chuch fund anti-communist movements in Poland and South America. But these foreign operations, funded by Calvi’s bank, were being uncovered by the Italian authorities. And money belonging to powerful figures, including the Mafia, was being seized or lost. ibid.
The Italian authorities in 2003 reopened the case. ibid. Angela
I was asked if I would go and give evidence in Rome. Because the trial was about to start of a number of people, and my evidence would set the scene. ibid.
It must have an ordeal for her [Angela]. ibid. comment
1998: When a young solicitor collapses and dies on a romantic holiday in Egypt the cause is recorded as heart failure. But can Angela and her team uncover the truth about this death on the Nile. Cold Case Forensics s2e2: A Death on the Nile, ITV 2026
But in the early 1990s Cheryl Lewis did meet someone, a divorcee named John Allan. ibid.
They hadn’t found anything that would explain Cheryl’s death. ibid.
‘Formaldehyde destroys the cyanide, so we were in a difficult situation with interpreting cyanide levels in the body.’ ibid. comment
There was a sweet bitter smell when she [hotel maid] walked into the room. ibid. Angela/commentary
His [Allan] behaviour continued to cause Cheryl’s friends and family to become suspicious. ibid.
When the police found Cheryl’s car, they discovered in a compartment between the two front seats a black bag which contained four briquettes of some sort of white substance … Were they the source of the poison that killed Cheryl? ibid.
Sodium cyanide provided a fascinating link with John Allan’s past. ibid.
Briefly suspected of shooting his second wife … no action was taken against him. ibid.
His first wife described it [room] as his gas chamber. ibid.
The clues were to be found in Cheryl’s body … On her stomach lining were two small patches of thinning, as if some corrosive substance had been up against the wall of the stomach there. ibid.
We needed to consider a wider range of samples from Cheryl’s body. ibid.
John Allan had another victim in his sights … John Allan’s new girlfriend has fallen ill. ibid.