ND - Dru Sjodin, 22, Grand Forks, 22 Nov 2003 - #3

[starpatch]

Originally posted by Toth
Deal? He is going to be doing the rest of his life in prison. He knows that. If he tells where the body is, he faces the death penalty. He is going to keep his mouth shut.

Toth...the only way he would get the death penalty, is if the Feds try the case.
Neither Minnesota or North Dakota has the death penalty.

 

[Trino]

Maybe the deal could be what prison to send him to. Some are better than others.

 

[camsmom]

.

Apparently AR is much more cAs I understand it, neither state has the death penalty. What about crossing state lines? Does that change things? I live in Missouri and the death penalty rules! I also have family in southern MN (Albert Lea to be exact) and they are so relaxed, not used to the city worldomfortable in jail. This is all he has known since he was young.

God Love Dru...I hope she did fight and make those scratches on the window...I hope she fought him till the end with every single breathe she had. I hope every time AR goes to sleep he will think of her and her "husky" voice.

 

[camsmom]

I just re-read my post. Now I am understanding why some of the lingo is there. This site does funky things to what one says.

 

[Silver Dollar]

Originally posted by alpharee
Just got my alarms in today and boy are they loud!
I hope we never have to use em.

Hi alpharee!

Just got mine today and afraid to try them! My little poodles are afraid of smoke alarms so I know they won't like these. Have to go outside........way out back...... and scare the neighbors instead.
Glad to have them though.

 

[alpharee]

Silver Dollar,
you test them?
Boy my head was hurting the other day. I bought 9 of those total and I tested each one myself.

BTW, I have a poodle too! I did go outside to test them because they are loud.

 

[Toth]

I really don't think this discussion of personal alarms has much to do with finding Dru Sjodin's corpse, but if you must discuss personal alarms you might want to post the incident where a little girl was kidnapped and later killed despite the fact that she activated her personal alarm and a man found it while it was making noise on the sidewalk but had no idea what it was.

 

[Love_Mama]

Originally posted by Toth
I really don't think this discussion of personal alarms has much to do with finding Dru Sjodin's corpse, but if you must discuss personal alarms you might want to post the incident where a little girl was kidnapped and later killed despite the fact that she activated her personal alarm and a man found it while it was making noise on the sidewalk but had no idea what it was.

Toth.......that is a terrible story.......how horrible. Do you know what her name was........is there a site where I can find the story?

I know that a persoal alarm is the not at this time THE answer alone, but do think it's a start. IF the public knew that the shrill noise it made was a REAL SOS from someone then it could definitely make a difference. I'm going to do my best to try and make that happen. I'm doing an article several local newspapers soon and am going to try very hard to get the local police here in San Diego to adopt using a personal alarm into their safety programs....If the public knew what to listen for....then it would be a very useful device, Agree!

In the meantime, I'm going to go over to Dru's site and see if there is a place where I can post an email that the parent's might read. They must be so devasted......and Christmas in four days! Very, very sad.
xxxxxoo
mama

 

[Love_Mama]

Toth....I can't find the story you mentioned about the girl who had a personal alarm and that alone, didn't work. I googled and found these stories!

11:20am (UK) Fri 19 Dec 2003
Jogger Attack Police Hand Out Personal Alarms

By Pat Hurst, PA News
Police hunting a knifeman who murdered a jogger as she ran through a park and attempted to kill another woman were today handing out personal attack alarms in a bid to reassure the public.

Officers were visiting parks in north London to hand out the alarms and give advice to female joggers in the area.
-------------------
Practical gifts that just keep on giving
09:36 AM PST on Sunday, December 7, 2003

By MONIQUE H. HENDERSON / Special to The Press-Enterprise
Personal alarms can ward off trouble by sending out a shrill, ear-piercing sound. The alarms often are sold separately or on a key chain.
Some companies have packaged them with flashlights or pedometers, devices used to calculate the distance traveled by walkers or joggers. Personal alarms typically cost $10 to $40.
---------
SAFETY FIRST
http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/12/02/3fcc363091ea9
Evanston, Illinois
NEW: ASG approves blanket $25 charge for athletic events

Posted: Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 12:30 a.m.
By Adam Williams and Alison Knezevich
December 02, 2003
Before the athletic-bill debate, senators got back to safety bills that had not been addressed when they adjourned their meeting halfway through the agenda two weeks ago.

The first was a bill by former sorority Sen. Christina Appleton that called for the administration to purchase 1,000 personal safety alarms and distribute them free to students. The keychain-sized alarms reach up to 138 decibels to alert police and bystanders of an attack.

But senators passed an amended version of the bill that asks the administration to subsidize 500 instead of 1000 of the personal alarms.

The alarms would be available for students to buy at $3, instead of free as Appleton originally intended.

Senators raised a number of concerns about the personal alarms, such as the possibility that alarms would accidentally sound off or that students would misuse them.

Some also said the proposal was too similar to last year's ASG initiative to distribute 5,000 rape whistles and that interested students could buy personal alarms through the Women's Coalition.

"How many whistles have been used ... to stop attacks?" Meredith Kesner, an off-campus senator and Medill senior, posed to Senate. "(The bill) gives the appearance of safety but in reality, it does nothing."

Appleton said she was disappointed at the outcome and accused the Senate of not putting safety first.

"The point was missed tonight," said Appleton, a Weinberg junior. "My intent was to provide something different. We're basically providing what Women's Coalition already does offer."

Senators also passed three other safety bills that generated less controversy.

For what it's worth.

xxxxxxoo
mama

 

[ronigrrl]

Did you all see that AR has enlisted the help of his own private investigator? I imagine that also is at the expense of the taxpayers...

From the Dru board a group of searchers has contacted the family regarding search efforts. From what I understand, the family and LE needed to discuss it at length. I read that it is slated the first week of January.

To read more:
http://www.finddru.com & go to Volunteer thread

for those who can't tolerate the bickering and want to just discuss:
http://pub46.ezboard.com/bdruspositivepage

to light a candle on a site for dru:
http://www.oracula.org/es-03121912320047

 

[Love_Mama]

Originally posted by ronigrrl
Did you all see that AR has enlisted the help of his own private investigator? I imagine that also is at the expense of the taxpayers...

From the Dru board a group of searchers has contacted the family regarding search efforts. From what I understand, the family and LE needed to discuss it at length. I read that it is slated the first week of January.

To read more:
http://www.finddru.com & go to Volunteer thread

for those who can't tolerate the bickering and want to just discuss:
http://pub46.ezboard.com/bdruspositivepage

to light a candle on a site for dru:
http://www.oracula.org/es-03121912320047

Thanks so much for the web sites ronigrrl. Keep posting.........you're bringing some light to this discussion. Start posting on some more threads.....we need people like you! Have a wonderful Christmas........silly as it is perhaps, I still believe in miracles.

xxxxxxxxxoooooo
mama

:angel: :angel: :angel: :angel:

 

[seamless]

Toth is right. I remember that story several years ago, I bet even over 5 years ago. I beleive that she was murdered. She was around 9-years old I think.

 

[Love_Mama]

Originally posted by seamless
Toth is right. I remember that story several years ago, I bet even over 5 years ago. I beleive that she was murdered. She was around 9-years old I think.

Thanks so much Seamless.......please keep posting.....!!!
I hope so much that I get some more infor on that case from Toth.......
where are you TOTH?

LOL


xxxxxxooooooooo

mama

 

[Bubble1421]

My mom bought me one of those alarms when I started High School since I would be walking home by myself. She put my name, and an emergency contact phone number along with the local police number on a sticker on the back of the alarm. There was also a brief comment about what the alarm was so if anyone found it they would call immediately. I only had to use it once. I was walking home and a guy in a blue pick up truck was following me. As I was crossing the street, he turned in front of me and stopped blocking my path. He then opened his door and started to get out of the car. I pulled the plug out of the alarm. There were a couple of other people in a parking lot near by who stopped to look. The guy then jumped back into his car and sped off. I got his lic plate number and reported it to the police. 2 months later a detective brought some photos to my school for me to look at. I couldn't remember exactly what he looked like especially from 2 months prior. Many of the guys they showed me looked very very similar. I don't know if anything ever happened to that guy. I still have the alarm to this day and always carry it with me.

One of those may have helped in Dru's situation but if she had already put her purse in the car when he approached her, she would never have had the chance to pull the plug on the alarm.

 

[GreenEyes727]

I haven't followed the case much but do believe that Dru is gone. I thought that of Elizabeth Smart too and was super shocked when she was found . . . alive . . . but I think that was a very unusual situation. I hope her body is found soon for the sake of the family. I can't imagine what it would be like to have someone missing and possibly murdered. I go crazy when my cats don't come in after a few hours. Yes, I go looking for them! I call their names and clap and make a nuisance of myself. But I love them, and I can't imagine losing them. Prayers and strength to Dru's family and friends.

 

[starpatch]

Originally posted by HappyChic727
I haven't followed the case much but do believe that Dru is gone. I thought that of Elizabeth Smart too and was super shocked when she was found . . . alive . . . but I think that was a very unusual situation. I hope her body is found soon for the sake of the family. I can't imagine what it would be like to have someone missing and possibly murdered. I go crazy when my cats don't come in after a few hours. Yes, I go looking for them! I call their names and clap and make a nuisance of myself. But I love them, and I can't imagine losing them. Prayers and strength to Dru's family and friends.

startribune.com

Not knowing Dru Sjodin's whereabouts complicates things
Richard Meryhew
Star Tribune
Published 12/23/2003

On paper, the case that Grand Forks authorities are building against the man accused of kidnapping Dru Sjodin seems formidable.

They found a knife in Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.'s car that matches a sheath discovered in the shopping mall parking lot where Sjodin disappeared Nov. 22. They've got evidence they say places Rodriguez at the mall that day. They found Sjodin's blood in Rodriguez's car and recovered one of her shoes by the Red Lake River not far from his home. And they've got Rodriguez, a 50-year-old convicted sex offender from Crookston, Minn., caught in an alibi that doesn't add up.

What they don't have is Sjodin.

And without knowing the whereabouts of the 22-year-old University of North Dakota student, convicting Rodriguez on a kidnapping or murder charge becomes trickier.

Without a body, prosecutors can't say for certain how or whether Sjodin was abducted or assaulted. Without a body, they can't establish that Sjodin is dead.

"In a murder case, you've got to prove there has been a death of a human being and you've got to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt," said John Goff, a former North Dakota prosecutor who filed murder charges in 1998 in the disappearance of 11-year-old Jeanna North in Fargo, N.D. Her body was never found.

"Everybody can conclude she is dead, but you still have to prove that."

Aiding prosecutors in the Sjodin disappearance is the fact that the collection and presentation of DNA evidence has evolved significantly in recent years and that statistics associated with such evidence are much more likely to be allowed in court. In one high-profile case during the early 1990s, a Dakota County jury wasn't permitted to hear statistical evidence because the science behind it was considered to be in its infancy.

Evidence and clues

In 1988, authorities in Cass and Crow Wing counties in north-central Minnesota prosecuted Jerome Bye, a Pequot Lakes real-estate agent, in the death of Charlotte Lysdale, 68, who disappeared from her Pine River home three years earlier.

Bye, the last person to have seen Lysdale, was accused of killing her, stealing the deed to her lakeshore property and hiding her body, which was never found. Although a grand jury found enough probable cause to charge Bye, a jury acquitted him of murder.

Despite some compelling physical evidence, the outcome was the same in 1992 when Robert Guevara was charged with murder, kidnapping and rape in the disappearance of Corrine Erstad, a 5-year-old girl from Inver Grove Heights who was reported missing that June.

Investigators found a bloody dress with Guevara's and Corrine's hair in Guevara's storage locker and a shower curtain stained with semen and blood. Nevertheless, Guevara was acquitted.

Several jurors said after the trial that the inability of investigators to find Corrine's body hurt the prosecution's case. Without it, they said, prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she had died. And without being able to prove that, they said, they couldn't convict Guevara of a killing.

"I was shocked at the verdict at the time," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, who prosecuted Guevara. "And I'm still shocked and disappointed today. It is hard to rationalize how you could overlook the significant evidence we had in that case.

"We had DNA evidence that linked the victim's blood and the defendant's semen combined on one item of evidence. But in our case, we didn't have a body. And it might have tipped the scales enough to lead to their decision," Backstrom said.

Andrew Baker, assistant chief medical examiner for Hennepin County, said finding a body is important for several reasons: Not only does it prove that a death occurred, but in most cases, it also establishes a cause of death and valuable clues about what happened.

"Depending on the circumstances, there may be a great deal of evidence on the body," Baker said.

Stab wounds, gunshot wounds, strangulation marks or torn or shredded clothing often give investigators information that can be helpful when interrogating potential suspects. Backstrom said a body can also provide prosecutors with valuable DNA evidence -- semen, hair, blood -- that could be critical at trial.

In some cases, that's the key to sustaining a criminal case.

Earlier this year, William Gene Myears, 25, was charged with manslaughter in connection with the disappearance and suspected killing of 21-year-old Erika Dalquist of Brainerd, in October 2002. According to a criminal complaint, Myears led investigators to a mine pit 10 miles east of town and pointed to a spot where he said he put Dalquist.

Despite exhaustive underwater searches, investigators never found a body. Two weeks later, the charge was dropped and Myears was set free.

Stronger cases

Investigators in Cass County, N.D., never found Jeanna North's body, but they still won a conviction against repeat sex offender Kyle Bell in 1999, based almost entirely on circumstantial evidence.

Bell, who lived near Jeanna, was in the neighborhood at the time she disappeared and was the last person to see her alive. At one point, he confessed to killing Jeanna. He later recanted, but some of the confession was admitted at trial.

Bell also told authorities that he tied Jeanna's body to a concrete block and dumped it in a nearby river. Investigators later found a concrete block and rope in the spot where Bell said he dumped the body.

Circumstantial evidence also was critical in the 2000 conviction of Donald Blom, who was accused of kidnapping and murder in the disappearance of Katie Poirier, 19, from a Moose Lake convenience store where she worked.

Blom, a repeat sex offender, also confessed to the crime early on, then recanted. But as in the Bell case, part of the confession was admitted as trial evidence.

Investigators also had physical evidence -- human bone fragments were found in a fire pit on Blom's property not far from the crime scene. However, that evidence was so badly burned that investigators could not obtain DNA samples.

They also found a tooth that showed dental work consistent with that performed on Poirier by her dentist. Working off those findings, prosecutors called on "state-of-the-art, highly qualified experts to put together" a likely scenario of what happened, said Tom Pertler, assistant Carlton County Attorney who prosecuted the case.

Prosecutors also worked with testimony from eyewitnesses who placed Blom and his truck at or near the crime scene and a store surveillance tape that showed a man looking like Blom leading Poirier out the door.

Even then, Pertler said, defense attorneys still asked prospective jurors during jury selection, "Do you think Katie Poirier is dead?"

"In this case, we had to add up every piece of circumstantial evidence that put him at the scene," Pertler said. "But a lot of that stuff I don't need in a typical case where there is a body."

In the Sjodin case, if more evidence is uncovered in coming weeks or if her body is found, the kidnapping charge against Rodriguez would likely be amended to include murder. Yet even without a body, Backstrom and other prosecutors say the case against Rodriguez is strong.

Like Bell and Blom, Rodriguez is a repeat sex offender. What's more, the physical evidence against him, which includes a DNA match of the blood found in his car with DNA from Sjodin's toothbrush, is strong.

Backstrom said it also will help prosecutors that DNA technology, in its infancy more than a decade ago, has improved greatly over the years and is now "fully accepted" by the courts and understood by jurors.

"Today, from very small quantities of blood, you can produce a DNA match," he said.

Prosecutors also are now allowed to tell jurors at trial the significance of the DNA match.

In 1992, "we couldn't use statistical data to explain just how rare a chance it would be that anyone else in the population could have left the sample that had been tested," Backstrom said. "And that's a very important part of the testimony to explain the significance of that to the jury. Twelve years ago, it was good evidence. But it didn't carry the same weight it does today.

"It's a strong case," he added. "The prosecutors are doing exactly what they needed to do."

Said Goff, "You have to prove there was a death, but I don't think it's a huge obstacle in this case. Circumstantially, they have a very, very good case."

Richard Meryhew is at richm@startribune.com.

© Copyright 2003 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

 

[camsmom]

Dru is dead and her body will be found in the spring, down river. God love her, I believe that she fought for her life!!!!!

 

[GreenEyes727]

Camsmom:

Are you a psychic? Is this your prediction? Lord knows we need something to go by.

Merry Christmas,

Happy

 

[Trino]

God bless Dru's family and friends this holiday as they contemplate her disappearance and pray for a miracle.

 

[MissMisty]

Posts on Dru's website say that searches are on for this weekend! Dru's mom is on Gretta's show on Fox right now discussing Dru's disappearance. Just wanted to post this before the forum goes belly-up.
Misty