Compassionate Reader
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- Oct 27, 2010
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I have a question about the hair that is supposed to belong to Terry Hobbs. There was no root, correct? So, the evidence is MtDNA as opposed to nuclear DNA. Is it true that MtDNA is not as conclusive as the nuclear DNA?
Also, regarding the predatory damage (from cats, canines and snapping turtles) - I wonder how those animals got to the bodies (?). The bodies were found lying face down in the water - so, I'm not understanding how the animals got to the underside of the bodies to do all of that damage. Additionally, the bodies weren't in the water, really, for a very long time - what, maybe 15 hours or so before they were found? What drew the animals to the bodies? If the blood was all in the water - would the canines and felines have been able to smell it? I mean - what made them come around and attack so savagely?
As to the hair, yes, you are correct that mtDNA is not as conclusive as nuclear DNA. However, the hair in question is linked to only 1.5% of the population, and Terry Hobbs is in that 1.5%. Just about everyone else involved in this case, including Damien, Jason and Jessie have been excluded as the source of that particular hair. So, whoever the donor is must have been in West Memphis to deposit the hair and they must share a maternal ancestor with Terry Hobbs. Maybe it's not a "slam dunk," but it's much more physical evidence than anything that exists for anyone else.
Add to that the Jacoby hair. This hair was found on a tree stump beside the ditch in which the bodies were found. It "matches" only 7% of the population, which includes David Jacoby but, again, excludes Damien, Jason and Jessie. Both Terry Hobbs and David Jacoby admit to having been together the evening of May 5th. In his declaration in the Pasdar suit, Jacoby says that he and Terry were playing guitars. (In West of Memphis, he even mentions the song they were playing, "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison.) So, it is not a leap in logic at all to conclude that Terry Hobbs could have picked up that hair while at Jacoby's. Again, this is IMO very strong circumstantial evidence against TH.
As to the animal predation, I subscribe to "The Manhole Theory" that purports that the killer moved the bodies from a manhole which was either the murder scene or the first place where the bodies were hidden. The particular manhole suspected is in a part of the sewer system that can be entered by mammals, including dogs and cats, fairly easily. The theory is that the predation occurred after the boys were dead but before the killer moved the bodies into the ditch. In fact, some people believe that, when he returned and saw the predation, he knew that he couldn't pass off the deaths as having occurred when the boys all fell down into the manhole, as some have assumed was possibly the original plan.
One last thing. Recently it has been disclosed that further fiber testing of garments collected from the homes of Damien and Jason were, in fact, not the source of the fibers found on the bodies. This is yet another hole in the original case. The fibers found on the bodies have not, AFAIK, been conclusively linked to anyone as of yet. The important thing is that the tenuous link to the falsely convicted men has now been broken.
Sorry to rant on.