Allow me to explain why I feel the way that I do when it comes to these type of investigations.
On February 7, 1988 a 13 year old girl woke up before 7AM, on the coldest day of the year to buy a newspaper she believed would have a story about her favorite entertainer Wayne Newton. She walked for almost a ¼ of a mile to a newsstand located at Jamaica Avenue and Lefferts Blvd. She bought the paper and never made it home. Her body was later found mid-way between her house and the newsstand alongside the siding of the LIRR. Her pants were pulled down and her shirt was pulled up. There were no signs of rape or sexual abuse.
This case received even more attention than the Vetrano case. All sources were mobilized to investigate this case.
The case was officially assigned to a detective in the 102 Detective Squad named Jimmy A. Jimmy was a very decent guy with no hard lines about him to do things honest detectives wouldn’t do. An obnoxious know it all detective got his boss to take the lead in the case while Jimmy was stuck with the paperwork.
One week later at 7AM a team of detectives went to the newsstand hoping to find anyone that may have been there one week earlier that might remember something about the young girl or anyone lurking about.
At that time an area resident appeared and asked the news dealer if there was anything in the paper about the young girl. Detective Obnoxious went to that citizen and asked him: “What do you want to know that for!” His life turned into a nightmare. He would now be Detective O’s prime suspect. His life for two weeks became a living hell. Both he and his wife were polygraphed at least 2x. His clothing was seized along with his work clothes and gloves at this place of employment. The clothes were examined by the NYPD lab for trace fiber evidence that was on the victim.
For all intents and purposes the investigation came to a halt because this rogue detective wanted it his way and no other scenarios were welcome.
On February 28, P.O. Ed Byrne was murdered and the participators in this case from Homicide were shifted to the Byrne investigation.
After two weeks since the malicious investigation started on the neighbor whose only crime was to ask if there was anything in the paper about the young girl. The captain that was in charge of the case said ENOUGH! And the neighbor’s torment ended.
The case went cold and is still unsolved to this day.
Six months or so later I was charged by my bosses to take another look at the case. The Det/Sgt from the 102 squad was assigned with me to take that new look on the case. But this time we had a criminal profile by a NYPD expert to give us a starting point to jump off from.
We went to the crime lab to review the case. As luck would have it the detective that did the evidence analysis was there. We announced our reasons to be there, i.e., to review the evidence and that detective blew up in our case. He started screaming at us and told us that if we want him to do what Detective O wanted him to do we could get out of there now. Detective O wanted him to come to a finding that the fiber on the body and that of the neighbor was sufficient to match each other. I guess he realized that his implications might give cause to have another detective charged with altering an investigation. He started to back off from his strong assertions because not only was he speaking to me but to a superior officer. We made no mention of this encounter in our investigative reports because that is the way that it is: Don’t embarrass the Department with charges of misconduct.
On February 7, 1988 a 13 year old girl woke up before 7AM, on the coldest day of the year to buy a newspaper she believed would have a story about her favorite entertainer Wayne Newton. She walked for almost a ¼ of a mile to a newsstand located at Jamaica Avenue and Lefferts Blvd. She bought the paper and never made it home. Her body was later found mid-way between her house and the newsstand alongside the siding of the LIRR. Her pants were pulled down and her shirt was pulled up. There were no signs of rape or sexual abuse.
This case received even more attention than the Vetrano case. All sources were mobilized to investigate this case.
The case was officially assigned to a detective in the 102 Detective Squad named Jimmy A. Jimmy was a very decent guy with no hard lines about him to do things honest detectives wouldn’t do. An obnoxious know it all detective got his boss to take the lead in the case while Jimmy was stuck with the paperwork.
One week later at 7AM a team of detectives went to the newsstand hoping to find anyone that may have been there one week earlier that might remember something about the young girl or anyone lurking about.
At that time an area resident appeared and asked the news dealer if there was anything in the paper about the young girl. Detective Obnoxious went to that citizen and asked him: “What do you want to know that for!” His life turned into a nightmare. He would now be Detective O’s prime suspect. His life for two weeks became a living hell. Both he and his wife were polygraphed at least 2x. His clothing was seized along with his work clothes and gloves at this place of employment. The clothes were examined by the NYPD lab for trace fiber evidence that was on the victim.
For all intents and purposes the investigation came to a halt because this rogue detective wanted it his way and no other scenarios were welcome.
On February 28, P.O. Ed Byrne was murdered and the participators in this case from Homicide were shifted to the Byrne investigation.
After two weeks since the malicious investigation started on the neighbor whose only crime was to ask if there was anything in the paper about the young girl. The captain that was in charge of the case said ENOUGH! And the neighbor’s torment ended.
The case went cold and is still unsolved to this day.
Six months or so later I was charged by my bosses to take another look at the case. The Det/Sgt from the 102 squad was assigned with me to take that new look on the case. But this time we had a criminal profile by a NYPD expert to give us a starting point to jump off from.
We went to the crime lab to review the case. As luck would have it the detective that did the evidence analysis was there. We announced our reasons to be there, i.e., to review the evidence and that detective blew up in our case. He started screaming at us and told us that if we want him to do what Detective O wanted him to do we could get out of there now. Detective O wanted him to come to a finding that the fiber on the body and that of the neighbor was sufficient to match each other. I guess he realized that his implications might give cause to have another detective charged with altering an investigation. He started to back off from his strong assertions because not only was he speaking to me but to a superior officer. We made no mention of this encounter in our investigative reports because that is the way that it is: Don’t embarrass the Department with charges of misconduct.
