Recently in Investigators Category

I am writing this Post because I knew Ben during middle school back home in Des Moines. Although we weren't friends, his death is one that shocks me. As I knew Ben and remembered him from middle school I would never have guessed him out of all people for this to happen to. Ben was a very nice guy, very smart and loved to debate. I know that he was very avid in his community and volunteered a lot. He was also one to never put himself in any situation that had danger...from what i remeber and have heard by his friend.

The allogations of his death go like this:

He was found on Highway 65/69, which is a stretch from Indianola, Iowa right into Des Moines. He was reported slumped over the bridge and someone called in. We now know that he was shot in the head. They have switched the ruling from homicide to possible suicide. His parents and friends knew that he was fearing for his family's life. He had recieved threats...or so people think, about his family and himself. His family and friends think that he witnessed a crime or was made to think he did. They threatened him if he told police or anyone else.They also found him tied up with plastic zipper ties...which now is being said that Ben bought those himself a few hours before his death.

The whole community is shocked as to why Ben would committ suicide. He is known to have a ver happy life and  he was very successful. My question is what kind of fear would make a person kill themselves to save their family. Also, how does an investigation go in this kind of case. What determines the change in homocide to suicide knowing his circumstances.

This case has touched the southside of Des Moines greatly and I know that his family and friends will do everything they can to find out the underlying cause of his case. In a recent report by the DCI, it almost seemed like they were going to slow down the investigation now that they have some answers. I really hope they keep working hard to find out everythig possible

Below are links to various sources about Ben's death

http://www.kcci.com/news/23420314/detail.html

http://www.kcci.com/news/23286009/detail.html

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100504/NEWS01/5040372/-1/archive/DCI-says-student-shot-self-no-threat-evidence

 

There are many more articles, these are just a few

In class we have been talking a lot about the different procedures that law officials go through from the first 911 call to the end of the trial. Recently, we have talked about the importance of memory and eyewitness identification and all the implications these two forms of evidence can have. Below is a link to an article written by Gary Wells, Mark Small, Steven Penrod, Roy Malpass, Soloman Fulero and C. A. E. Brimacombe, (1998). This article is often times referred to as the "white paper". This article is meant to be an eye opener to people, and for them to realize the many implications in conducting lineups. Also, it goes into great detail explaining the many ways our legal system can avoid contaminating memory evidence and limit the amount of false witness identifications. (This is kind of long, but is worth your read if you are interested in this sort of topic).

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/academics/colloquium/Gary%20Wells/Gary%20Wells%202.pdf

Wells, G., Small, M., Penrod, S. Malpass, R., Fulero, S., & Brimacombe, C. (1998).       Eyewitness identification procedures: Recommendations for lineups and photospreads. Law and Human Behavior, 22

The ever so popular TV show, The First 48 on AE.TV is one that you can count on for truth and facts. The first 48 is a show about homicide detectives that respond to a crime and try and solve it within the first 48 hours. These are real cases with the real people...no actors or replaying of a scene. What you see is what you get!
This show focuses mostly on people that go from suspicion to suspect, eye witnesses, and the interrogation, or interviewing. This really helps you see what a detective does from the moment they get that call.
You can also get a sense of how they figure out what happened and who was involved. They start with the facts that they have off hand and work their way down from there. The one thing that I have started to notice sense we have talked about it in class is the interrogations done by the detectives. In class we learned that a detective will tell you anything you want to hear. They will exhaust you mentally and physically, they will lie to you. Basically they will do anything to get you to confess or turn on anyone. If you notices, in most shows, the detective will either try and play friend, or yell and scream and lie to get them to crack. I find it interesting to watch, now that you really know what is going on.
I have posted the link to the First 48 TV shows. The one on the link I am posting is about a homeless man who is murdered, and a 911 call that has gun shots firing in the background. I urge you to watch the whole show and really pay close attention to the detail that goes into being a detective, especially the ones that do the interviews.
If you are interested after watching this show, you can watch many other episodes with different stories. They get very interesting!

http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/video/index.jsp?paidlink=1&vid=AETV_SEM_Search&keywords=first%2B48&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=first%2540&utm_term=first%2048

http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/video/index.jsp?paidlink=1&vid=AETV_SEM_Search&keywords=first%2B48&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=first%2540&utm_term=first%2048