Case Updates · Analysis · The Details
Case updates, analysis, and the stories behind the headlines. Each post is written from research notes, checked against them, and published with its sources listed.
October 9, 2026
Digital evidence went from a niche hobby in the 1980s to a cornerstone of modern criminal investigations.
October 6, 2026
South Carolina's Supreme Court threw out Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions over jury interference. His retrial is set for April 2027 in Sumter County.
October 2, 2026
More than 345,000 U.S. homicides since 1965 are unsolved. Memory, evidence, tunnel vision and cost explain why some cases stall for decades.
September 29, 2026
Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty in 2025 to avoid a death sentence. In July 2026 he asked to withdraw that plea. Here is where the case stands.
September 25, 2026
ViCAP, launched in 1985, lets police match violent crimes across jurisdictions. A 2024 federal audit found only 9 percent of agencies registered.
September 15, 2026
How six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found in her Boulder home in 1996, and what investigators did in the first ten years.
September 11, 2026
A bloody thumbprint in Argentina in 1892, a cash box in London in 1905 and a painted railing in Chicago in 1910 brought fingerprints into court.
September 8, 2026
The Constitution requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt but no set definition of it. Here is what the Supreme Court and jury instructions say.
August 25, 2026
What DNA exonerations and the National Registry of Exonerations show about eyewitness errors, false confessions and evidence that was withheld.
August 18, 2026
Familial searching looks for close relatives of an unknown offender in state DNA databases. How it works, cases it solved, and where it is legal.
August 14, 2026
A cold case moves when a new lead exists: testable evidence, money for the lab, a database hit. The Sherri Rasmussen case shows how that works.
August 4, 2026
Eyewitness misidentification played a role in 69 percent of 375 DNA exonerations. Here is what memory research says about why.
July 28, 2026
Chain of custody is the record of who handled evidence. Here is what the rules say about gaps, and when bad handling actually keeps evidence out.
July 17, 2026
How investigators turn crime scene DNA into a family tree, which databases they may search, and the rules written since the Golden State Killer arrest.
January 8, 2026
Unknown DNA, a grand jury vote that never became a charge, and what Boulder police say they are doing now in the JonBenét Ramsey case.
December 26, 2025
Cpl. Matthew "Ty" Snook was shot from behind at a Delaware DMV on Dec. 23, 2025. What the State Police found, and what has happened since.
November 14, 2025
Chris Watts pleaded guilty in 2018 to killing his pregnant wife and two daughters. What the released case file shows about the weeks before and after.
October 2, 2025
Courtney Clenney pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2022 death of Christian Obumseli in Miami and was sentenced to six years. Here is the record.
September 20, 2025
A car on camera, a phone that went quiet for two hours and DNA on a knife sheath: how investigators tied Bryan Kohberger to the Moscow killings.
March 2, 2025
How the 1989 Beverly Hills killings led to two trials, a 1996 life sentence, a 2025 resentencing, a parole denial and a March 2027 hearing.
February 10, 2025
Richard Allen was convicted in 2024 of killing Abby Williams and Libby German. The evidence, the trial, and where his appeal stands in October 2026.
January 20, 2025
From Angie Dodge to the Boy in the Box: cases genetic genealogy solved, the wrong turns along the way, and the limits courts and families still face.
