Case Studies with Questions and Answers
Chapter 12: Motor Vehicles as Crime Scenes
Tennessee Department of Transportation workers find the body of a child behind a road maintenance facility on the Blue Ridge Parkway-a toll road. Due to cool weather conditions, the body shows very little evidence of decomposition, and the coroner establishes the postmortem interval within 48 hours of the discovery of the remains. However, a positive identification has not yet been achieved. The investigator checks the recent missing persons reports, but can find no filings made within the last 30 days matching the child's description. A composite sketch of the victim is released to the regional media 96 hours after discovery of the body.
The following day, a teacher at an elementary school approximately 40 miles from the scene of the body's discovery, calls to tell police that the sketch resembles a student who has been absent from school for several days. The school principal had called the home inquiring about the child, at which point the parents told her that the child was very ill, would be receiving medical treatment at an out-of-state facility, and may not return for some time.
The investigator checks into the location of the residence of the child identified by the school in relation to where the body was located, and sees that the home of the family is within minutes of the entry to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The investigator requests to see the surveillance videos from the cameras located at each of four toll booths that lie between the victim's home and the site where the body was located. The black-and-white videos reveal a light-colored, late-model Chevrolet pick-up truck heading toward the dump site with what appears to be an object covered with a blanket or tarp in the rear bed section of the truck on the evening before the body was found. The resolution of the cameras is poor and does not provide enough clarity to make out a vehicle license plate number. The image is clear enough, however, to see that the same object appears in the same position and in the same area of the truck at all four toll stations. The following morning, a light-colored, late-model Chevrolet truck is shown traveling in the opposite direction through the four toll booths-with an empty bed.