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DAZE WORK: Solving real murder cases a not-for-prime-time venture
Television crime shows are making it awfully tough for guys like Greencastle City Police Det. Michael Collins.
With shows like “CSI” and “Law and Order,” the public is spoiled by an oh-so-swift dose of TV justice. You can probably blame “Perry Mason,” who beginning in the 1950s followed commission of a crime to apprehension of the suspect to his day in court when the noted attorney would always pull some courtroom rabbit out of his hat with just moments to spare.
If you watch enough TV dramas, you know that everything gets wrapped up in 58 minutes, while still leaving time for station identification at the end. Not so in the real world.
“They’re taking fingerprints on their phone and everything else ... I wish we had that,” GPD Det. Capt. Collins said of TV investigators as he pondered the state of the Essie McVey murder case, which marked its 10th year Monday without resolution.
Meanwhile, the public thinks, just get some DNA and send it off to be identified; find a couple fingerprints and arrest somebody.
As evidenced by the 10-year-old McVey case or the fatal rock-throwing incident that killed Marsa Gipson, 28, of Arcadia, 30 years ago last Friday, it doesn’t work that way. Not unless you have a suspect with his DNA in hand or fingerprints on file. And just because someone enters your home or business doesn’t always mean they will leave behind fingerprints or suitable trace evidence.
After all, the McVey murder case is void of eyewitnesses and physical evidence. She was slain at her Autumn Glen Village condominium sometime between 9 and 10:15 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2011. The case is currently the lone unsolved murder in the City of Greencastle and the lone unsolved murder blemish on the tenure of Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter.
“Obviously we’re called to the scene,” Collins said of investigators. “We’re not there when it happens, so we’re behind the eight ball from the start.”
Yet TV shows like “NCIS” just find some shred of evidence or minuscule speck of DNA, give it to Abby the goth girl in the lab and the case is solved. Or on “Criminal Minds” the key is always some piece of information tucked behind several firewalls that only Penelope Garcia might navigate and access with success.
“I tell people, ‘it’s not like it is on TV,’” Det. Collins said, mulling 10 years of investigation, good leads and dead ends. “It doesn’t work that way. I wish it worked that way. My job would be a lot easier if it did.”
The veteran detective of 14 years (17 years overall as a GPD officer) agrees that the wheels of justice move slowly and he warns families and friends when he’s investigating that things can be frustrating.
“I tell families, you may get frustrated with me but I’d rather make sure and get it right. I don’t want to be the cause of someone getting off on a technicality.”
After 10 years, nobody remains more frustrated than Michael Collins.
“It’s been as frustrating for me as it is for the public,” he said in concluding an interview Friday at GPD.
Before he retired, Collins’ predecessor, Det. Randy Seipel, characterized the case as the most frustrating of his 25-year career.
Meanwhile, despite warning against the false hope TV crime dramas can give, Det. Collins admits he does enjoy watching “real TV shows like ‘48 Hours’ or ‘20/20’,” about real-life crime where 10-, 15- or 20-year-old cold cases are often solved mainly through diligent police work. Thus, all is not lost.
So, as they say in TV land ... don’t touch that dial.