Here, in L.A. crime has decreased drastically. So much so that the police can now work on cold cases (I love "Cold Case" on A&E)AND use DNA tests that weren't around twenty years ago. They've solved two cases, cases I remember reading about and the person arrested in each case was a HUGE surprise, shocking even. But it all goes to my theory that we all know someone who has killed, got away with it and keeps it as a deep dark secret that only they know about.
Take for instance John Floyd Thomas.
He's 72 years old and had been working for the state of California as a claims adjuster since 1989. He's worked in the same office all those years. His co-workers said he was pleasant, quiet, and religious. Well, it turns out that John was also a convicted felon and registered sex offender who was required to submit his DNA in October 2008 to LAPD for its DNA registry. Remember, the police now has a lot of time on their hands so they are contacting every registered sex-offender for a cheek swab and processing the results in the database.
Well, well, if it didn't come back five months later that Thomas' DNA matched the DNA left and stored for thirty years in the bodies of at least six elderly white women in the 1970s and 1980s who were raped and strangled. They called this guy the "Southland Strangler" and could never catch him. All they knew was that he was black and that they kept the semen from the bodies of the victims.
His co-workers at the state office were in a state of shock. They had been working with a serial-killer who thought he had gotten away with it and turned over a new leaf. I do wonder how he was able to get such a good job with his record of 12 years in prison.
Well, well, if it didn't come back five months later that Thomas' DNA matched the DNA left and stored for thirty years in the bodies of at least six elderly white women in the 1970s and 1980s who were raped and strangled. They called this guy the "Southland Strangler" and could never catch him. All they knew was that he was black and that they kept the semen from the bodies of the victims.
His co-workers at the state office were in a state of shock. They had been working with a serial-killer who thought he had gotten away with it and turned over a new leaf. I do wonder how he was able to get such a good job with his record of 12 years in prison.
Then there's Stephanie Lazarus who was just arrested yesterday for the murder of 
her ex-boyfriend's wife twenty-three years ago. Not only did she hold the same job with her co-workers for the last 26 years but she was a LAPD cop. Now she had to know she wasn't going to get away with it for very much longer. She had to know that there was a shift in the department to DNA testing to solve old crimes. Maybe she thought she didn't leave any DNA behind, but she did. And it was tested. It turned out to belong to a woman. Det. Lazarus' name was in the file from 1983 (she was a rookie cop then), as the ex-girlfriend.
her ex-boyfriend's wife twenty-three years ago. Not only did she hold the same job with her co-workers for the last 26 years but she was a LAPD cop. Now she had to know she wasn't going to get away with it for very much longer. She had to know that there was a shift in the department to DNA testing to solve old crimes. Maybe she thought she didn't leave any DNA behind, but she did. And it was tested. It turned out to belong to a woman. Det. Lazarus' name was in the file from 1983 (she was a rookie cop then), as the ex-girlfriend.Funny they don't already have law-enforcement personnel provide DNA since they ask for finger prints but anyway, they didn't have Stephanie's DNA on file so she was followed and something was found with DNA and, of course, it matched.
LAPD is stunned. But it proves my theory mentioned-above.
