A sophisticated scientific analysis of more than 5,000 police reports may yield answers in a three-year-old murder case, reports the Indianapolis Star. Jill Behrman, who was from Bloomington, disappeared in May 2000 when riding her bike. The bike was discovered the day she disappeared, her body was not located until three years later.
When Indiana State Police Det. Rick Lang took over the case last year, he received more than 5,000 reports from the FBI, the Bloomington Police Department, state police, and Monroe County prosecutors. Faced with the task of making sense out of the huge file, which included witness statements, analysis and forensic evidence, Lang turned to Mid-Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network. It is a regional group, created by Congress in 1974, to aid state and local law enforcement agencies with special activities, including computer forensics, tactical and strategic data analysis, and intelligence coordination. In May, the group delivered a 300-page report that took more than a year to prepare. “They provided me with a link analysis and a timeline of events. They compared and contrasted witness statements and created a database that makes information easier to retrieve,” Lang said. Since the report was delivered, detectives have interviewed more than 150 people.
Link: http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/154483-2340-103.html