The Lengthening Arm of the Law !

Excluding gangland murders it is reasonable to suppose that in most instances where someone ends up dead it is the result of anger or some spur of the moment situation that was not foreseen.  Only a minuscule number of killings are carefully planned and orchestrated to a known scenario.

The police freely admit that unless they have a suspect within the first forty-eight hours of starting an investigation the chance of solving the case diminishes rapidly.  Because the killer must hide the body and establish an alibi in haste there s every chance that a tiny error will be the killers undoing.  In every police jurisdiction there are usually a number of murders with ever lengthening periods without a solution that must convince the guilty party that they have escaped justice.

A news story this week must send shivers of apprehension through those with a guilty conscience.  Thirty-three years after a murder is sufficient time for any undetected murderer to be congratulating themselves on committing the perfect crime.  This time the police came a knocking on an alleged killers door and the march of science provided compelling evidence.

On September 24, 1983 Sydney nurse Mary Louse Wallace was celebrating with friends when a stranger joined the group, and offered Mary Louise a lift home in his car.  She was never seen again.
Robert Adams admitted to being that man and he claimed that they kissed, cuddled and had sex, and after that he went to sleep.  When he awoke, Mary Louise was no longer in the car with him.
 

The police carefully searched his car with attention to the boot area.   This was vacuumed and the residue filed away in evidence bags, but there was nothing that the science of that period could connect to a possible murder.   Nothing changed for thirty-three years, until the "cold case " files were resurrected  for a fresh examination by forensics.

This time the evidence bag delivered two strands of female hair and this was matched to Mary Louise's genetics by comparison with hair on a hairbrush  taken from her flat.  There was evidence that Adams was seen scrupulously cleaning his car the day after Mary Louise's disappearance.  The front seat covers were washed and hung on the line and Adams was seen carefully cleaning the boot area.  All this was unusual because he had never previously been known to bestow care on his car.

The prosecution has seen fit to proceed with a murder charge, to the relief of her relatives.  Her body was never discovered and a fresh search will certainly be part of the investigation.

This is exactly the outcome which will strike fear into the heart of murderers who have evaded the long arm of the law by either sheer good luck or the inability of science to interpret the evidence they have left behind.   That gap is ever closing and the indications are that the wheels of science will grind ever finer in a much shorter time span.

Unfortunately, that is unlikely to decrease the murder rate.  Most murders occur because of rage or lust - and the thinking only starts after the deed is done.    Perhaps it may slow the hand of the calculating types who murder for gain.  In such cases the reward needs to be considered in relation to the risk - and the risk ratio is ever shortening.

What will cause increasing worry to those with an old murder on their conscience is those cold case files locked away in police evidence rooms.   The day looms closer when that evidence will give up its secrets !