Chapter 18 Chapter two

After Gertrude Thompson and Edward Kovacs were murdered in their home, we've been scouring the crime scene for physical evidence in search of clues. My first thought is to confirm the murder weapon, which is important to solve the case.I found a long linear scar on the top of Gertrude's skull, caused by blunt force.There was also a very visible beaded scar on the outer bony plate of her calvaria.Also, I found a turf-like welt on her head, much like a bent corner of something.Blunt trauma often causes closed calvarial fractures. The skull is a spherical bone shell that can accommodate and protect the interior of the cranial cavity.When the calvaria is subjected to external force, local deformation and bending occur, and the inner plate at the top of the bending is subjected to a large draft force.If the strength of the external force exceeds the elastic limit of the inner plate, the inner plate will fracture here.Gertrude's outer plate fracture is also when violence acts on the skull, the local skull appears conical invagination, while the surrounding skull bends in the opposite direction; when the violence exceeds the limit of the bone outer plate's elasticity, the outer plate will appear Fracture, and there may be radial fractures from the center to the outside.

As for the linear scar on Gertrude's skull, I think that was also a linear fracture.Linear fractures can not only reflect the location of force, but also reflect the direction of violence.Gertrude's linear fracture was in the same direction as the longitudinal axis of the murder weapon.The fracture line can cross the sutures and even surround the entire skull, but it cannot pass through the fracture line that has already occurred.Based on this phenomenon, I can determine the sequence of her skull injuries.If there are linear fractures in different directions, and one of the fracture lines is cut off by the other, it is the second blow. If multiple fracture lines have inconsistent directions, it is caused by more than two blows.If a person is hit vertically on the head by a round hammer, it can often cause a depressed fracture.It reflects the profile and approximate diameter of the contact surface of the weapon.

Based on the above circumstances, I judge that these scars are probably caused by the ground lamp with a rectangular base. Julie Saul, the medical examiner who also intervened in the case, found another head injury to Gertrude that resembled the base of a brass lamp.Comparing the beaded decoration on the base of the lamp to the scar on the skull, they match perfectly, so it is likely that the lamp caused the scar.I carefully observed the base of the brass desk lamp, which is used to control the stability of the desk lamp, and there is a string of pearl-like patterns around the base.However, we did not find any fingerprints on these items.

Also, I think Gertrude and Edward fought back because of the wounds on their hands from defending themselves. Then, I found another clue.A small piece of broken glass in the sole of Edward's shoe turned out to be the key to the whole case, answering an important question. The glass is a shard of a light bulb, leading us to believe that Edward entered the room after the violence had begun.At that time, he probably just came back from outside, because he hung his coat by the door.The moment he hung up his coat, he discovered the problem in the room, and at the same time the murderer rushed towards him.At this time, perhaps Gertrude was lying on the ground, and then he and the murderer wrestled.I seem to understand now that it was Gertrude who opened the door for the murderer.Of course, when Gertrude heard the doorbell ring, she should have looked out the door mirror first.She wanted to see if the person who came was someone she knew.Since it was someone Gertrude knew, she opened the door and invited him in with a big smile.All of this seems to be going on so naturally.For such an analysis, I have no further opinions, but I am still thinking about the way Edward entered the door.

At that time, why didn't Edward ring the doorbell to let Gertrude in the room open the door for him?This is a very natural behavior: I have the key, why do I have to ask someone inside to open the door for me?Yes, if you have a key and don't use the key to open the door, is it a bit redundant to yell at someone inside to open the door for you?Besides how cold it is in Toledo in December. Now that I have figured out how Edward entered the door, I can better understand Edward's behavior. We assume that when Edward put the key in the lock, the wind was blowing hard outside, and he shrank his neck and got into the door.

"I'm back!" He said casually when he entered the door, then took off his coat and hung it on the coat rack at the door.He should have seen a familiar person and the mess in the room. It should be said that it was too late when he realized all this. The murderer rushed towards him, or the two rushed forward at the same time.As a result, there was physical contact between them right where he now lay. "It's at this location..." I pointed there and said, "At this time, we should know that the layout and furnishings of the living room of this house can be observed from the ground of this house. There are several sofas forming a square in the middle of the living room. What we should also pay attention to is that there is a row of cabinets along the wall. These cabinets are not high. I counted and there are four cabinets like writing desks in total. Each cabinet is divided into upper and lower layers, with two drawers on the upper layer and two doors on the lower layer. When Edward became alert, it was too late, which means that the perpetrator was at least one of the two people, and he might have appeared from another direction Well, this is just the beginning of what happened. Then, the soft-soled rubber shoes worn by Edward came into contact with the fragments of the light bulb that had been broken, which shows that the murderer had already picked up a blunt object before Edward appeared. Knocked Gertrude to the ground. Next, the murderer knocked Edward to the ground, and also raised the blunt object and smashed the old man's head. Yes, right here, exactly, right here Gertrude's side. The murderer didn't think much about the timing of the crime at first, so he slowly tortured the two old men with light wounds and stab wounds, hoping that they would tell everything. However, they were disappointed and had no time It was wasted like this, so I started. Of course, during this process, the two old people have resisted one after another, but those resistances are simply vulnerable to the murderer."

My colleagues listened to me quietly, and I continued: "It is conceivable that the result of this resistance is obvious, and Edward was knocked to the ground. This involves the murder weapon used by the murderer-Julie in the front That brass lamp mentioned." Next, we started looking for the suspect, other clues were from old people's answering machines. Since Gertrude and Edward rent out several houses, there are many tenants' messages on the telephone tape.However, only one tenant called Ethan Walls numerous times. When we found Ethan, he said that he had gone to the house to pay the rent, found the mailboxes were full, knocked on the door, and no one answered, so he left the rent check there and went home.

"I dropped the check in their mailbox and I saw a lot of mail in the mailbox but I didn't give it much thought. Two or three days later I left another note asking them to contact me but they never heard back .” That's what Ethan told us at the police station.He admitted that he later went to the house to get the rent back and spent it, suggesting that Ethan had been to the crime scene twice before and after the murder. Ethan said he left the check and then went back to get it, which I found a bit odd.I hope his behavior and what happened at the crime scene is just a coincidence.However, I have to doubt him again.Because Ethan is the tenant of the two old people, they know Ethan.Perhaps, the time when Ethan went to that house was the day the old man expected him to pay the rent. The tacit cooperation between the two parties cannot be expressed in words. possible.So, it was a natural behavior for Ethan to go to that house that day. When he walked to the door of the house, of course, he could only knock on the door because he did not own the house.At this time, Gertrude should have seen him in the door mirror, and because of the familiarity, she opened the door to invite him in, and her tone became very polite.You know, how wonderful it is for someone to deliver the rent on time.Especially for businessmen, what they deal with all day is money.At this time, when Gertrude took the check and was looking at it seriously, Ethan attacked the old man.Then Edward came back, so the two fought, and Ethan killed Edward in the same way.Then, Ethan took back the check and left.

Of course, these are my inferences.But not long after, the police department received a call from a woman who said she had seen Ethan at the home of a well-known drug dealer around the time of the murder, and she said there was blood on Ethan's shirt. We did find blood splatters on the ceiling of the crime scene, and also on the walls, and from the injuries to the body, I can speculate that there must be blood on the murderer. That said, Ethan, wearing the blood-stained suit, shows up at the home of a prominent drug dealer and befriends him. However, Ethan vehemently denied what the whistleblower said.He said it was an outright lie.

"Where did you hear this? Who ordered this person to say such a thing? Of course it's not true, it's a complete fabrication!" Ethan looked very excited. When we examined the bloodstains left at the crime scene, we noticed an important clue: the bloodstains at the scene had two different shapes, indicating two different situations.One of the bloodstains was long and apparently sprayed from the part that had been hit. A bloodstain from an angular weight will appear longer, with an oval head, often ending in a small tail.The longer the bloodstain, the larger the edges and corners.In another place, farther away from the body, there were several bloodstains that were almost circular.These included two drops of blood in a broken ceramic vase and one on paper in a drawer.

The bloodstains looked like they were dripping vertically.From this, I can conclude that these bloodstains are probably not from the bodies of the two victims, but from the murderer. The bloodstains looked like they had come from someone standing, they seemed to be the kind that dripped still from a person onto something below. We confiscated all of Ethan's knives and tested them to see if there was a murder weapon inside. It turned out that none of the knives had human blood on them.We also compared Ethan's shoes with footprints from the crime scene and found no match. Since the killer also left bloodstains at the crime scene, we naturally wondered if the bloodstains were Ethan's.You know, although blood droplets look the same, science can tell the difference between blood. The results surprised many, especially Ethan Walls himself.About five months after the DNA test, we arrested him.Ethan still feels very puzzled by this incident. He said that he was terrified at the time and was arrested by the police. It's over. That's according to information provided by whistleblower Dennis Kovacs.I really hate to name the whistleblower because we have rules, especially with regard to witness protection.We proceeded to check the information on the answering machine in the house and identified Ethan, the tenant, as the "ideal suspect."Because Dennis Kovacs said there was one tenant who could say he hated them, Gertrude in particular.So it's likely their tenant did it, Ethan to be exact. Now, Toledo police have a suspect in the victim's tenant, Ethan Walls, who has sworn he is innocent.