Birds Of A Feather

One of the roughest times of a P.I.'s career is when you know someone did it and there's not enough evidence to indict, let alone convict him or her.

My very first murder case was close to home.
The murderer was the boyfriend/fiancee of one of my co-worker's sisters.
Everyone knew he did it.
There just wasn't enough evidence to get the criminal case to an indictment.
This murder happened around the time O.J. murdered Nicole.

In the case of my friend sister's murder, the alleged murderer, who happened to be an attorney specializing in criminal defense, knew how to kill her and make it look like suicide.
He was after both the beach house they lives in and the hefty insurance policy they took out on each other two years earlier. 
I and several others, including family, investigators and police, are convinced he did it. 

There have been grand juries convened. newspaper stories written.
Investigations both criminal and civil launched.
The insurance company has gone through the case with  a fine tooth comb.
Boxes of evidence exists in police storage warehouses.
Yet so far,  more than a decade has passed and no indictments.

When I asked the lead Police Homicide Investigator working the criminal case what I can do to help on behalf of the family's private investigation, his reply was this:

"Find the smoking gun. This guy is the most evil son-of-a-bitch since Charles Campbell. He's
 beyond psychopath. So be careful."
And careful I was.
I  studied the pictures -- autopsy and scene.
I talked to witnesses who were threatened and too frightened to proceed.
It appeared anyone who got too close to the attorney him got slapped with at least one lawsuit.
Statements were retracted.
The few people who would at one time help, became invisible.

How'd he pull off the intimidation? 
He was tall, good looking, legal wizard -- a  power-dressed deviant of few words who surrounded himself with a cadre of equally deviant macho men who were his posse.  And he theirs.
There was an urban legend, never proven, that one of his associates up by the Canadian border killed a woman he wasn't happy with, then mixed  her body parts with cement and incorporated her into a retaining wall. I kid you not.

To this very day, as I type these words...
I am know that  attorney is settled in with another woman who happens to look like just my friend's dead sister, the one he murdered.
I believe he is just waiting out the insurance policy.

Joran van der Sloot reminds me of this guy.
Only he's younger and much less experienced in criminal defense tactics when it comes to murder.
Joran van der Sloot was drawn to the media lights like the moth to the flame.
Dad protected him to a point.
Yet unfettered, his animal instincts prevailed.
His taste for blood was greater than his ability to contain his hunger for it.
I'm glad van der Sloot is off the streets.
Though, we're still working on the other guy.

Here's an update on the van der Sloot update here:
Alleged Crime Scene Photos Leaked in Joran van der Sloot Case