General Fiction posted December 3, 2024 | Chapters: | ...48 49 -50- 51... |
They find a body carefully wrapped up
A chapter in the book Sandra's Lover
Ones Garbage is another's Gold
by EILEEN LAW
The author has placed a warning on this post for violence.
Background Murder Mystery and a twisted family. |
The stench is almost unbearable, however for the workers, they have gotten used to it. They are nose blind to the smell. For the detectives in the mess, it was horrific and they all either smudged the underside of their nostrils with vaporub or they tolerated it, barely. Who would ever want to wade around in a garbage dump anyway?
Well, they had no choice. The equipment operator uncovered a body next to the fence and reported it. Now comes the messy job of cleaning it up and moving it on to the coroner. It seems this body had been there for multiple years but luckily most of the remains were still inside the garbage bag and the tarp that it was concealed inside. The bucket of the backhoe had broken the plastic and a part of an arm had escaped. Unfortunately, it was damaged as a result.
Eventually all of the surrounding garbage was sorted and the body inside its casing was sent off to the coroner. It took several weeks before the results of the autopsy were in.
It was a female approximately 20 to 25 years old, Caucasian, and she had on the remains of her clothing. After examination, it was determined that she had died of strangulation and there was no evidence of sexual activity. The body was completely examined for unknown DNA, fingerprints and her nails were scraped for the same. The tests came back inconclusive at best. The body was decayed and thankfully fairly intact due to the way it was wrapped up, it was estimated that she had died approximately 20 years before. Blood and tissue tests showed traces of chemicals that were determined to be volatiles that include dichloromethane and Chloroform.
The detectives ran a missing person's case check for the area in an 18-month period of the estimated time of death and found 3 missing persons that similarly matched their deceased. A further investigation finally narrowed it down to 2 young women. After meeting with the families, it was determined that the corpse was Cassandra Sorenson, a 24-year-old college student from Idaho Falls, Idaho. She was studying at the University of Idaho and working part time at a local coffee shop. She had an apartment not too far from the college library. She had finished her shift at the coffee shop and hadn't been seen since.
Back then, the police did interviews of her classmates, professors, friends, co-workers and her family. No one knew of anyone who had intended her harm. The family insisted that she was not a runaway and had a bright future ahead of her. Her boyfriend was also interviewed in depth and was ruled out as having anything to do with her disappearance. After a few years, the family held an in-memoriam service for her, without her body. The state declared her dead after 7 years. The case had gone cold.
Now they had to re-open the case and try to find her killer. The file included all of the original police officer's information and one of them still worked at the same precinct. She became the lead for the team. Some other officers either retired or moved away.
Officer Martin was both disappointed and thrilled to re-open her cold case. The autopsy had determined that the drugs used to incapacitate Cassandra were placed on the scarf that was found with the body. The duct tape that was wrapped around the tarp and garbage bags were sent for examination, maybe they would get lucky and be able to lift a latent print from it. The tarp and garbage bags would also be meticulously examined for any specific identifying marks or striations that may lead to the manufacturer and if lucky to the store that may have sold them.
Every person who had been interviewed needed to be re-contacted. There were many advancements in DNA research and product matching that had occurred in the years since this woman died. They may be able to find clues that before would never have been found.
It took weeks to get everything back. It was negative for fingerprints; however, they were able to prove that this person wore medical grade gloves because a small piece of blue latex had gotten stuck to the inside of a folded portion of the duct tape.
What struck Candace as curious was the methodical and careful way that the body was placed inside the wrapping. The woman's hair was tidy, and her clothing neatly in place. The wrapping of the corpse was tight and tidy. Regular and perfect folds to encase her completely. The industrial garbage bags on the outside were very neatly taped. This person seemed to almost care. Like it was important that she be carefully wrapped, not to preserve her but it felt almost like tucking a child into bed. If not for the sloppy tearing of the bag by the backhoe this package would have been perfectly preserved. As such it slowed the decay of the corpse and preserved her more than an exposed one would. This made for an easier autopsy but an unclear date of death.
One fact that seemed out of place was, if he 'cared' so much for her to take his time bundling her, why dispose of her in a garbage dump? That didn't add up for her.
Candace thought it was time to contact the other officers that worked the case with her before. She knew Johnson had retired and moved over to Colorado; she would have to get a hold of personnel to get a forwarding phone number. Branson passed away just a couple of years ago from a heart attack and, if she could recall correctly there was a young rookie that worked the case with her. She looked into the case file and found his name, Anderson. He wasn't here anymore, but she would have to find out where he was transferred to, so she could follow up with him as well.
One quick phone call and she had the number. Bozeman PD. She was quickly transferred to a detective that was working missing persons cases.
"Detective Smythe" was the answer.
Well, they had no choice. The equipment operator uncovered a body next to the fence and reported it. Now comes the messy job of cleaning it up and moving it on to the coroner. It seems this body had been there for multiple years but luckily most of the remains were still inside the garbage bag and the tarp that it was concealed inside. The bucket of the backhoe had broken the plastic and a part of an arm had escaped. Unfortunately, it was damaged as a result.
Eventually all of the surrounding garbage was sorted and the body inside its casing was sent off to the coroner. It took several weeks before the results of the autopsy were in.
It was a female approximately 20 to 25 years old, Caucasian, and she had on the remains of her clothing. After examination, it was determined that she had died of strangulation and there was no evidence of sexual activity. The body was completely examined for unknown DNA, fingerprints and her nails were scraped for the same. The tests came back inconclusive at best. The body was decayed and thankfully fairly intact due to the way it was wrapped up, it was estimated that she had died approximately 20 years before. Blood and tissue tests showed traces of chemicals that were determined to be volatiles that include dichloromethane and Chloroform.
The detectives ran a missing person's case check for the area in an 18-month period of the estimated time of death and found 3 missing persons that similarly matched their deceased. A further investigation finally narrowed it down to 2 young women. After meeting with the families, it was determined that the corpse was Cassandra Sorenson, a 24-year-old college student from Idaho Falls, Idaho. She was studying at the University of Idaho and working part time at a local coffee shop. She had an apartment not too far from the college library. She had finished her shift at the coffee shop and hadn't been seen since.
Back then, the police did interviews of her classmates, professors, friends, co-workers and her family. No one knew of anyone who had intended her harm. The family insisted that she was not a runaway and had a bright future ahead of her. Her boyfriend was also interviewed in depth and was ruled out as having anything to do with her disappearance. After a few years, the family held an in-memoriam service for her, without her body. The state declared her dead after 7 years. The case had gone cold.
Now they had to re-open the case and try to find her killer. The file included all of the original police officer's information and one of them still worked at the same precinct. She became the lead for the team. Some other officers either retired or moved away.
Officer Martin was both disappointed and thrilled to re-open her cold case. The autopsy had determined that the drugs used to incapacitate Cassandra were placed on the scarf that was found with the body. The duct tape that was wrapped around the tarp and garbage bags were sent for examination, maybe they would get lucky and be able to lift a latent print from it. The tarp and garbage bags would also be meticulously examined for any specific identifying marks or striations that may lead to the manufacturer and if lucky to the store that may have sold them.
Every person who had been interviewed needed to be re-contacted. There were many advancements in DNA research and product matching that had occurred in the years since this woman died. They may be able to find clues that before would never have been found.
It took weeks to get everything back. It was negative for fingerprints; however, they were able to prove that this person wore medical grade gloves because a small piece of blue latex had gotten stuck to the inside of a folded portion of the duct tape.
What struck Candace as curious was the methodical and careful way that the body was placed inside the wrapping. The woman's hair was tidy, and her clothing neatly in place. The wrapping of the corpse was tight and tidy. Regular and perfect folds to encase her completely. The industrial garbage bags on the outside were very neatly taped. This person seemed to almost care. Like it was important that she be carefully wrapped, not to preserve her but it felt almost like tucking a child into bed. If not for the sloppy tearing of the bag by the backhoe this package would have been perfectly preserved. As such it slowed the decay of the corpse and preserved her more than an exposed one would. This made for an easier autopsy but an unclear date of death.
One fact that seemed out of place was, if he 'cared' so much for her to take his time bundling her, why dispose of her in a garbage dump? That didn't add up for her.
Candace thought it was time to contact the other officers that worked the case with her before. She knew Johnson had retired and moved over to Colorado; she would have to get a hold of personnel to get a forwarding phone number. Branson passed away just a couple of years ago from a heart attack and, if she could recall correctly there was a young rookie that worked the case with her. She looked into the case file and found his name, Anderson. He wasn't here anymore, but she would have to find out where he was transferred to, so she could follow up with him as well.
One quick phone call and she had the number. Bozeman PD. She was quickly transferred to a detective that was working missing persons cases.
"Detective Smythe" was the answer.
A different body a different time. Who did this?
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