Chapter Twenty Seven:Kathy Kohm:Disappointed Again



Chapter 27

    Weeks later the answer came back from the lab. The biological material on Kathy’s clothes was found to be too degraded to get a full DNA profile of the perpetrator. Maybe it was too old.  Maybe it had been stored improperly.  Maybe there was just too little there to test.  For investigators it all came down to the bitter realization that they just could not get a good DNA profile with what they had and therefore could not make the necessary comparison.

    Investigators were crestfallen that they would not have an answer once and for all.  Kathy’s family, friends, and everyone who had searched for her were likewise disappointed.  Everyone who prayed and followed the news and hoped for this day would never get the justice that they wanted.

    We all want a simple story. We want a story to be cut and dry.  We want the bad guy to be caught and punished.  We want justice for those who have been wronged. We all want a nice neat ending that leaves us with a sense of closure.  But real life seldom gives us those perfectly satisfying endings.  No one got to feel that satisfaction when the test results finally came back.

    But it appeared that Gash didn’t need any test results. Gash had ended his own life because he knew what the answer was.  He didn’t need a test result to know the truth.  




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Danny Rouse:Serial Killer, Homegrown in Indiana

Image
       I think he liked seeing the damage he had inflicted. I think that might be a central reason why he killed.       After he strangled and stabbed his co-worker, Stephanie Wagner, in 2006; he went to work the very next day. He walked right into that restaurant like nothing was wrong.  I think he wanted to be there to witness the reactions people would have when the calls started coming asking if anyone had seen Stephanie. I think he liked seeing the devastation.    After he shot Nellie Mikesells through her window in the fall of 1974, he broke into her home. He didn’t steal anything. Police theorized at the time that he broke in to see what his bullet had done.    He shot Lela Hildebrandt as she drove by one night in October 1975. The shot to the left side of her face would cause her to veer off the road and total her car. Her injuries were first thought to be caused simply from the car accident....
Read more

Debra Wilhite:The Windmill Restaurant:Evansville

Image
         She worked at The Windmill Restaurant on Highway 41 and Highway 57. It was 1974. She was young and worked as a waitress like a lot of people do at that age.  It was hard work. She had long days on her feet carrying heavy trays of food. The Windmill was a busy restaurant at a busy crossroads.  They served home style cooking and were in business at that location for decades.     In addition to being physically demanding; waiting tables in 1974 was also emotionally draining. Men were always making passes at her, saying rude and lewd things and grabbing her. In 1974, many men didn’t see anything wrong with pinching a woman’s bottom.  It was seen as a flirtatious compliment.  They thought the woman should be flattered by the attention.     But Debra was just trying to earn a living.  She was only 19 and already had two daughters. She and her husband only had one car and were trying to ...
Read more

50:Brenda Banaski and Carrie Duncan

Image
                     Brenda Banaski    In my last post I wrote about a 15 year old girl from Gary. Annie Jean Powell had lived a life of crisis with seemingly no one in her corner.  She was murdered in Gary. Six months later and just a few blocks away another girl was murdered. The difference in how the newspapers covered the two stories is stark. One girl is black and her murder is dismissed because she is poor. One girl is white and her murder was covered extensively. It wasn’t fair. No one would begrudge the victims that got attention and resources. But, every case should have gotten attention and resources.     At the same time; police were stretched very thin and nothing in any of their training would prepare them for the huge rise in the numbers of violent crimes that the 1970’s and 1980’s would bring.    There isn’t anything we can do to change the past.  But we can go ...
Read more