Stray Cigarette Case Summary

1.) Title of Case:

Date:1983

Victim:Rodney Wyman

Suspect: Shawn Marsh

Summary:On the night of August 22nd, Rodney Wyman and his coworker were at a local motel watching television, when he heard a noise from the back room. When he got up to check it out he was approached by a gunman at the door. The gunman shot him in the chest and the shot was fatal. Twenty-three latent prints were collected and ran through the AFIS database,but no leads came back.Then, 27 years later, fingerprints were collected from the television set that the gunman had tried to steal but was unsuccessful at doing so. The fingerprints were ran through IAFIS. The prints matched a man named Shawn Marsh. Investigators located Marsh and collected fingerprints and palm prints from him. The prints were a match. In April of 2013 Marsh was put in prison

2.) Title of Case:Stray Cigarette helped solve 1997 Killing
Date:1997
Victim:Amber Gail Creek
Suspect: James P.

Eaton

Summary:In 1997 the body of a 14-year old girl was found in a Racine County(Wisconsin) marsh.Her name was Amber Gail Creek.Racine County identified the suspect as 36-year old James P. Eaton. For seventeen years investigators analyzed all evidence in the death of Amber, but they finally got a break in the case when investigators found fingerprints on the black plastic bag used to suffocate Amber. Investigators were able to track Eaton and pull one of his prints off one of his cigarettes. The fingerprints matched those found on the plastic bag and on the victim’s body.

3.)Title of Case:30-Year Old Murder Case solved

Date: 1978

Victim:Carroll

Bonnet
Suspect: Jerry Watson
Summary:In 1978 61-year old Carroll Bonnet was stabbed to death in his Omaha apartment. Police collected evidence including latent fingerprints and palm prints from the victim’s bathroom from where the suspect tried to wash off blood before he/she left the scene. The victim’s car was then stolen and later found in Illinois, but after more latent prints were collected, investigators couldn’t find any new leads. In late 2008, there was a new inquiry about the case, and one of the technicians ran the prints against the IAFIS database which had not been around back then. Within five hours, the results came back. The prints belonged to a man named, Jerry Watson, who was currently serving time on burglary charges.Jerry Watson was then arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

4.)Title of Case:Man Pleads guilty in 28-year old cold case
Date:February 20,1989
Victim:James”Richard” Layne
Suspect: Samuel Edward Reeves
Summary:On the night of February 20,1989, Layne and Reeves met a La Plaza Motel in Alabama, for consensual sex.When consent was violated, Reeves stabbed Layne 32 times in the arms, neck,chest, back, and abdomen. Motel staff found Layne, bloody and naked, with his left ring finger cut off. His wedding ring was gone along with the money in his wallet. At the scene there were many beer cans present, so police ran the fingerprints on each of the beer cans, and they came back as inconclusive. Bill Phillips, the lead investigator on the case sent the fingerprints to he Regional Organized Crime Information Center where the fingerprints were ran and compared to the fingerprint on file for Reeves’ recent DUI. The print was a match to Samuel Edward Reeves.