39 years old, 21 years in prison, all charges dropped

Kenneth Ireland was still a teenager when he was convicted for the rape and murder of a 30-year-old mother of four, Barbara Pelkey. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. This month prosecutors dropped all charges against him after DNA evidence ruled him out as the perpetrator of the crime. In a similar case, …

26 years in prison … because of a dog

When Bill Dillon was convicted of murder in 1981, DNA testing wasn’t available. Instead, investigators and prosecutors relied on the testimony of John Preston and his supposedly infallible scent-tracking German-Shepherd, Harrass 2. According to Preston, Harrass 2 repeatedly connected Dillon’s scent to the killer’s bloody t-shirt, was able to track Dillon from a paper he …

Does he know where the bodies are?

Scott Kimball has a long history with disappearances. In 2002, Kimball was in jail for writing bad checks. While there he offered authorities information about his cellmate, Steven Ennis, whom police suspected of being involved in a drug ring. In return for Kimball’s services as an informant, the FBI released him and began paying him …

Convicted for Murder … When There Was No Murder

Back in 1819, the technology to find and analyze DNA evidence didn’t exist. But for the Boorn brothers, it wouldn’t have made a difference; there was no DNA evidence to find. Two Vermont brothers, Stephen and Jesse Boorn, were convicted for the murder of their brother-in-law, Richard Colvin. But Colvin’s body was never found. There …

DNA links seven murders and counting

Police in Milwaukee have linked a man’s DNA to seven unsolved murders committed between 1986 and 2007. Six of the victims were prostitutes, the seventh a runaway involved in the drug trade. A state crime lab may yet link the same offender to at least 23 other unsolved prostitute murders with similar characteristics. Unfortunately, while …