For years and years the NHPD refused to tell anyone if indeed they had any actual forensic evidence with which to solve the crime. It is my opinion they were forced into this position -- a position that made it almost impossible for them to ask the public's help to solve the crime -- because they painted themselves into a corner by leaking a suspect's name to the press even before they had begun any sort of substantive investigation. This, I believe, is criminal.
Now, five years later, as regards forensics, we have the presence of a tan/brown van (Van de Velde drove a red Jeep), DNA found under Jovin's fingernails (that didn't match Van de Velde), and a foreign set of prints on a Fresca bottle (that also don't match Van de Velde). In other words, not only does the evidence not point to Van de Velde, it actually points squarely away from him. Worse, bordering on pathological, the NHPD tried to imply early in the investigation to a frightened public that cat hairs may link Van de Velde to the crime (even though he didn't own a cat), that a group wielding metal detectors found "evidence" outside Van de Velde's apartment (which turned out to be an obviously non-metallic drivers manual in a bush), and that he was too afraid to take a lie detector test (he took multiple tests and didn't fail a single one). I don't think jail time would be too harsh a sentence if, instead of being dumb as a stone, certain people purposely tried to throw him to the wolves to save face with the public over an obviously botched investigation.
As for today's revelation, at the very least, we'll have two individuals to find and question in the hopes one or both of them murdered Suzanne Jovin. If DNA can be extracted from the fingerprints that ends up matching the fingernail DNA, we can with a high degree of statistical accuracy conclude we've found the real killer... and conclusively clear James Van de Velde's name forever.
- Jeff |
