One family's pursuit of their daughter's killer
August 30, 2017 6:05 AM Subscribe
"The police knew he had a history of violence. They knew another girl had died in his bed. They knew the width of the sofa. Two people couldn’t sleep on that sofa. It all came out in the trial and the jury took six hours to find him guilty. Why did it take them so long to charge him?” [slGuardian] [CN: domestic abuse, murder]
It's weird too, it mentions the same investigating officer was at the scenes of both murders and didn't do his job at at least one. I felt sure the investigation would look into that, but it seems no dice.
posted by corb at 6:14 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by corb at 6:14 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Reminds me a little bit about this story, about a California man who seems to have been a serial killer. Nobody noticed until the third victim, and the police didn't act until the fourth one, because he killed women he dated, all of whom had serious problems with alcohol. It seems to be shockingly easy to get away with murder if you choose victims who are sufficiently marginal.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:31 AM on August 30, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:31 AM on August 30, 2017 [13 favorites]
Let's not sugarcoat this.
posted by mhoye at 6:47 AM on August 30, 2017 [25 favorites]
Firstly thank you for posting this article threetwentytwo. It probably would have escaped my attention otherwise and I glad you did. It is a well written article that raises a gamut of feelings.
'“You wake up in the middle of the night and you think of something,” she says. “It’s constantly on your mind. It’s always there in your head. I didn’t mind. We had to get it right. We knew we hadn’t been told the truth.” - Absolutely heartbreaking. Massive respect to Mr & Mrs Skelton whose overwhelming and total love for their daughter is clear for all to see. That love combined with the need to know the truth - however painful - is crystal clear. It is upsetting to think that not only did they have the unimaginable grief of losing a daugher to contend with - but an awful lot of obfuscation and continual incompetence by the investigating authorities which must have only massively exacerbated the pain.
mhoye - I don't mean to sound flippant but I take from that you think there is a pretty obvious answer to that question.
ArbitraryAndCapricious - By 'sufficently marginal' are you suggesting the police response was the way it was, partly, because the victim had been in rehab for a drinking problem?
Apologies if I am reading this thread wrongly.
posted by numberstation at 7:12 AM on August 30, 2017
'“You wake up in the middle of the night and you think of something,” she says. “It’s constantly on your mind. It’s always there in your head. I didn’t mind. We had to get it right. We knew we hadn’t been told the truth.” - Absolutely heartbreaking. Massive respect to Mr & Mrs Skelton whose overwhelming and total love for their daughter is clear for all to see. That love combined with the need to know the truth - however painful - is crystal clear. It is upsetting to think that not only did they have the unimaginable grief of losing a daugher to contend with - but an awful lot of obfuscation and continual incompetence by the investigating authorities which must have only massively exacerbated the pain.
mhoye - I don't mean to sound flippant but I take from that you think there is a pretty obvious answer to that question.
ArbitraryAndCapricious - By 'sufficently marginal' are you suggesting the police response was the way it was, partly, because the victim had been in rehab for a drinking problem?
Apologies if I am reading this thread wrongly.
posted by numberstation at 7:12 AM on August 30, 2017
numberstation, I believe mhoye and AribitraryAndCapricious are musing bitterly on how the police fail to prosecute crimes against women, specifically domestic violence.
posted by domo at 7:36 AM on August 30, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by domo at 7:36 AM on August 30, 2017 [16 favorites]
Not speaking for ArbitraryAndCapricious, but I'd bet also that the police response was the way it was, partly, because they saw two alcoholics and didn't really care what happened.
But Susan Nicholson had parents who cared and were dogged against all odds to find out what happened. Robert Trigg killed one other woman and beat two others without much repercussion; he was even in a relationship when he was arrested. So, yes, apparently you can get away with murder if you choose to murder someone who is either isolated (ie, marginal) or doesn't have pushy relatives.
And even though Susan Nicholson's parents were successful in the end, who's to say what would have happened if they were foreigners or people of color, and no one gave them the minimal due diligence that Nicholson's parents got.
It's really shocking how lax the police were in this case, but I would really like to hear from the original officer in his own weasel words why he decided not to investigate, knowing Trigg's history as he did.
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:51 AM on August 30, 2017 [13 favorites]
But Susan Nicholson had parents who cared and were dogged against all odds to find out what happened. Robert Trigg killed one other woman and beat two others without much repercussion; he was even in a relationship when he was arrested. So, yes, apparently you can get away with murder if you choose to murder someone who is either isolated (ie, marginal) or doesn't have pushy relatives.
And even though Susan Nicholson's parents were successful in the end, who's to say what would have happened if they were foreigners or people of color, and no one gave them the minimal due diligence that Nicholson's parents got.
It's really shocking how lax the police were in this case, but I would really like to hear from the original officer in his own weasel words why he decided not to investigate, knowing Trigg's history as he did.
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:51 AM on August 30, 2017 [13 favorites]
ArbitraryAndCapricious - By 'sufficently marginal' are you suggesting the police response was the way it was, partly, because the victim had been in rehab for a drinking problem?Yeah, possibly. All women are vulnerable, but we aren't equally vulnerable. I'm not trying to blame victims here: I think it's reprehensible that the cops are more likely to write some people off. But it's true. If you want to get away with murder, kill a homeless person. Kill someone with a known substance abuse problem, even if they're in recovery. Kill a very poor person, a person of color, and/or a person with a disability. Kill someone who is estranged from his or her family. Kill a woman you are dating who is any or several of the above things.
Robert Trigg's final victim was from an upper-middle-class background, and she was in regular contact with her family when she disappeared. If that weren't true, he might still be at it.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:05 AM on August 30, 2017 [17 favorites]
domo - ok I take the point about police failure to prosecute crimes against women, specificially domestic violence. Although I would make that a more general police failure to prosecute against domestic violence regardless of gender. That said I did not really take that from the article which is why I sought clarification.
It seems my reading is more in line with maggiemaggie. In a world of beautifully shot, scandi-noir crime dramas where the detectives go above and beyond to the nth degree every single time and to significant personal detriment. Perfectly formed with pace, twists and turns but always, always, an ultimate resolution - and within an allotted timeframe. It is easy to understand how a divergence between expectation and reality can be formed.
However, having read this article it is clear that the police were - at the absolute very least - massively incompetent on multiple occasions. Outrageously so. Corb - yes the fact the investigating officer was at the scene of both murders jumped out at me.
The most optimistic reading I can given regarding the police response is that they undoubtedly took the line of least resistance. A more cynical view would tend towards at least a single incidence of individual corruption, if not in fact multiple.
posted by numberstation at 8:07 AM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
It seems my reading is more in line with maggiemaggie. In a world of beautifully shot, scandi-noir crime dramas where the detectives go above and beyond to the nth degree every single time and to significant personal detriment. Perfectly formed with pace, twists and turns but always, always, an ultimate resolution - and within an allotted timeframe. It is easy to understand how a divergence between expectation and reality can be formed.
However, having read this article it is clear that the police were - at the absolute very least - massively incompetent on multiple occasions. Outrageously so. Corb - yes the fact the investigating officer was at the scene of both murders jumped out at me.
The most optimistic reading I can given regarding the police response is that they undoubtedly took the line of least resistance. A more cynical view would tend towards at least a single incidence of individual corruption, if not in fact multiple.
posted by numberstation at 8:07 AM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
It seems to be shockingly easy to get away with murder if you choose victims who are sufficiently marginal.
I was recently reading about John Wayne Gacy and it's astonishing how incompetent and apathetic the police in multiple jurisdictions were, likely because Gacy's vicims were young gay/bi men. Gacy had repeated run-ins with cops related to his murders but nothing ever really came of it, and it was so bad that there were two separate incidents where victims were kidnapped and brutally assaulted by Gacy, but were then released and went to the police who then did nothing and didn't investigate Gacy.
posted by Sangermaine at 8:26 AM on August 30, 2017 [16 favorites]
I was recently reading about John Wayne Gacy and it's astonishing how incompetent and apathetic the police in multiple jurisdictions were, likely because Gacy's vicims were young gay/bi men. Gacy had repeated run-ins with cops related to his murders but nothing ever really came of it, and it was so bad that there were two separate incidents where victims were kidnapped and brutally assaulted by Gacy, but were then released and went to the police who then did nothing and didn't investigate Gacy.
posted by Sangermaine at 8:26 AM on August 30, 2017 [16 favorites]
There's a case from a few years ago in the DC area where a guy's mother committed suicide and he was both the sole heir to her estate and beneficiary of her life insurance policy. Then his girlfriend was murdered and he changed his name to her son's name and tried (but failed) to collect her life insurance policy. Then his son drowned under suspicious circumstances and he tried to collect $500k life insurance policy he had taken out. He was finally arrested for murdering his son and held without bond for four years before it went to trial.
He was recently sentenced to life in prison, but the trial was a shitshow. The lead attorneys on both sides stepped down, the judge recused himself in the middle of it, the medical examiner's office changed their cause of death ruling from homicide to undetermined, there were accusations of witness tampering and police misconduct, there were jail-house informants who were ruled to be mentally incompetent to testify. Along the way, the guy was indicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend.
If you like true crime reporting, the Washington Post has a five part series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and this Washingtonian article isn't too bad. The mother of the slain child was a reality show contestant and has a blog about her experience where she does not mince words.
My sister knows the family and even before the child died they all assumed that this guy was guilty of murdering his mother and his girlfriend, the police just didn't take those deaths seriously. It took a dead (male) toddler and his mother's advocacy to get this guy arrested. Her willingness to very publicly discuss the awful and embarrassing details of their relationship that made the police look twice at this guy.
posted by peeedro at 1:59 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]
He was recently sentenced to life in prison, but the trial was a shitshow. The lead attorneys on both sides stepped down, the judge recused himself in the middle of it, the medical examiner's office changed their cause of death ruling from homicide to undetermined, there were accusations of witness tampering and police misconduct, there were jail-house informants who were ruled to be mentally incompetent to testify. Along the way, the guy was indicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend.
If you like true crime reporting, the Washington Post has a five part series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and this Washingtonian article isn't too bad. The mother of the slain child was a reality show contestant and has a blog about her experience where she does not mince words.
My sister knows the family and even before the child died they all assumed that this guy was guilty of murdering his mother and his girlfriend, the police just didn't take those deaths seriously. It took a dead (male) toddler and his mother's advocacy to get this guy arrested. Her willingness to very publicly discuss the awful and embarrassing details of their relationship that made the police look twice at this guy.
posted by peeedro at 1:59 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]
One of the things that they tell you in rehab is to not date other people in rehab. That being said, I'm crying for this woman's poor family.
As an aside, fuck the Met.
posted by Sphinx at 2:10 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
As an aside, fuck the Met.
posted by Sphinx at 2:10 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm reminded of how thousands, if not millions, of rape kits areunprocessed and many of those have been lost. Women raised money so one jurisdiction - I think it was Chicago - could test a tiny percentage of those kits and they caught a bunch of serial rapists and a few murderers. It amazes me that so much police effort is spent on terrorizing innocent people of color while actual, provable crime goes uninvestigated.
posted by Deoridhe at 5:50 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Deoridhe at 5:50 PM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]
It amazes me that so much police effort is spent on terrorizing innocent people of color while actual, provable crime goes uninvestigated.
There are an awful lot of police who became police not to fight what crime actually is, but rather what their preconceptions of crime are.
posted by IAmUnaware at 6:14 PM on August 30, 2017 [7 favorites]
There are an awful lot of police who became police not to fight what crime actually is, but rather what their preconceptions of crime are.
posted by IAmUnaware at 6:14 PM on August 30, 2017 [7 favorites]
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Raise your hand if you can guess.
posted by mhoye at 6:11 AM on August 30, 2017 [15 favorites]