Murder without forensic evidence

In the early hours of 29 May 2012, Michelle Mockbee, a logistics support representative, was murdered. Investigators arrived and quickly locked down the facility, suspecting that the culprit was one of the 13 employees on site. Michelle’s husband, Dan Mockbee, second-in-command at the distribution centre, was also added to the suspect list. Dan was not at work, but the victim was his partner and he had facility access. Investigators began to eliminate these 14 from inquiries.

Unknown DNA profiles were obtained, but none matched the employee later arrested. Indeed, no latent prints, hair or fibre, toolmark or other conducted forensic evaluation were reported to provide a forensic link between this suspect and the crime. Linda Tally Smith, the Bourne County attorney that would later prosecute the case, said it was ‘like the game of Clue [Cluedo] … it’s a matter of accounting backwards and excluding people’.