CRIMINAL COLD CASES-FUGITIVES FINALLY BROUGHT TO JUSTICE-32-NANINE GRIMES

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NANINE GRIMES:
JUSTICE AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
IN RECENT YEARS, MANY COLD CASES HAVE BEEN SOLVED AFTER DECADES BY MATCHING DNA SAMPLES FROM THE SCENE OF THE CRIME WITH THAT OF CRIMINALS LISTED ON POLICE FILES. ADVANCES IN FORENSIC SCIENCE HAVE MEANT THAT VERY SMALL PIECES OF EVIDENCE THAT ARE TWENTY, THIRTY OR MORE YEARS OLD CAN NOW BE ANALYSED TO FIND THE PRESENCE OF DNA.

Police records have also been expanded and improved, so that now all convicted felons are listed on a database, with detailed information that includes their DNA profile. Sometimes these felons will have been picked up for very minor offences that may have nothing whatsoever to do with murder. But now, with computer technology, it is a relatively simple job to sift through the thousands of DNA profiles on the databases and match them up with a DNA sample from the scene of a crime.

Of course, in some cases, a murderer will not appear on the database, simply because he or she has not committed a felony since the killing; however, in most cases someone who has committed a major crime tends to continue to disobey the law, even if only in minor ways. In this way, a killer may indeed think they have got away with murder, and may sometimes walk free for many years, but they will eventually appear on a database, perhaps for forging a signature, or giving a false address, or some such small infraction of the law. Thus, ironically, through committing a minor felony they will be tracked down and charged with murder, after years of thinking that their brutal crime has been forgotten for good.

A vastly improved database linking police forces in the UK means that police can now match up a DNA profile – among other forms of identity, too – with a DNA sample found at the scene of the crime

Eighty stab wounds
One of the most dramatic such cases was that of Nanine Grimes, a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl who was murdered in the bedroom of her home in Adams County, Colorado, on 4 September 1980. She was found mutilated and covered in blood on her bed by her older sister, Deanna. Nanine was small in stature, but evidence showed that she had put up a brave fight against her attacker, since the man who killed her had bled copiously over his victim, and over the headboard of the bed where the murder took place. The evidence also showed that this had been a horrifying, frenzied attack: there were more than eighty stab wounds on Nanine's body.
Another sad aspect to cold cases: Troy Brownlow had decided to 'go straight'; he had settled down into a new job and was about to become a father when the crime he committed twenty-five years before re-emerged – and demanded justice

This brutal murder of a teenage girl traumatized the local community, but despite the efforts of the police, it took twenty-five years to track down a suspect for the murder. In April 2005, forty-two-year-old Troy Brownlow was arrested at a convenience store in Tucson, Arizona, and taken into police custody. At the time of his arrest, Brownlow was working as a personal trainer at a fitness centre, but he had a history of brushes with the law, and his DNA profile had been put on a database after his release from an Arizona prison. Incredibly, Brownlow's DNA profile matched that of blood samples taken from the scene of the crime where Nanine Grimes was murdered in 1982.

Drug and alcohol abuse
It turned out that Brownlow, now living in Tucson, had indeed been a neighbour of Nanine's in Adams County all those years ago. In fact, he had lived less than half a mile away from the Grimes' house. He had also been an acquaintance of Nanine's sister, Deanna. When told that Brownlow had been picked up as a suspect, Deanna Grimes commented that she had known him since third grade, and that they had graduated from Thornton High School together in 1982.

Since his schooldays, Brownlow had been in trouble with the law on numerous occasions. He had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, and had spent two years in prison in Arizona after being convicted of burglary. He had also spent time in jail in Arapahoe County for firing a bullet at the house of an ex-lover. His adult life had for many years been in chaos, but at the time of his arrest he insisted that he was trying to go straight. During his last spell in jail, he had spent his time quietly, reading, playing cards, and writing poetry. On being released, he had settled down in Tucson with his girlfriend, got a job as a personal trainer, and was looking forward to becoming a father.

White handkerchief a 'calling card'
In April 2005, Brownlow was charged with the murder of Nanine Grimes. There was some controversy over this, since he had been a juvenile at the time of the murder, but as many pointed out, since then he had had plenty of time as an adult to come forward and declare himself. However, when he was charged, Brownlow argued that although he had been present at the murder, he had not committed it.

In his own version of the story Brownlow said that he had been at the house several times with two of his schoolmates who were 'smitten' with Deanna, although he himself was not. On the afternoon of Nanine's death, he was out walking near the Grimes' house, and somehow got 'sucked into' the events that took place, though he would not explain how. While he was at the house, a big man, unknown to him, appeared. Brownlow described the stranger as 'a rough and tumble kind of guy' and 'a good-sized dude'. He then told how he had become frightened and run out of the back door, jumping over the fence and cutting himself as he did.

DNA mapping: forensic science is now sufficiently advanced that tiny pieces of evidence can be analysed for the presence of DNA many years after the crime has been committed

Expressing his remorse Brownlow went on to say that he had felt guilty about not reporting the crime ever since it happened. On one occasion, he had mentioned it to a friend over the telephone when he was in jail. He claimed that he bitterly regretted not having contacted the police at the time, or since, to come forward as a witness, but said that he had been afraid to do so. He said that he wished he could have apologized to Deanna Grimes 'for being a coward'. He also claimed that he had tried to stop the murder but failed.

Brownlow pointed out several anomalies in the case, such as the fact that the mattress from the bed had gone missing since the murder. He also alluded to the fact that, according to police reports, the murderer had placed a white handkerchief on the body as a kind of 'calling card', and that later, a 'taunting letter' had been sent to police. This indicated, he said, that a cold-blooded murderer had done the deed, not an inexperienced, frightened high school boy such as he was at the time.
Nevertheless, Brownlow was charged with murder and sent to trial.