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Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:38:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: "keith sargent"
Subject: Re: What If?
To: "Larry Hanna"
CC: "Mike Thompson"
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Thank you for your prompt response, Det. Hanna,

I apologize for misspelling your name. I should have paid more attention. Owen Worstell, my uncle, whom you've talked to, always called me "Kieth" in his e-mails. I'd forgotten how much it bothered me. I won't make that mistake again.

> 2. We canvassed the apartments on Sunrise.

That is a claim you, Sgt. Thompson, and Lt. Roberts have all made, but all of you have refused to back it up with any details. I only want the answers to three questions: 1) How many people live on Isabelle and Sunrise? 2) How many people did Metro talk to on Isabelle and Sunrise? 3) At what percent coverage do you consider a neighborhood canvassed? 20%, 50%, 70%, 90%?

You didn't talk to my next door neighbor (who had an attempted break-in a few days before my mother's body was found), until I told you about it. I learned that of 9 people that live on Isabelle near my mom, Metro officers only talked to 4 of them. "Canvass" means to "examine in detail" and the evidence I have indicates Metro has yet to do that. Do you consider an area canvassed if Metro has talked to less than 50% of the people?

> We never assumed the persons responsible for your mother's death did
> not come from the apartments, we found no leads there indicating they did.

Yes, I know. There were no muddy footprints coming through the backyard going around to the front door. There was no sign of forced entry. From those, and a lack of other clues, you, Det. Rogers, and Sgt. Thompson thought it was more likely the murderer was someone she knew. (But she knew very few people. If she didn't do the work herself, it usually didn't get done). And because you had other cases and your time was limited, you focused on who she knew, and hoped that fingerprints and DNA might be useful. But they weren't, and the case is still unsolved.

Did you look for any cigarette butts in the backyard or around the outside of the house? Was the backyard fence dusted for fingerprints, in case someone had recently climbed over it? Did you look for footprints in the soil near the backyard fence? Did you talk to the people living in the second story apartment overlooking my mother's yard?

If you didn't look for that kind of evidence, then I'm not surprised you didn't find any leads. When you don't look for something, that almost guarantees you won't find it!

> 3. Those apartments are highly transient with people moving in and out all the time; most of
> them undocumented and, true, the people listed are not necessarily the ones living there.

Yes, but I learned Metro did a survey about four years ago in that area and it found that even though the people living there move frequently, they stay in the same area. In other words, they move from one apartment to another, but stay on Sunrise. Therefore, I was told not to give up hope because most of the people who lived on Sunrise a year ago, are probably still there, just in a different apartment.

Would you like me to get you more information about that survey? Would you reconsider if you saw it?

> 4. We mailed color flyers to the entire area around your mother's residence. Not one response.

Why not do it again? Why not put my mom's picture on it this time? Why not paste them up on telephone poles like they do with dog and cat pictures? Why not have someone personally hand them out? (If you were the murderer and you saw that flyer first, wouldn't you throw it away before anyone else in your family saw it?)

What if I buy a billboard ad for a week or a month in that area? (Why didn't I think of that before? Why didn't you suggest I do that? Why doesn't Metro do that?)

> 5. I'll talk to the area officers who patrol the area and when they arrest drug dealers / buyer, I'll
> ask them to question them about your mother's death.

Thank you. But why won't Metro send an undercover officer out there?

> We treat all cases as the most important.

Stop playing word games. If *all* cases are the most important, then that means they are equal in importance, and you've just contradicted yourself. In December, you spent a lot more hours working on my mother's case than you did in September. Maybe my mother's case is still important to you, but it certainly has a lower priority than other recent cases you are working on.

From your response, I don't have to read between the lines. No one from Metro is planning to go back and talk to anyone on Isabelle or Sunrise. No one from Metro is planning to look at the apartment manager's books to find out who moved out in December. No one from Metro is being sent to do any undercover work to investigate the murder. Metro is not planning to put out another flyer to publicize the murder and the reward. In other words, there is nothing more you or Det. Rogers are actively planning to do to investigate this case, correct? (Which is about the lowest priority a case can have).

Sincerely,

Keith Sargent