posted
I read that already -- I think they made it pretty clear that they questioned him for two hours, but had nothing to hold him on. They hadn't found the bodies yet. So they really did all they could...
quote: Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's blood or rust or red paint."
Blood or rust?! or paint? You don't need a crime lab to figure that out. I don't think.
Posts: 2756 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Okay, I'm gonna plug for a buddy of mine. Go to the following link if you want to read a blog on this. Actually a pretty good blog. wunderkrautPosts: 232 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
With all that stuff he had and with it looking like blood you’d think you would have your local CSI come and test it out. Heck look the blood test kits are only $35 http://www.csi-supply.net/index.asp?cat1=952&cat2=1147&good=1147# And any doc office or med place would have had the kits that test for blood in stool. Those are instant results. Just seems to me that once you found out it was blood you could hold him for at least a few days.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Yea, I wonder how differently this would be reported if he hadn't committed a crime. "US citizen illegally detained and tortured for hours at border; personal items confiscated"
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
So you’re telling me you don’t want cops, or border patrol, to detain people they find with bloody objects until you can find out what’s going on? Even if it would have turned out to not be human blood he still could have been held until it was cleared up. Killing even animals with a chain saw might not be legal. I bet if you were pulled over with a bloody knife in the back seat you might be detained for a while. And how is detained being tortured? If it all clears up then what’s the harm.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
The point is, Jay -- They DID detain him -- as long as possible -- and search for something to hold him for -- that is clear. His crime was not known yet, so there was no way they could continue holding him!
quote: Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released. During that time, he said, customs agents employed "every conceivable method" to check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to re-enter the country.
Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ...
posted
I have a dear frind who went hunting, and was driving back covered in rabbit blood. He was pulled over and charges were created against him because, of course, he must be up to something - he was dressed in all black and covered in blood.
Except he wasn't. All charges were dropped against him ultimately, but it took a year of his life and thousands of dollars he didn't have to fight it. It isn't right to hold someone without proof of a crime, at the very least.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
2 hours isn’t being detained very long. He had a bloody chainsaw!!!!! They needed to test it. Find out if it was human blood. Sorry to hear about your friend Katharina. That should have been cleared up with a simple test in a matter of hours, not a year. What if this guy they let go would have gone and killed again? Oh yeah, we saw him with that bloody chain saw, but couldn't test it since it would inconvenience him. I’m not saying to hold him forever or what not. I’m saying hold him, test what you found, and find out what is going on. Once you tested the chainsaw and saw it was blood you could have held him on that. Once you tested further and found it was human blood you could hold him even longer. This all could have been done easily in a matter of hours.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I can undestand that Katharina's friend could be covered in rabbit blood from hunting.
I'm having a hard time understanding what legitimate reason anyone could have for a bloody chainsaw, whether it was human blood or not.
I don't know many people who do their own butchering of animals and use chainsaws.
And carving up live animals with a chain saw is also a crime, is it not? IN other words, any blood on a chainsaw is suspicious, whether human or not in my book.
Two hours is not enough time to determine what was going on. He should have been held long enough for tests to be done and more investigation before allowed into the country.
I gotta agree with Jay on this one.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:Originally posted by kaioshin00: Blood or rust?! or paint? You don't need a crime lab to figure that out. I don't think.
Dried blood can indeed look like rust or paint. We spot dried blood splatters that were in obscure locations (so they could not be seen right away) from time to time at my work. We'll ask each other, "Is that blood?" "Dunno, better clean it up anyway."
Once we apply a soaked bleach rag to it, 80% of them turn out to be blood (they become moist again with the soaked rags and we see the blood smear), but it can be hard to tell at times.
Because most people's exposure to excessive blood is from the movies, many believe it retains the same red color in the real world, even when dried. Blood can come out really bright or a dull dark red (depending if it's a vein or arterial bleed), and can look almost black when pooled in several layers or dried.
Posts: 339 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
He wasn't allowed to bring the chainsaw or other items in "U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres."
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
That picture reminds me of the bad guy from Highlander...The fact that he was carrying that kind of weaponry, and had just decapitated someone, doesn't help to dispell that idea.
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quote:Fulton's daughter found her father's body two days later. They also found what appeared to be severe electrical damage to most of the house. "It's almost like lightning struck inside this little kitchen," one officer was reported to say. His car was later found in a gravel pit on a highway leading to the U.S. border. Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing.
posted
Finally found another link that wasn't just a repeat of the same report, and it adds a little more to the story plus it has a photo of the poor victim.
Yeah - this guy had a history -- he already had an assault charge against him, and a probation officer that said he shouldn't have weapons -- as well as many people who believed he was mentally ill. He was a real loony.
I don't know why THOSE kinds of things couldn't have been relayed to the border guards as reasons to keep him. I'm glad they caught him before he could hurt more people.
posted
Yeah, the fact that he was supposed to be at a hearing that day on the assault charges wasn't enough to hold him? Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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So somebody actually picked up a hitchhiker who looked like that guy, and who was carrying a bloody chain saw and a sword?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by kaioshin00: Blood or rust?! or paint? You don't need a crime lab to figure that out. I don't think.
Dried blood can indeed look like rust or paint. We spot dried blood splatters that were in obscure locations (so they could not be seen right away) from time to time at my work. We'll ask each other, "Is that blood?" "Dunno, better clean it up anyway."
Once we apply a soaked bleach rag to it, 80% of them turn out to be blood (they become moist again with the soaked rags and we see the blood smear), but it can be hard to tell at times.
Because most people's exposure to excessive blood is from the movies, many believe it retains the same red color in the real world, even when dried. Blood can come out really bright or a dull dark red (depending if it's a vein or arterial bleed), and can look almost black when pooled in several layers or dried.
Oh ... wasn't aware of that Posts: 2756 | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote:Fulton's daughter found her father's body two days later. They also found what appeared to be severe electrical damage to most of the house. "It's almost like lightning struck inside this little kitchen," one officer was reported to say. His car was later found in a gravel pit on a highway leading to the U.S. border. Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing.
posted
I dunno what planet those Customs officials are from: possession of brass knuckles is a felony all by it's lonesome little self. Same with a sharpened sword: though there are exceptions, that law would have provided grounds to hold the dude until he could prove that his intended use was one of those exceptions.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Think of blood the same way you do water. If you scoop a glass of it out of the ocean it appears clear. If you look at the ocean, it appears blue due to it reflecting the sky. If you dive deep enough into the sea it turns black due to all the materials absorbing and reflecting the light back up the deeper you go.
Blood is much the same way. When you see some horrible internet pic of someone killed in war or crashed on their motorcycle, you can see a lot of red blood around that person. That's because it’s probably fresh, but also because like a small amount of water, the light can penetrate it an illuminate all the red blood cells within the plasma.
As it dries it becomes more dense and the cells pack more tightly together, blocking out much of the light. It gets darker, and if it was thick enough to begin with it will go a deep, dark, red or totally black. The reason it's always bright red in the movies is so people don't get confused at what they are looking at.
So dried blood stains on a chainsaw may appear black with very thin red edges (like how old rusted metal or fresh red paint could appear). And dried blood is often flaky like dead skin (and like rust or non-latex paints).
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