The next morning, Duncan texts me before work. “Look at the Mail Tribune. Evidence got ruined.”
With a sinking feeling, I turn on my laptop.
WITH EVIDENCE DISCARDED, NEW LEADS SOUGHT IN DEATHS OF TWO
Nearly fourteen years after the deaths of twenty-year-old Naomi Benson and twenty-one-year-old Terry Weeks in the Cascade Range, friends and family are hoping that the recent discovery of some of Weeks’s remains will help jump-start the cold case. Weeks had long been suspected in Benson’s murder, but now authorities believe both were killed by the same person.
Medford’s chief of police is asking for help in finding their killer. “No matter how small or insignificant it may seem to somebody, it could be an important lead,” says Chief Stephen Spaulding. He says he wants to know of any individuals who changed their patterns since the murders—maybe moved, quit their jobs, or stopped visiting the forest where the bodies were found.
Although advances have been made in retrieving even minute amounts of DNA in cold cases, Spaulding said that won’t be possible here. “A few years ago we had a pipe break in the evidence room, and it left some case files completely waterlogged. Unfortunately, this was one of those cases. All the fabric items associated with those cases—including Naomi’s clothing and the tarp she was found in—became severely contaminated with mold and had to be discarded.”
So that’s it, then. No fibers. No fingerprints. No DNA.
But I think about what Jason said, what the police chief asked. I wonder if anyone has pointed out to him just how much Richard’s life has changed since my parents’ murders.