Back from the Dead

by Donna Weaver

Bennie Harden Wint was declared dead nearly 20 years ago when he disappeared while swimming off Daytona Beach, FL on September 25, 1989. Wint and his then-fiancee, Patricia Lynn Hollingsworth, had left their home in South Carolina after Hurricane Hugo, and talked of their wedding plans while staying in Daytona, according to the original police report. He also left behind a grieving mother and 4-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

Wint's body was just found—alive—during a routine traffic stop in North Carolina where he has been living with his common-law wife and teenage son under an assumed name.

Last Saturday, when a patrol officer pulled him over for having a broken light on his license plate in Weaverville, North Carolina, the man said his name was James Sweet, but could produce nothing to prove his identity. Weaverville police Sgt. Stacy Wyatt became suspicious when Sweet's name did not show up in any official databases, and arrested and booked him under the name "John Doe" for suspicion of driving without a license and giving false information.

Under questioning, the man admitted he faked his own death in 1989, and that he was in fact Bennie Wint. Wint explained to Wyatt how easily he made his getaway. "He told me he swam to the shore in knee deep water, walked off and never looked back."

Wyatt was skeptical at first, and did a little research on the Internet. What he found was a post on PeopleSite.com from a woman named Christi McKnight who said she was Wint's daughter. In the posting, dated February 5, 2007, McKnight said she was four years old at the time of her father's disappearance and that she was searching for her father in hopes of helping her dying grandmother.

"Doctors say she should have been dead a year ago, but they say she's holding on to one thing, and we believe that she is holding on to my father," McKnight wrote. "Benny is believed to have been seen in Florida back in '89 - '90 and some have said they've seen him in Hartsville, South Carolina, where his family is from."

Evidently, Wint's family members were not the only ones who had doubts about his death. Volusia County Beach Patrol Officer Scott Petersohn stated, "Even back then, it struck everybody as odd that we didn't recover the victim," he said. "That almost never happens." Drowning victims who aren't immediately found by the patrol, he said, typically are located floating in the water by the sheriff's helicopter or are washed up by the tide days later.

Wint's story was confirmed when he was positively identified through fingerprints taken when he was arrested on the current traffic violations. His reason for perpetrating his "disappearing act"? Wint was "paranoid" because he believed he was wanted on charges stemming from his involvement in a large-scale drug trafficking ring in South Carolina and he also feared for his life. Authorities confirmed there are no outstanding warrants for Wint.

At this time, officials say Wint in not facing any charges for faking his own death.

News reports do not say whether or not Wint has made contact with his dying mother or daughter who have been going through a living hell these past 20 years. Having a loved one myself missing for over 25 years, I understand their agony all too well. What I can't imagine doing is reconciling in my mind both being grateful he is alive and the pain of realizing he knowingly, callously, and selfishly put us through all we have suffered.

Toxicology: Poison, Drugs, and Chemicals

by Andrea Campbell

Q: Can you tell me more about toxicology and what a forensic toxicologist is all about?

A: The busiest department in a crime lab, hands down, has to be forensic toxicology. This science is essentially a specialty area of analytical chemistry, so think vials, jars, and lots of machinery to test them when you consider this area's discipline.

Toxicology, per se, is the science of adverse effects of chemicals, either natural or man-made, on living organisms. The job of a toxicologist is to detect and identify foreign chemicals in the body, with a particular emphasis on toxic or hazardous substances. There are several sub-groups of toxicology expert: a descriptive toxicologist performs toxicity tests to evaluate the risk that exposure poses to humans; a mechanistic toxicologist attempts to determine how substances exert deleterious effects on living organisms; and the regulatory toxicologist judges whether or not a substance has low enough risk to justify making it available to the public.

Toxins then, are materials that threaten the life of living things. Poisons are a subgroup of toxins. Toxic materials can come in many forms such as gas, liquids, solids, animal, mineral and vegetable. Toxins can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin and organs. Some toxins have medicinal value and, if this is the case, the amount that is taken is significant to health, but—if abused, may cause irreparable damage. Toxins may have antidotes, but some do not.

Some toxins may disguise or mask themselves, whereas some are identifiable by their symptoms. Here are a couple of examples of toxins and their symptoms:

Acids (nitric, hydrochloric, sulfuric) = Burns around mouth, lips, nose
Aniline (hypnotics, nitrobenzene) = Skin of face and neck quite dark
Atropine (Belladonna, Scopolamine) = Pupil of eye dilated
Arsenic (metals, mercury, copper, etc.) = Severe, unexplained diarrhea
Carbon Monoxide = Skin is bright cherry red
Cyanide = Quick death, red skin, odor of peach
Nicotine = Convulsion
Opiates = Pupil of eye contracted
And so forth.

The true incidence of poisoning in the United States is unknown. Approximately 2 million cases are voluntarily reported to poison control centers each year, and officially, a rather steady figure of about 700 deaths by poisoning is reported each year. Children under age 6 account for the majority of poisonings reported, but adults account for the majority of deaths by poisoning, most of which is intentional rather than accidental.

Some common reported poisons are: household cleaning supplies, antidepressant medications, analgesics (aspirin, acetaminophen), street drugs, cough and cold remedies, cardiovascular drugs, plants, alcohol, gases and fumes, pesticides, asthma therapies, industrial chemicals, sedatives, food poisoning, insects and other animals.

It is not easy to distinguish toxic from nontoxic substances. A key principle in toxicology is the dose-response relationship. The toxic effects of substances are not side effects. "Side effects" are defined as non-deleterious, such as dry mouth, for example. Toxic effects are the undesirable results of a direct effect, like the result of too much stress on the body; in other words, the body is upset by physical, chemical or biological agents and it manifests itself as a reaction. Toxic reactions are classified as one of three reactions: pharmacological—with injury to the central nervous system; pathological—with injury to the liver; and genotoxic—causing the creation of benign or malignant neoplasms or tumors.

For certification as a toxicologist, an individual must possess a Ph.D. or doctorate in one of the natural sciences. Undergraduate degrees must also be in either biology or chemistry, usually. Certification is bestowed by the American Board of Forensic Toxicology and the expert may use the title of “Diplomate,” which must be renewed every three years. Board-certified toxicologists will never face difficulties qualifying as an expert witness. State crime laboratories may not have a toxicologist on staff, their functions being performed by a criminalist, a biochemist, a forensic biologist or other technician. These personnel would typically have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in any of the sciences.

A forensic toxicologist is normally presented with preserved samples of body fluids, stomach contents, and organ parts. They will have access to the coroner’s report which should contain information on various signs and symptoms as well as other postmortem data. The toxicologist needs a thorough knowledge of how the body alters or metabolizes drugs because few substances leave the body in the same state as when they entered.

Hooray for toxicologists, an overworked group and a much needed discipline in the realm of forensic science.

To Believe or Not to Believe

by Pat Brown

The opening paragraph of the New York Times story reads:

A man shot and killed his wife and five young children before taking his own life Tuesday, apparently out of despair after the couple lost their jobs at a hospital, the police and city officials said.

This kind of story is sadly no longer out of the ordinary and, in these harsh economic times, many people feel the man must have been driven to take out his family; his world must have fallen apart and he no longer knew how he could care for his wife and children.

Mr. Ervin A. Lupoe, the family mass murderer, explains his actions in a two-page suicide fax to a local news station. He tells us because "he was despondent over a job situation and he saw no reasonable way out," he and his wife started planning their own deaths. His wife then encouraged the murder of their children with her comment, "Why leave the children to a stranger?" Furthermore, Mr. Lupoe wrote, the manager who later fired the couple had told the two of them "You should have blown your brains out rather than come to work."

Okay, hold up here! Psychopath alert! Psychopath alert!

First of all there was a dispute with the boss. Why? We haven't heard. Next Mr. Lupoe not only blames his employer for his rash decision to off his family but also insinuates the boss was responsible for actually idea of the murder-suicide. Finally, he claims his wife told him to kill their children, the eight-year old, the five-year old twins, and the two-year-old twins.

One of the traits of psychopathy is a refusal to accept responsibility for one's actions. Mr. Lupoe did this three times over within his fax. Pathological lying is another and, in his fax, we see this clearly as well. We also find out that he was under investigation for lying about employment to get child care. Then, after he sent the fax, he called the police and claimed someone else has shot his family. He apparently has trouble deciding which false story to go with.

Lupoe once had been charged (though not prosecuted) for carrying a concealed weapon which indicates he may have difficulty being a law-abiding citizen, another trait of psychopathy. He also exhibits quite a bit of egocentric and grandiose thinking, which his actions expose. Not only did he commit a horrific crime, he essentially bragged about it to the media. Finally, the hallmark trait of psychopathy is a lack of empathy. When Mr. Lupoe coldbloodly shot six innocent people, five of them little children who trusted him, he qualified himself quite well as a psychopath who cares nothing for other human beings.

As a criminal profiler, one of my jobs is statement analysis which involves reading the words of an individual and discerning what the person is really saying, what he is trying to accomplish with his communication. Is he being honest and open? Is he applying spin to make himself look better? Is he trying to manipulate someone? Is he attempting to justify some action to another or, perhap, just to himself? What does his statement say about him?

Many times the words of a criminal are quite eye-opening if you don't take them at face value and spend some time examining them. A great example is serial killer Harvey Louis Carignano.

“… I had a teacher who used to sit at my desk and we would write dirty notes back and forth. I was either 13 or 14 at the time – and just show me a 14-year-old boy anywhere who wouldn’t willingly and happily sit in a schoolroom and exchange porno notes with his teacher. I never got to lay a hand on her without getting slapped, but she would keep me after school and make me stand before her while she masturbated and called me names and told me what she was going to make me do – none of her threats she ever kept, damn it! The bitch wouldn’t even let me masturbate with her! I took my penis out and she beat the living shit out of me! She had enormously large breasts. She was truly a cruel woman…” (Berry-Dee, 2003)

How much of any of this is t