Why is Keeping Children Safe Up For Debate?

by Dr. Michelle Golland

Why are we still debating whether children under the age of 13 should be allowed to walk alone to and from school? Is keeping our children safe really up for debate?

As a clinical psychologist, I often counsel victims of violent crime. Given the risks that children face in our time, it is naive and simply irresponsible to argue, as Lenore Skenazy does in her book Free-Range Kids, that because we were all raised in the 1970s in a "free" way, our kids should be as well.

In the '70s, our generation also didn't believe in sex education for our children and believed that being gay was a choice and should be demonized. We also didn't believe domestic violence was a problem, that the Catholic Church would never put children in harm's way, and seat belts and car seats weren't mandatory. Many things over the last 40 years–through studies, our intelligence, our emotional reactions, and plain mothers' intuition–have simply become obvious at this point in time. One of them is that young children should not be left alone in a public place–whether it is walking home from school or a friend's house, playing in a park, or playing in the front yard unsupervised. Would any of you even question putting your child in a car seat or forcing them to buckle up when you get into a car? Is that too restrictive? Not free enough for your taste?

I believe what is often the motivator for these free-living parents is that by allowing their kids to be independent, it frees up the parents to focus on themselves and also saves them the costs of childcare. The parents are simply choosing their own independence over their children's safety.

I do not agree that depriving our children of the freedom to walk home alone from school quells their sense of independence. Children develop independence in many ways that don't put them at risk. For example, when your kids choose their extracurricular activities–the clothes they wear, how they wear their hair, the decor of their bedroom, or the games the family plays on game night–this, in my opinion, gives your child a strong sense of independence and power at much less risk. The experience of independence is developed across time and in age-appropriate and safe ways. The argument that allowing a 9 year old to ride alone on public transportation promotes independence is ignorant and irresponsible. My 9-year-old son begs me to stay home alone while I take his sister to dance class. I in no way believe that is his cry for independence or that I should even consider it for a minute to promote his independence. He is a 9-year-old boy who wants to stay home and play Wii for as long as he can.

By saying this, I am in no way blaming the mother of Leiby Kletzsky. She is a single mother and these are very difficult issues to deal with. I am sure she would agree that if at all possible she would prefer to have her 8-year-old be with someone on his way to and from school. We can't expect an 8 year old to be able to handle dealing with a stranger, alone on a street, because, again, he is a child. I think we should look to these issue when thinking about giving children the "freedom" Lenore Skenazy is pushing for. Don't you?

You see, it is about maturity and ability to deal with different contingencies in one's environment. Younger children do not have the brain development to deal with issues like adults do. It is that simple. They can be manipulated and lured much easier than adults, which is why they are at greater risk.

It is sad that we live in an at-risk society. However, as we have seen on the news, there are many sex offenders living among us. And we simply cannot afford to place our kids in harm's way under the guise of "letting them live free."

There are two tracks to deal with sexual offenders:

1. Community Information and Protection of Children
This is composed of access to information regarding the location of registered sexual offenders, and includes where they can live within range of schools, libraries and parks. It also includes the enactment of the Amber Alert system and Megan laws.

I believe we need to take this further. We should have national guidelines for the training of our children in schools on how to be safe and protect themselves as much as possible from sexual predators. We need to create ways for our children to get to and from school with adult supervision.
Our schools should be community centers with access to after-care programs for working parents. It is imperative that we as a society deal with the issue of after-school care in a progressive and aggressive manner.

I do not think that it is paranoia to say that we should provide GPS devices for our children. In the case of Elizabeth Olten, the police were able to locate her body because of her cell phone. There are many GPS devices that you can give to your children that would enable the authorities to help locate your child. Devices can be placed in shoes or in backpacks and could be monitored by the Global Positioning Satellite System immediately. As we know, when a child goes missing, time is of the essence. We place a greater emphasis on locating our cars or our cell phones than our kids. Again, it's a risk-reward issue. To me, it's a no-brainer.

2. Sentencing and Civil Commitment of Child Sexual Offenders
We should all be upset at the differing sentencing guidelines for sexual offenders. I believe we need to make sexual crimes against children a federal offense, which would automatically mandate sentencing guidelines that are uniform for all states.

Mandatory federal sentences for child sexual abuse should be similar to Wisconsin's tough sexual offender statutes that include the following: Jessica's Law legislation (created in memory of Jessica Lunsford, who was kidnapped and killed by a sex offender who did not register in Florida) imposes a minimum 25-year sentence for those convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a child. Another measure passed by Wisconsin lawmakers provides judges with the authority to give life sentences to offenders twice convicted of first-degree sexual assault (the previous maximum was 40 years). With the high rate of repeat offending by child sexual predators, it is imperative that sentencing guidelines are used to protect our children from pedophiles.

Kansas has enacted the Sexually Violent Predator Act of 1994, which was passed in response to concerns about recidivism rates among sex offenders. Under the law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997, the state can commit individuals who are likely to engage in predatory acts of violence because of a mental abnormality or personality disorder. Few confined sex offenders are ever released. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy has followed the issue since that state passed a civil commitment law in 1990. As of December 2004, the Institute reports that 3,493 people have been held for evaluation as sexually violent predators or committed for treatment, and 427 individuals have been discharged or released. This seems like a good alternative to keep sexual predators off the streets, but it is far more expensive than prison. Civil-commitment legislation was introduced in South Dakota as well, but lawmakers decided to create a no-parole provision for certain repeat sex offenders instead.

Given the clear danger of predatory child sexual abusers, as a nation we must come together and create clear and tough guidelines for repeat child sexual predators. We must educate our children about sexual offenders, and we must wake up to the reality that we can't live as if it is 1970. Sadly, we must wake up and deal with the reality that there are people who look for the window of opportunity to take a child, sexually assault them, and throw them away like garbage. These are real risks in the reality of our time.

We must take our shoes off at the airports, put our children in car seats, and not allow them to be alone in public places or walk home from school alone. Is it really that much of a hassle for us to take these measures? I would not want to be a parent who sits with the pain of having a child taken, assaulted, or even killed and know that I placed my child in danger when it could have been avoided.

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Do the Media Have a Cafeteria Plan When Reporting About Missing Children?

by Stacy Dittrich

I’m guilty. The hundreds of radio, print and television reporters across the country are guilty. We are guilty of standing in the dessert line in the cafeteria, picking and choosing the more attractive dishes, while completely ignoring the entrée’s to our left that our screaming for our attention. You’re over Casey Anthony—the latest Crème Brulee. I get it. I’m over Casey Anthony. For 3 years I have been commenting on the case via radio, television, and print. I’m done. I know many of the other contributors here echo these sentiments. A brief scroll down the WCI archives shows that Casey, Caylee, Cindy and George Anthony, along with Zanny the Nanny, were mentioned an astounding 137 times.

In reflection, however, the case begs to open another discussion of why some incredibly emotional and horrific cases are ignored while others are literally blasting through every artery of the media on a daily basis. Why did we focus so intently on Casey Anthony and not others? I’ve actually heard some in the media blame Nancy Grace.

Riiiiiight.

If one woman wields that kind of power, than Nancy truly is an American superstar.

In my opinion, it’s not Nancy’s fault, but the American public’s obsession with seeing justice served—and rightly so. We’ve been dragged through so many senseless tragedies with little or no vindication (ahem, O.J.) that I truly believe the public has simply had enough and wants to start holding those responsible accountable. The problem with Casey Anthony started at the beginning. It seemed like an open and shut case; mother allegedly murders daughter, mother gets arrested, mother goes to prison for life. Unfortunately, I began to see many red flags in the beginning that made me nervous. As shallow as this sounds, Casey’s attractiveness was one of them. It may sound shallow but I have the experience to back it up. I can’t begin to count the number of jury trials I’ve attended where my attractive, female, suspect was found “not guilty.” Even more incredulous, as I spoke to jurors after, they held nothing back when telling me, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t look at that nice, sweet, girl and believe she really did that. I can’t.” (Hello, professional jurors, where are you?)

Some believe that race and religion are silent factors when bringing a horrific crime to the national forefront. I have been following a disturbing case that I’ve seen briefly touched on in the national news, but nowhere near other crimes. New York City local news has been covering it frequently, but other than that—zilch. It involves the disappearance and murder of an 8-year old Orthodox Jewish boy, Leiby Kletzky, and it is gruesome.

On July 11, 2011, the Brooklyn boy had begged and pleaded with his parents to walk home by himself from day camp–a first. The parents initially hesitated, but decided to allow Leiby (pictured left) to spread his wings a little. With obvious trepidation, Leiby’s parents not only memorized the route with him, a total of seven blocks, but they actually went through a dry run. Walking by himself for the first time, Leiby never came home. This defines a parent’s worst nightmare. Of course it gets worse; much, much, worse.

33 hours after intense searches and investigations, authorities were led to the home of Levi Aron, 35, a local hardware supply stock clerk. Nothing could have prepared them for what they found inside.

Inside Aron’s freezer, they found Leiby’s severed feet wrapped in plastic. Aron then led investigators to a Dumpster containing a red suitcase that held the remainder of Leiby’s dismembered body. Aron claimed he forgot about the feet in the freezer.

Through a series of bizarre interviews, Aron claimed that Leiby had become lost on his route home and approached him for a ride. Headed to a wedding, Aron claimed he took Leiby with him and, upon seeing the flyers for the missing boy the next day, panicked and killed him. Of course, investigators now know that Aron took Leiby back to his apartment where he supplied him with a cocktail of drugs, suffocated him, and dismembered his body. The answer to the perpetual question of why Aron committed such a heinous act is still unclear. However, investigators did remove numerous children’s items from Aron’s home including a blue child’s spoon and pink cup. Is it possible Aron had harmed more children? Police say that there is currently no evidence of that, but a look into Aron’s background screams red flags of violent behavior.

My point is, Levi Aron will never see the light of day again. He confessed, there is physical and circumstantial evidence to back up his confession, it’s a done deal. So, why should we care? I do, which is why I’m writing about it here. Do you think the media took a pass on this case because Leiby was an Orthodox Jew or was it because we know justice will be served?

Then there’s the case of Mariha Smith (pictured right), 5, an African American girl who was recently abducted and murdered in Detroit. On Sunday, July 31, 2011 Mariha was reported missing by her mother who said someone must have gone through Mariha’s bedroom window between 3 a.m. and noon while she slept. Mariha’s mother admitted to being heavily intoxicated and passed out when this occurred. Unfortunately, just hours later, Mariha’s burned body was found in an abandoned home just blocks from her own. Her skull had been crushed prior to her body being set on fire.

After investigators showed family members a surveillance video from a nearby gas station showing a man purchasing cans of gasoline, did they begin to suspect Darnell Cheatham, 20. Cheatam is the boyfriend of Mariha’s aunt. After executing a search warrant at Cheatam’s residence, investigators took him into custody, and subsequently charged him with Mariha’s murder. Justice served, but not much attention.

Are the cases chosen based on race, religion, or socioeconomic factors? Possibly, but to reiterate, I truly believe it’s about justice. In both of the above cases, it is rather clear that justice will prevail in each of these horrific and vile crimes. But, in Caylee Anthony’s case, it didn’t. What's the X factor here?

Justice certainly hasn’t prevailed in the case of missing Oregon boy, Kyron Horman, 7. The last person to see him, step-mother Terri Horman, has been investigated exhaustively but refuses to cooperate. Kyron (pictured left) still hasn’t been found and his parents continue to live in Hell. Now this is pure injustice and it’s downright appalling.

I have to submit that all of the above cases have been mentioned in the media, some more than others. The downside is that there are approximately 150-200 child stranger abductions every year across this country and the media couldn’t possibly cover them all. All races, religions, and socioeconomic factors are unfortunately covered here. Child abductions know no racism or bigotry and most of these children are probably deceased. Should a deranged lunatic walk into an elementary school and viciously murder 150 students in one mass murder the incident would scream across headlines worldwide, but spread each one out over a one year period and no one seems to pay attention to each and every one. Why?

It’s the nature of the media beast, our cafeteria mentality that picks those who will grab the public’s attention in a New York minute. Regardless of the how’s and why’s at least some of these cases are being brought to the national level. Even if it’s just one case where the life of a child is saved or we learn from it, it is truly worth it.

For those left behind, always keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

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Bonnie and Clyde and Clyde

by Pat Brown

Often we wonder what made one child turn bad, but how often do we wonder what made three siblings go bad? At the same time? The mother of the so-called "Dougherty Gang" must be trying to figure that one out right now.

The Dougherty siblings, two brothers and a sister, just decided to go on a crime spree–yes, a fully intended crime spree–otherwise they would have left the AK-47 at home. Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, and her two brothers, Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, and Edward Ryan Dougherty, 21, stole Ryan's girlfriend's Suburu Impreza (not exactly The Fast and the Furious) and took off from Pasco County, Florida, with mayhem on their minds.

Their mother may have a difficult time understanding why her kids are on a suicidal crime spree, but she should not have been surprised that they would commit crimes; between the three of her children, they have racked up twenty felonies including burglary, battery, and drug possession. Most recently, Ryan Dougherty had sent hundreds of sexual tests to an 11 year old, got nailed for it and was put on 10 years probation for sexual battery (probation after 13 felonies and being a child sex predator). Supposedly, he was upset that his conviction would prevent him from seeing his new baby days away from being born. I guess he figured cutting off his ankle bracelet, committing grand theft auto, and then firing 20 shots at a Tampa police officer who stopped them for speeding (luckily, police shot out his tires and not him), and then robbing a bank at gunpoint would improve his chances.

They took an undisclosed amount of money from the Valdosta, Georgia, bank firing their weapons at the ceiling, an AK-47 assault rifle and a MAC -10 or MAC -11 type machine pistol. They wore masks during the robbery, but considering they took the Ryan's baby momma's vehicle and she reported it to the police, their faces and a photo of the car are plastered all over billboards now.

One can kind of see the brothers going on a crime spree (even though brother Dylan has only one arrest for marijuana possession on his record). But what of Sis? Well, she seems to have her own set of problems. On her Flickr page, Lee states, "I love to farm and shoot guys and wreck cars." Two out of the three's pasttime seems to be less than healthy. The sister has five felonies, all of them hit-and-runs, and six misdemeanors. She had DUIs, attacked a police officer, and was supposed to be in a drug rehab program. She did have a job as a topless go-go dancer/stripper and was engaged to a 45-year-old professor who said, "She touched me in a way neither of my wives came close." I bet she did. But, unfortunately for her sugar daddy, I guess she just wasn't that into him. As he says, "I guess the wedding is off."

Mom has begged her children to give themselves up before someone gets hurt. She went on television on the condition her face not be seen (hey, wait, I can see her face; she is not going to be happy with that media outlet). I think the chances of the siblings surrendering is not too good. They texted Mom from the bank, saying, "There's a time for all of us to die."

What caused these kids to go bad and then completely lose it? It is difficult to say, but another sister died recently and also their father. Mom moved away from Florida, leaving the three criminal siblings to their own devices. They built a bunker (for what, we don't know) and, clearly, their lives were spinning out of control. Mom says, "Only Mom knows what good people you are inside." I am guessing they have not had much in the way of accountability in the past and a whole lot of excusing for bad behavior. I think these three know that they don't have much to offer the world or themselves and so are taking themselves out through suicide-by-cop. We can only hope they don't take anyone else with them.

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Handwriting Detective Weighs in on Casey Anthony's Script

Michelle Dresbold

 by Andrea Campbell

I am thrilled to have found guest editor: Michelle Dresbold. Michelle has been called the Sherlock Holmes of handwriting. For the past 15 years, she has been helping law enforcement agencies around the country put away the “bad guys.” 

A graduate of the training program, Michelle consults to private attorneys, police departments, and prosecutors throughout the United States. She is considered one of the top experts in the nation on handwriting identification, (including anonymous letters and suspected forgeries), personality profiling, and threat analysis. She has testified in a wide variety of cases including arson, embezzlement, voting fraud, forgery, stalking, and murder. 

Michelle has examined Casey’s Anthony's handwriting and offers insight into who Casey really is.

Casey Anthony

by Michelle Dresbold

I am a handwriting detective. As I explain in my book, Sex, Lies and Handwriting, my specialties range from handwriting identification, (including anonymous letters and suspected forgeries), to threat analysis, to personality profiling. I have testified in a wide variety of cases including arson, embezzlement, voting fraud, forgery, stalking, and murder.

The media have been inundated with news about the Casey Anthony case. The prosecutorss theory is that Anthony suffocated her daughter, Caylee, so she could be free to “live the good life.” Their case presented evidence that suggested Casey stuffed Caylee’s body in her car trunk and drove around for days before she dumped her daughter’s body in the woods near her parents' home.

Casey Anthony had originally claimed that on Monday, June 9, 2008, she left her 3-year-old daughter with nanny Zenaida Gonzalez. However, when she returned to the nanny’s Florida apartment, Caylee was missing. Casey didn’t notify the police, she said, because she did not want to worry her parents and wanted to do her own investigation. Casey’s mother, Cindy Anthony, however, became worried and five weeks after Casey had allegedly “lost” her daughter, Cindy Anthony reported her granddaughter’s disappearance to the police.

After a five-month nationwide search, Caylee’s remains were found by a meter reader. In his opening statement, defense attorney José Baez told jurors that Caylee had accidently drowned in the family’s swimming pool. He suggested that Casey’s bizarre attitude and lying was a result of her alleged sexual abuse by her father and her brother.

Recently, I reviewed documents released by prosecutors in the murder case, including jailhouse letters between Anthony and fellow inmates.  I’ve heard numerous theories about what Casey may have done and why. As I learned a long time ago, people can say whatever they want, but handwriting never lies.

As a handwriting profiler, I’m interested in what Casey's handwriting has to say.

What stands out the most to me in her handwriting is her “bubble gum” script. Bubble gum writers have letters that are almost uniformly the same height. The middle zone (the lower case letters a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x and the part of the other letters between the upper loops and the lower loops) of her writing is exaggerated. When the middle zone is overly large, like Casey’s, the writer has a tendency to be childlike and self-centered. These writers like to be the center of attention. It is difficult for them to delay gratification. What they see is what they want. Today. This minute. Right now!

Also, her individual letters and words have practically no space in between. This narrow spacing indicates that Casey will crowd others for attention and can take up the time and energy of those around hers. Cramped spacing is also an indicator that she sees things from a very narrow perspective as opposed to seeing the big picture.

The artistic side of the word “Cookie” shows that Casey has a creative side. However, the letters “oo” show where this creative side may be put to use. The letters “o” and “a” are the communication letters. Think of these letters as little mouths. When a writer’s a’s and o’s are open at the top, the writer likes to talk and will find it difficult to keep a secret. When they are completely closed at the top the writer can take a secret to the grave. Casey’s “o’s” in “Cookie” are quite interesting because even in the artistic version of her script she wrote the “o’s” with a slash through them? Slashes through a’s and o’s, known as “forked tongue strokes,” are signs of a liar.

Casey actually makes her “o’s” three different ways. One is the “o” with the forked tongue slash through it (as seen in the words “cookie” and “on”). The second is an extra loopy “o” (as seen in the second “o” in the word “cool”)–an indicator that she rationalizes her behavior. But the third way she makes her “o’s” may be the most telling of all. You know that the o’s and a’s that are tightly closed at the top mean that the writer is tight lipped and secretive. Casey not only closes her o at the top, she makes sure it is sealed tight by finishing it at the bottom. There is no way she could even leave a slight gap at the top. She is so secretive that she won’t even tell herself the truth. 

Besides the slashes, extra loopy loops, and her overly closed o’s, Casey does something else that indicates that she is good at telling whoppers. Her writing looks readable; however, if you take words out of context many are ambiguous or unreadable. Look at the word between “So I” and “have this Super cool pen” in the first line underneath the word “cookie”. Can you read it? See if you can read the words labeled “A”, “B”, “C” or “D”.  In context, I’m sure you could easily make them out. But, out of context, what are they? People who are expert at tricky writing are like magicians. They make you see what they want you to see. They leave the interpretation of events vague and unclear, so that they have an out when they need it.

Casey Anthony also uses ambiguous letters in her signature. Her first name is spelled “CASEY.” So, given the fact that Casey knows how to spell her own name, why does it look like “CAESY”? That, my friends, is ambiguous or “tricky” writing.

Look closer at the signature and you will notice that the “a” in Casey’s first name is blown out of proportion. When a lowercase “a” is extra large it indicates that the writer is very concerned about his or her physical appearance. And, if you look carefully, you will see that there is a sharp point inside of Casey’s “a.” That point is called a “stinger.” Writers with stingers tend to be extreme in their sexual lifestyles – they either abstain from sex entirely, or they become sexaholics.

Also, do you see that Casey made her last name into a great big “X”? When a writer’s signature or personal pronoun “I” turns into an “X,” it shows that the writer feels as if his or her life has been ruined. These sad “x’ed-out” people worry and fantasize about death. Sometimes these gloomy thoughts are about other people’s deaths and sometimes these morbid feelings about the writer’s own demise.

Many people have asked if Casey's writing shows that she has been abused. It’s hard to say for sure if a person has been abused. However, she does have a number of signs that suggest she has major trust issues, including, but not limited to, the letter “c” in the word “cool.” The letter “c” is the trust letter. The more the letter “c” is closed the more the writer is closed off and less she can trust. Notice that Casey’s “c” is almost completely closed. Her narrow, compressed spacing also stems from insecurity and fear. And, of course, the extreme secretiveness that we saw in the letter o shows, that like many people of abuse, they feel it is imperative to never let their “secret” out.

If you’d like to learn more about what you can tell from deciphering handwriting or to read my communication analysis of Casey Anthony’s statement to the police, please check out my website: michelledresbold.com.

About Michell's Book:

She is the author of Sex, Lies, and Handwriting, published by Simon and Schuster’s Free Press, and writes a weekly syndicated column, "The Handwriting Doctor," which appears in newspapers throughout the US. Michelle is also an accomplished artist who has shown her work in galleries and museums across the country. 

She has been featured on the "CBS Early Show," the "Today Show," the "FOX Morning Show with Mike and Juliette," the "O’Reilly Factor," FOX News, The History Channel and The ID Channel. 

Her press includes: Pittsburgh Magazine, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Philadelphia Magazine, The Washington Post, MarieClaire Magazine, Martha Stewart’s Blueprint Magazine, Woman’s World magazine, Psychology Today, and The Ladies Home Journal. 

Michelle graduated with honors from the University of Michigan with a degree in fine arts and psychology.

For more write to: info@michelledresbold.com

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A View to a Kill in the Morning: Carbon Dioxide

By Deborah Blum 

In 1940, inspired by a tragic accident, a New York pathologist came up with the scenario for a perfect murder.

His idea was based on the deaths of five longshoremen, their bodies found in the cargo hold of a steamer docked on the East River. The boat had been carrying cherries from Michigan. The men had been bunking in the room where the fruit was stored and to the shock of their co-workers, as they started to unload the cherries, all five were found lifeless in their beds.

When investigators from the New York City medical examiner’s office arrived, they discovered that the fruit had been chilled by placing large containers of “dry ice” in the storage area. Dry ice was, of course, not ice at all but carbon dioxide (CO2) in its solid form, resembling breathtakingly cold chunks of frosted glass. At standard atmospheric pressure, water (H2O) freezes as temperatures slip just below 32 °F. Carbon dioxide solidifies (a process called deposition) at −109.3 °F.

As it warms – say, as it sits in a fruit storage area – it begins returning to its gaseous state, a transition known as a phase change. The solid chunks shrink without the seeping wet of melting water ice, hence the name dry ice (patented in 1924 by the DryIce Corporation of America). Instead there is a steady seep of gas in the surrounding air. Mostly this is nothing to worry about - unlike its chemical cousin, carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide is not acutely poisonous – and, in fact, the chilly vapors lifting off dry ice have been used to create a fog effects in places ranging from theatres to Halloween parties.

But there is a risk. Carbon dioxide is denser than oxygen-rich air and can, notably in confined spaces, essentially displace the breathable atmosphere, settling into its surroundings like an invisible but suffocating blanket.

And this is what the city’s medical examiners realized had happened to their dead longshoremen. The men’s blood was “saturated with carbon dioxide and the men had obviously died from asphyxia,” explained assistant medical examiner Edward Martens in his 1940 book, The Doctor Looks at Death.

Still, he added, finding CO2 in the blood went only part way to solving the puzzle. Carbon dioxide is always naturally present in human blood. It’s a byproduct of the way we metabolize oxygen and as it builds up, we exhale it away. If a person is murdered by suffocation and cannot exhale, the gas also builds up in the blood: “Exactly the same autopsy picture would have been found if the men had died from being smothered by holding, say, a pillow over their mouths.” 

“This brings up a rather interesting possibility for a method of murder that would be extremely difficult to detect,” the doctor, Edward Marten, continued. “I pass this on, for what it is worth, to writers of detective stories.” In his scenario, a sleeping or heavily intoxicated person slumbers in bed. The killer places a bucket, packed with dry ice, on the floor, shuts all windows, and closes the door tightly as he leaves. Within a few hours, the victim suffocates. When someone else opens the door, normal air refills the room, whisking away all trace of the murder weapon: “The trick is that when dry ice evaporates it leaves absolutely no trace behind, so that the investigating detectives would find nothing except a dry and completely empty pail.”

Still, Marten considered that a better tip for fiction writers than real-life killers. The purchase of dry ice was easy to track, the material so cold as to bring on frostbite if handled improperly, and an ideally airtight room almost impossible to find. And someone, after all, might wonder about that peculiarly placed empty pail. 

Nevertheless, I’d like to take this moment to pay tribute to carbon dioxide, as one of the most important – and dangerous- gases on the planet. We tend to discount its lethal potential by contrast with its toxic chemical cousin, carbon monoxide (CO). Thanks to its ability to block oxygen circulation in the blood stream, carbon monoxide drifting from faulty heaters, generators, cars accidentally left running, furnaces and other fuel-burning machinery is estimated to kill some 500 people in the United States every year and send thousands of others to doctors and hospitals.

And we tend to discount carbon dioxide as an actual poison because we’re focused instead on all the other ways it can – and does - cause trouble. These days, its best known as a greenhouse gas, for its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere. Numerous studies have found that levels of CO2 have risen steadily due to human activities – ranging from industrial burning of carbon-rich fuels to deforestation to agricultural practices. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates, for instance, that in 2005, “global atmospheric concentrations of CO2 were 35 percent higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution​.” Although other gases are also linked to the current scenario of human-induced climate change, carbon dioxide is considered by many to be the most important factor.

Of course, even that doesn’t really give full credit to the ways that carbon dioxide can alter the environment. For instance, scientists calculate that our oceans absorb a good proportion of the gas generated by human activities. Unfortunately, when you dissolve CO2 into H2O you rather logically end up with the compound H2CO3, better known as carbonic acid. If you don’t recognize it, it’s the rather weak acid found in carbonated soft drinks (although not so weak that countless middle school students haven’t studied its corrosive effect on everything from teeth to lug nuts).

It’s not surprising, then, that marine biologists have expressed alarm about the increasing acidification of the oceans. One recent report I found examined increases in carbonic acid levels on California mussels, finding a notable thinning of their shells and a decrease in their overall size. A study conducted by Norwegian scientists also found that overall that mussel larvae decreased in size, but suggested, hopefully, that the effects might be mitigated if, as seemed probable, only the larger larvae would survive. Of course, mussels aren’t far from the only species at risk, as a National Science Foundation​ report concluded recently, listing everything from coral to marine algae. This is just another way of saying that we’re deep into a global chemistry experiment with one of nature’s most important – troublesome and occasionally lethal – chemical compounds.

There are many reasons, in fact, why we should regard carbon dioxide with respect, if not wariness. And, certainly, one finds that kind of response at a subconscious level. A rather fascinating experiment a couple of years ago found that just inhaling a small amount carbon dioxide triggered a fear response in mice. And there’s an equally fascinating wealth of research about the relationship between human panic disorders and CO2 inhalation. Far beyond my New York murder scenario, there’s rather horrifying evidence that occasionally this can be a panic-worthy gas.

The best example of that comes from a real life event, a catastrophic natural release of carbon dioxide in Lake Nyos in Cameroon during the summer of 1986. Beneath that beautiful lake, geothermal seeps release CO2 into the deep lake waters, normally trapped near the bottom by pressure and cold. But in this case, apparently, the lake became oversaturated with the gas and on August 21, 1986, the lake waters effectively turned over, carbon dioxide fizzing explosively upward, the waters of Lake Nyos turning a startling red as iron deposits were stirred about. The rapidly released gas settled in a suffocating layer into the valleys around the lake. So many people died – an estimated total of 1,746 – that eventually the website Snopes.com felt compelled to investigate. Snopes reported that the event was real and, in fact, not the only case of suffocation deaths due to carbon dioxide seeps at lakes in Cameroon. Since that time, in fact, measures have been taken to maneuver the gas out of the lakes. 

And this, of course, brings me back to plotting a CO2 murder. I discovered Martens’ theory and his long out-of-print book while researching early 20th century forensic toxicology a few years ago. At first, I just liked the improbability, a medical examiner cooking up a supposedly unsolvable murder. But what’s stayed with me is the implicit message –that we’re talking about a dangerous compound.

It’s a message to remember as we move deeper into our global experiment in greatly increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in our environment. For those who haven’t taken the experiment seriously – in my opinion, still far too many – it’s a reminder that they should start doing so now. And for those who need no reminder of the bigger carbon dioxide picture, I think I can still pass along at least one useful tip - in case of strangers bearing buckets of dry ice, sleep with your windows open.

photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dherholz/5886706782/ (smoke)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanchan/327644305/ (dry ice blocks)


(window) http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiotsrun/5843798932/


(earth) http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomcliche/2537646816/

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Summer Mystery: The Disappearance of John James Morris

by Michelle Sigona 

Madeline Morris has been searching for her missing son for the last four years. Montgomery County Police say John James Morris, 37, went missing from Dickerson, Maryland on July 30, 2007. He was last seen near his home at the 2400 block of White’s Ferry Road standing at the end of the driveway.

At the time he vanished, John shared his residence with his boyfriend. Police say his vehicle and belongings were left behind and there has been no trace of him since. In a press release, Montgomery County Police say, “Extensive investigative techniques have been used during this multi-year investigation to try to gain information about what may have happened to Morris. No evidence has been developed to confirm whether or not Morris remains alive. The family believes that he would not have stayed away this long without making contact with his family. His family also believes that he would not intentionally have left and abandoned his dog. At this stage of the investigation, foul play is suspected.”

Madeline says, "If you have any idea of what happened to John, please be a human being with a conscience and come forward. The truth will set you free. What comes around goes around, if not here, but at your final judgment day. Only you can make things right by coming forward and beg God's forgiveness.”

John has a tattoo of a scorpion on his left shoulder and a snake on his right forearm. According to the  website, he has a scar on his right calf, and his left ear is pierced.

A $1,000 reward is being offered for answers in this case. If you have any information, please contact Montgomery County Police at (240) 773-6239

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Serving Life

by Lisa R. Cohen

Two weeks ago I traveled to Louisiana's maximum security Angola State Penitentiary. It was almost exactly two years since I'd begun Serving Life, the documentary that aired last Thursday night on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Back in July of 2009, months before OWN decided to fund the film, before Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker came on board as Executive Producer, I first went to Angola to check out their inmate hospice program.

There I met the inmate volunteers who staffed the program and I was skeptical - it seemed too good to be true. Murderers - serving life sentences - were caring for their dying fellow inmates. Washing their bed-sore covered bodies, changing their diapers, holding their hands while they took their last breath. It was the other side of death, not the one at the end of a sudden muzzle flash, but the slow and wrenching kind, leaving plenty of time for hard reflection.

It's a volunteer position; the inmates have regular jobs that come first. So there's a lot of burnout, and the hospice coordinator planned to pick a new class of volunteers from among the ranks of the prison's 5,100 inmates. I asked if we could follow along, from the application interviews through the selection through the training, and their first patients. This way, we could watch for ourselves to decide whether it was a con job. The prison said yes.

Two years passed, during which time I was there, off and on, and then on and on, with a skeleton crew of producers and camera men (and one amazing and nimble woman) who flew in from New York. One cameramen was local - an inmate named Sean Vaughn, whose innate talents blossomed over the course of production. He himself is serving life.

They say time passes slowly in prison, but it did pass. We met the incoming class of volunteers on a freezing January day, the record-breaking, coldest day in years. They seemed to be wearing every piece of clothing they owned, and with good reason.

We watched them train in June, and their T-shirts gave us continuity problems. So did the sweat that beaded up on their faces as they concentrated on practicing feeding, bathing and changing the sick, elder inmates in the hospital wards before graduating to actual hospice patients.

Angola is, well, let's just say unique, as prisons go. It's 26 miles of acreage, a huge former plantation bounded on three sides by the Mississippi. Most of the wardens, guards and other staff actually live inside the prison, in a town with its own post office, swimming pool, baseball diamond and 9 hole golf course (called Prison View).

At Angola, they decorate big time for holidays. Life size Uncle Sam cut outs and fireworks (yes, fireworks) on the Fourth of July, turkeys with crepe paper tails at Thanksgiving, and Christmas lights strung from the guard shacks. You can't fail to notice the seasons passing by. We were there for all of the major holidays, except Easter. I imagine there were brightly colored eggs, and the staff's children probably had a hunt.

Our team lived at the prison as well, in a series of small guest houses built to accommodate the endless stream of visitors who pass through Angola. The one we spent weeks in overlooked a small lake, and alligators occasionally skirted the dock, making us more nervous than any of the "trusty" inmates who wandered freely, carrying out their farm duties - raising cattle, fishing the lake.

And we filmed. Hundreds of hours at the hospital, in the inmate dormitories late at night, the cafeterias during meals, the churches and the workshops, the college classrooms and the inmate basketball court. But mostly, we filmed in the hospice, tracking the new volunteers' progress.

There was the ambivalent "Boston" who juggled doubts about his work with anxiety over his nine-year old son's impending visit, a son he'd never met. The convicted murderer Justin, who was serving life for being at the scene even though he hadn't pulled the trigger. The "three-strikes-you're-out" lifer Ratliff, who also helped care for his older brother at the hospital, a Crohns patient. And Shaheed, who very late in the game disclosed the tragedy in his life that had helped him change his way of thinking. They all proved my skepticism wrong.

Two years passed, including 4 plus months of filming, half a dozen deaths, 4 months of edit, and more late nights than I thought there were in a lifetime. The film was finished, and we wanted the inmates to see it. It felt very important. I flew down for the first time in many months and on a very hot July day, hundreds of inmates streamed into the prison's main chapel, along with Warden Burl Cain and many of his assistant wardens, several guards, and other staff.

I was nervous. More so than I'd be the next week in Los Angeles, at a private invitation-only screening filled with, among others, the new Co-presidents of OWN, Forest Whitaker and other media muckety mucks. There I'd have to get up and join Forest in a Q&A afterwards.

But this was harder. We'd followed these men around, shoving a camera in their faces for months, as they cringed, cried and peeled back their layers - something tough guys in prison never do. Then we'd thrown out 99.9% of it, shaped the remaining .1% into a dish of our own making, and now it was going to be projected up on the giant white wall at the back of the sanctuary. Not to mention broadcast nationally the following week.

Luckily I sat in the front row where I couldn't see anyone's face. It was very quiet, but I was thrilled when the audience laughed in all the places I'd hoped they would. It's hard to believe, but we'd worked very hard to include the humor - which there is in every part of life, especially the toughest parts. The AP reporter who covered the screening wrote afterwards that the room was also filled with quiet sobbing - I was too far away to hear for myself.

But afterwards the Warden spoke briefly. "It's incredible," he said, visibly moved and teary himself. "Many of you have a chance to change your lives, and this says you can do it... And

you're worthy of this film. You're worthy of what the public is going to think about you.... My encouragement to you is, you have a legacy. And you can't betray it. You can't betray this hospice program. So you just got to live it... We can't be counterfeit, and if we do, then we desecrate what you just saw. And we can't do that. So it draws out the best in all of us."

A lot of very positive reviews followed, including the Washington Post, New Orleans Times Picayune, and others. But the Warden's comments - those were the most rewarding I've gotten so far.

Serving Life encores this Wednesday night, Aug 3, at 9pm and then again at midnight. See the trailer here, and find out where it's showing in your zip code.

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Corporate Competition and Crime: The News Corp Scandal

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.

In the recent News Corp scandal, Emperor Rupert Murdoch's imperial warrior reporters allegedly hacked into and erased messages on the phone of a murdered girl, Milly Dowler, giving false hope to her family, and corrupting the police investigation. Allegations still stand that a Murdoch company attempted to hack into the voice mail messages of 9-11 victims.  News reports suggest that for over a decade, many of Murdoch's companies got their competitive edge by corporate espionage, or cheating. Murdoch settled with several companies that sued, claiming a Murdoch company stole secrets. The lawsuits were settled with the purchase of the victimized company. Rep. Peter King (R. New York) wrote to FBI director Robert Mueller suggesting "the conduct would merit felony charges for attempting to violate various federal statutes related to corruption of public officials and prohibitions against wiretapping” here in the U.S.

While we like to think of cheaters as a deviant few living among us, the research results are far more disturbing. Studies show, cheating increases with competitive pressure. Give financial incentives to schools for improved performance, you get teachers falsifying test results. In the competitive field of journalism, a winner-take-all contest propels some to use every tactic available, no matter how illegal, to beat the competition. In the 1940's about 20% of high school students admitted cheating. Now, between 75 and 98% of college students admitted to cheating in high school. Reasons given for cheating include:

• It doesn't hurt anybody.
• Everybody does it.
• Don't want other cheaters to have unfair advantage.
• Not likely to get caught.
• High pressure to get good grades.

When people feel that achievement is more important than anything, cutting legal and ethical corners often becomes the norm. If a reporter feels they don't possess the skills to get the story legitimately the odds that they will cheat increase. Don't underestimate the pressure of the situation to make good people do bad things.

When my son was in high school he faced a moment where he might have lost his integrity. One step toward getting into a classical music conservatory required making an unedited tape of a performance. He received pressure from several people to edit his tape to make it perfect. He looked sick, seeing the faces of the adults around him urging him to cheat with comments like, "everyone does it; at this level it has to be perfect; no one will know." Seeing the torment in his face I said, "let's reread the rules." The rules clearly stated no editing allowed. I said, "we're sending in the best take, unedited." My son's face relaxed in relief. He was accepted into and graduated from a top conservatory with his integrity intact. He wanted to succeed on his own merits. He had the skills to do it honestly. When people don't have the skills, they're more likely to cheat. I still remember the pressure we both felt that day.

When businesses create a culture of achievement over quality of work they encourage cheating behavior. A management style that values a code of ethics creates an atmosphere of respect for honesty. When people cheat, faulty engineering appears on cars, bad drugs get into the market, and dangerous products fill shelves. Psychologist Phillip Zimbardo coined the term "The Lucifer Effect" describing the tendency for corrupt systems to corrupt good people. He describes how he was corrupted by his own experiment to conform to harmful behavior as set up by the demands of his famous "Stanford Prison Experiment."

It takes more than a code of ethics posted on a wall to keep people honest. Encouraging cooperative achievement, valuing integrity over results, fostering the exposure of errors and mistakes can help reduce cheating in any organization, while improving quality performance. All human organizations, whether it be a church or a business, can fall victim to the Lucifer Effect. When we encourage our employees, children and coworkers to achieve honestly, others will follow. One antidote to The Lucifer Effect is the Heroism Project. This curriculum encourages young people to look for opportunities to do the right thing and behave heroically. It's a good start.

Photos courtesy of ssoosay and Enokson.

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