The Crime and the Culprit          

-  P. Krishnamoorthy

It was the closing time in  People’s  Bank on  Sunset Boulevard in the lower bay area of Los Angeles. Barbara was the last customer to receive cash of $500 from the cashier’s counter.  Other than her, there was none except a man in mid thirties anxiously awaiting somebody. It was unusually not  busy in that area at that time.  Barbara came out from the bank with the money in her handbag and walked to the parking lot where her white Chevy SUV was parked. This was closely but discreetly followed by the man who was in the bank earlier. As there was nobody around,  She hastened her walking to the car, so that she could be safe in the car to avoid any mishap. Due to winter season it was already getting dark. Her inner fear accelerated her premonition for any untoward serious incident.  As she reached the car, she felt safe  contrary to her earlier premonition. She was searching the car key in her handbag to open the car. Suddenly , from the rear, she felt a male strong hand  trying to snatch the handbag from her hold. She was rigidly resisting with all her strength. Even after waging a long struggle she could not hold the bag as she felt a heavy strong blow on the back of her head. She fell fainted crying “Oh! my handbag”. The handbag was snatched by the strong hand and disappeared from the scene. A passerby who noticed her lying on the ground unconscious near the car, called the police and ambulance to the spot. She was bleeding profusely in her head. The first aid rendered by para medical helped her to open her eyes  and  cried for her handbag. She realized that she had been mugged by somebody for her money in the handbag.

In the hospital, the doctors, diagonised the cause for bleeding as hemorrhage  in the brain due to damage to arteries.This could be due to some heavy material forcefully and repeatedly struck on the back of her head. After reviewing the scan and MRI reports, they confirmed  their findings of  such an  impact.  As the injury had made extensive impairment in the brain, she had to undergo a  major surgery to treat the internal hemorrhage. The surgery of Barbara went thru well as the blood clot in the back of the brain was removed. As she was responding well to the treatment, the doctors  declared her in stable condition; but would take some more time to recover to normalcy.  Tracy Willis, her husband who was more concerned, was taking care of her. Even after recovery from anesthesia in postoperative stage, she was murmuring about her lost handbag. Apparently she had an attachment over it. 

Barbara was recovering fast with the best medical care in the hospital. Willis was very happy at her convalescence He was exhilarated at her positive response to the treatment and looked forward to the day of her discharge. In spite of the major head injury and following surgical treatment, she was still concerned about her handbag . Time and again she was reminding Willis to check with LAPD on the status of its recovery since she was sure that the perpetrator would have taken the money and discarded the handbag. .

On the day of discharge, the doctor prescribed various medications for Barbara as a follow-up to the treatment. She thanked him and his staff profusely. Willis drove her home. The only regret she had,  was about the loss of handbag and no further information on it. The Los Angeles Police Dept. investigating the case, were looking for any such heavy object in the crime scene, as  that would lead them to find any finger marks on it, that would ultimately identify a DNA profile.  It would also  help to trace the culprit after matching  the DNA Profile. They also explored any of his blood samples shed during the struggle between the two.  They did not rule out the possibility of any finger print marks on the door or body  of the car.

The efforts of the Police did not go waste as they found  finger prints and scattered blood stains on a iron rod, that was lying near the car in the crime scene. Obviously the culprit had used that iron rod  to hit her from rear so that she would  release her grip on the bag. Also they found finger marks of Barbara and the perpetrator on the door of the car. The reports of the lab were clear as to the details of the DNA. They  had to find a  matching DNA profile  in DNA database to identify the culprit. In that process they found one Alex Andrew’s DNA profile was matching in all required standards and criteria. It also provided his personal details including his residential address.  The Police force began their dedicated efforts in tracing and tracking that data from DNA database. They made enquiries in and around the area of Alex’s  residence and found  that he was convicted and serving a jail term of five years in North County Correction facility in a heist case. As the heist case was prior to the occurrence of the present crime, it was a big puzzle for the Law Enforcement.  They  were breaking their heads as to how could one commit a crime again by being in  jail. They even doubly checked  his  DNA profile with that of taken in the crime scene and found their earlier findings accurate.

This  strange scenario led them to consider any sibling or a twin of Alex,  who may have the same DNA profile. The scope of DNA technology brings down the category of  twins into two  – Fraternal twins and identical twins. The DNAs of the  Fraternal twin are quite different from one another; whereas the identical twins would be  similar in every detail”. They contacted Alex in the Correction Facility and found that his twin brother Johnson  lived separately in the same county. He was working  as a helper to a local plumber. With these details, the police force again contacted the Lab to check Johnson’s  DNA profile in DNA database.  To their surprise there was Johnson’s DNA profile in the system, but contrary to the scientific theory, it was not identical as that of Alex,;  but similar only in some details though they were identical twins.

Based on these complicated versions, though Alex’s  sibling  Johnson might be the perpetrator, the judiciary may not accept this evidence as conclusive proof unless supported with material or any other eyewitness.  The only source to be tried would be the finger print of Johnson to tally with that taken from the iron rod. With this perception  they proceeded further in contacting him personally. There was a shocking news waiting for them as Johnson was in a hospital after a major surgery for a head injury due to a truck accident occurred on the same day of the crime.

The dates, area and the timing of the crime and truck accident were closely coincidental but still helpful to the police to suspect the perpretator as Johnson. To confirm their supposition,  they visited him in the hospital.  But they were disappointed as he was in coma stage in ICU and  learnt that his recovery would be indefinite. That baffled them as this was a major setback for LAPD in proceeding further in the case and they were back to square one.

In view of Johnson’s dormant medical condition, the LAPD personnel were discussing outside his room as to further action in the investigation.  Suddenly a  nurse came out of the room rushing to inform them that the doctor would like them to come inside as Johnson wanted to make some confession before them. They entered the room hurriedly. The doctor informed them that suddenly Johnson opened his eyes and wanted to say something to them. Johnson on seeing them, in a feeble voice, started to confess that he assaulted a lady on the head with an iron rod and grabbed her handbag with the money in the parking lot of Peoples Bank. When he crossed the Sunset Bouleward with the bag and money, a big truck knocked him down with great force. He fell down unconscious. The  handbag was thrown off to a distance from the spot.  As he was making the confession statement to them, his pulse and breathing stopped.

Though LAPD was complacent on finishing the hectic crime investigation with the identification of  the real culprit, they had not taken special efforts to trace the missing handbag with the money nor provide any further information to Barbara on the status of the bag. Barbara was dejected and depressed on its loss. Wilis was totally upset at Barbara’s miserable and gloomy appearance. He visited their office with Barbara to enquire the status of the lost handbag so that she would know  what they would like to say.. She even showed a photo of the handbag to confirm that it was a highly priced 'Blue Crocodile Hermes Birkin' handbag and reiterated her concern on its loss. She vehemently reacted her apprehension when the Police suggested reimbursement or replacement by the Insurance Company for the bag. She said that they could replace the bag but not with her personal sentiment over it.

After their visit to LAPD, Barbara and Willis, while returning from a restaurant, both opted to take the short way thru the bushes of fully grown Laurel plants, instead of going round on the road to the parking lot. En route Barbara’s cell phone slipped from her hand and fell  into the heap of dry leaves As she was taking the cell phone from the heap, she found to her surprise, her handbag’s straps visibly stretched out, leaving the main part  hidden beneath the pile of  dry leaves.  She cleared the dry leaves and took the handbag. Barbara could not believe her handbag was in tact without any damage. She was overjoyed and exhilarated over her finding. She hugged her ‘treasure and sentimental piece’ so dearly as her eyes started shedding tears profusely. Willis  joined in her delight and wanted her to check the money inside and found missing. Obviously the culprit, after taking the cash, threw the handbag into the bushes without knowing the highly priced value of the bag. The handbag was her ‘sentimental treasure’ with emotions attached to it. The highly priced ‘Blue Crocodile Hermes Handbag' was the  wedding gift to Barbara  by her elder sister  who died two years ago in cancer disease. Barbara was  always feeling that the deceased sister was still  with her at the sight of the handbag every time. 

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