The most interesting thing in that article was that someone anonymously sent in a tip with Randele's obituary which is how they finally closed the case. Who is the rando super sleuth following this cold case for 50 years obsessively scanning obits from all over the country?
My guess would be there are a number of people who are hobbyist cold case investigators and have a list of wanted people they keep an eye out for in obits.
Or it was a family member.
Or maybe one of the staff at the hospital overheard them
Doubtful. Staff tend to avoid those conversations like the plague.
Nobody wants to be called up as a witness…. And most times it’s just… a mess. A sad, gloomy, awkward mess
Yea that’s fucking wild to me. Where do people find the time?!
There's an actual quality true crime podcast called Crime Junkie, and an associated podcast specifically dedicated to cold cases called The Deck. It's a whole thing for some people, but occasionally a listener hits on something and makes a phone call that gets the ball rolling again.
I listen because I find it interesting, but that's the extent of it. Some people it's truly a hobby, or more to chase information down.
Unsolved Mysteries with the silky smooth voice of Robert Stack is the background noise for my nappings
Dateline, Forensic Files...
But I find Myths and Legends more comfortable to fall asleep to. Far less concern when I hear a noise in the middle of the night lol.
It's crazy to think about all the things we've each done and seen in our lives, and maybe at some point we were part of some terrible crime and had no idea. Maybe we saw and still remember something that if known to someone else would completely change their life.
Retirees have a lot of time on their hands.
I caught that too. I bet someone back in Ohio knew what happened.
Hover hand to avoid fingerprints. Smart.
Sometimes, crime does pay.
Often. Usually, I’d be willing to bet.
I don’t know this for certain, but if a study were ever conducted on, say, the top 100 most commonly-committed crimes, I suspect the number of which you’re more likely than not to get away with would astonish you.
Wage theft accounts for more stolen money then all other theft combined, so this is bog standard true. Our very economic and legal system lets white collar crime go unpunished by design.
This particular sort of crime, though, I imagine is much harder to pull off today. No one can really just disappear and start a new life like they used to. Your prints are known, your DNA can be tested, everyone's location can be traced, and records are all stored in databases that are easy to search and hard to tamper with.
Yeah, but if you look at clearance rates for cops they're significantly lower than crime dramas would have you believe. Cops unbelievably incompetent, they regularly botch DNA and completely destroy evidence. Some crime labs don't even have manuals. When you read police accountability reports, you start to realize tye CSI thing is a total lie and they usually just torture or terrorize random black and brown people in to confessing to things they didn't do.
It's rare and newsworthy when they actually do detective work and crack a case, and even then it's usually because they had tons of help from people who aren't cops. I'm not at all surprised that someone could spend their whole life committing major felonies and that they never got caught.
The only crimes they do seem to put forth effort in solving are bank robberies.
I was a very, very bad teenager. I had my 5th felony by the time I turned 15. All in all, that's a very small percentage of the felonies (and misdemeanors) I was never caught for. Nothing violent, but lots of vandalism, theft, etc.
Every time if you're rich.
Especially if you're rich
Maybe I've got it wrong, but surely the statute of limitations had long since past?
5 years but you'd still owe the money and likely interest that the money would have made.
Plus any other independently unlawful acts could be much longer.
Sooo can they go after his estate or wife for the funds?
Yes. Iirc it would be a windfall.
So long as the charge is filled and the warrant is renewed, the case stays active.
I'm curious about this statement.
I wonder how often warrants are required to be "renewed" for one thing... Or how often they'd typically be up for renewal might be a better way to say that.
I also find it interesting that it seems like this process could completely nullify a statute of limitations.
Warrants are usually good for 5-10 years.
Statutes of limitations prohibit filing of charges after a certain amount of time, 1-5 years for standard / low-level crimes. The statute of limitations is tolled once a charge is filed with the court. Otherwise, people would just run away and hide until the statute of limitations is over.
Some compared it to the 1971 case of hijacker D.B. Cooper, who parachuted out of a plane with $200,000 in cash and vanished over the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, never to be seen again.
Please be d.b cooper, please be d.b Cooper!
Dude 100% got away with it. Amazing.
I'm sure AI could easily cross reference obituaries with wanted pics.
U.S Marshalls? I thought those guys were only used for witness protection.
They're for any federal court related enforcement. Prisoner transport, apprehending prisoners that escape, and servicing warrants for fugitives. Their historical basis is actually executing federal warrants for fugitives.
If I remember right from the last time I read about them, they are the oldest agency too. They usually have to take risky tasks, and were/are rather serious about their role. Stuff from prisoner transport, to nuclear weapon transport, and protecting students during the integration of African American students in the south.
US got so many agencies it's hard to keep track of.
I know a guy who was on the run for ten years over a drug case (LSD). He finally turned himself in because of how much the Marshals were harassing his sister.
No, there's a good documentary about their other role in fugitive apprehension called The Fugitive.
There was also an epilogue to it called US Marshals
I guess Eraser should not be seen in isolation of these 2 other documentaries
Did they have to return the money?
What money? That money was probably gone within the first two decades, if not the first decade.
Not if he bought a house with it. A $50k house in the '70s could be worth around a million now.
More like half a million now probably
I don't know much about the US housing marketbut, here in the UK, I know two couples who bought their houses for £15-25k in the 1970s and they're worth a million now.
House price inflation is a very scary thing.
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