The Elusive Pursuit of Justice : Guest Blog by James Hart

August 30, 2008

[James Hart is a reporter for The Kansas City Star, where he writes Crime Scene KC, a blog about crime and public safety]

One of the most important things I learned as a police reporter: A lot of murderers never go to prison.

In Kansas City, Mo., where I live, we're relatively lucky. Our homicide detectives cleared about 87 percent of their cases last year. There are other cities, like Chicago and Detroit, that face bigger deficits. About 36 and 33 percent of their homicides were solved last year, respectively. And those are just the arrests -- we're not even talking about actual convictions.

Nationally? In 2006, 60.7 percent of homicides were cleared. Meaning the average killer stood an almost 40 percent chance of never getting caught. Not great odds, but decent. (Feel like creeping yourself out? Just imagine the murderers who continue to circulate, unknown and unpunished, in free society.)

Forty feels like a much bigger number when it's one of your loved ones who's been taken. Writing a crime blog, I've met a lot of families in this situation. They've waited weeks, months, sometimes years, and never seen an arrest. But they don't give up. They call the homicide unit every week. They hold garage sales and motorcycle runs to raise cash for the reward fund. They call reporters and ask them to right about their cases, in the hope -- however slender -- that someone might see the report and call the Crime Stoppers hotline.

Last week, I talked to a woman named Bridget McKeown about the sixth anniversary of her mother's disappearance. Shirley McKeown, 71, was driving to her daughter's house when she vanished on Aug. 24, 2002. Days later, police found her car. So much of her blood was spilled in the interior, investigators concluded, there was no way that she could still be alive. In the years since, they've never discovered exactly what happened to her. Despite the best efforts of police, her killer has never been held to account.

Shirley was a retired nurse with two kids, a lady who liked stopping at yard sales and flea markets. At the very least, she deserved to be buried with dignity, by people who loved her.

The reward in her case stands at $10,000. Bridget put up the bulk of it herself. Money well spent, she figures, if it leads to the killer. When I interviewed her about the investigation, she wasn't optimistic. There hadn't been any developments for years. But she had to keep trying.

I don't know if there will ever be justice for Shirley McKeown. You see so many cases, and every day, a new one -- seemingly more impossible -- comes along. (And I'm just a professional bystander. I have no idea how the investigators, the people on the front line, deal with this.)

But I've seen miracles happen, too. Mysteries that I thought would NEVER be resolved have suddenly crystallized and cleared. Somebody calls the hotline. A DNA sample finally gets run through the database. The bad guys lose.

It's good to know the odds. It's good to know hope, too.

Photo Credit: Freefoto.com

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Comments

[Rechtsanwalt]

It is not a good figure that most of the murderers are not caught and they move freely to the societies remaining unknown and unpublished. Although the cases are registered but the families are made waiting for longer time to see the murderers caught behind the bars and which sometimes never happens. I think there must be a good strategic planning and set of strict rules to provide the justice to people living in the society. The murderers should never be allowed to fly freely in the societies after the crimes.

[Katprint]

I did not interpret the statistic to indicate that "most of the murderers are not caught." My interpretation of the statistics in this article was that most murderers ARE caught. 60% caught = more than half, 40% not caught = less than half.

I was actually pleasantly surprised the rate of catching murderers is so high. I live in an urban area where there are a lot of gang shootings and I was under the impression that hardly any murders are ever solved. 60% sounds pretty good to me.

[Christine Olson]

I am a friend of one of the daughters of Shirley McKeown,who was murdered in Kansas City, MO in 2002. We know the name of the man who was found driving Shirley's car, after she had been murdered. There was a chair in the trunk of the car that she had purchased at a garage sale earlier in the day, the day that she was murdered. Apparently, the police and detectives that worked diligently on the case, were unable to nail anything on this guy. He was under the age of 18 when he was a party to her murder, which I guess excuses him. We think her body is located in South Kansas City, on the Kansas side. There are traces of credit card transactions that link her car to this location, after she was murdered. I am not afraid to do my part to find the spineless killer(s) who took the life of a 70-somthing old woman and hope somebody who knows something will speak out for justice.

[Fuzzy]

Great blog entry. I enjoyed reading it.

[John (From Dallas, Texas)]

Bridget,

As you already well know, my thoughts are with you and Patty. Not a day goes by that Mom does not think of you two as well. Everyone here in Dallas is praying for you.