New Crime Solves old Murder
Bobbie Mayfield
Week 4 Assignment
Traveling from Connecticut to Malden, Wyman and his roommate checked into a motel room called the Town Line Motor Inn. The men had just come from eating at a local restaurant and were settling into their room when they heard a knock on the door. Wyman gets up to open the door when it is pushed open and he is shot through the heart.
The gunman then holds the gun asking the roommate “where’s the money?” The other suspect proceeds to kicking the roommate in the head and neck. Then he grabs the television from the wall when the alarm from the television alerts the front office. The two employees rush to the room to see two suspects fleeing.
Police collected the evidence and even fingerprints but when they were run through the system there were none that matched them. This case went unsolved for 28 years until another crime took place when Shawn Marsh, 48, was arrested and booked. His fingerprints were put into the system (AFIS) and the match was that to a crime committed in 1983 in the same hotel room linking him to homicide case.
Marsh pleads guilty to the charge of manslaughter in connection to the shooting of Rodney C. Wyman, 29, at the Town Line Inn in 1983. Marsh appeared before Middlesex Superior Court Judge Thomas Billings, who handed down a sentence of 15-18 years in prison.
Without the advanced fingerprint databases this homicide may have went unsolved. The two fingerprint databases (Automated Fingerprint Identification System & Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) are responsible for bringing Marsh to justice giving the victim’s family closure.
Limitations of Computerized Fingerprint Search Systems
This case went unsolved for many years due to the limitations of computerized fingerprint search systems. Fingerprints were put into the system when the crime was committed from the exact hotel room. The problem was not that...