Montessori Forensics Blog

Astro-naughty or just No-wacky?

Space shuttle astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, has allegedly gone where no astronaut has gone before: prison. The 43 year-old mother of 3 flew on a shuttle mission last summer, but her motives are in question following a bizarre incident in Orlando yesterday.

Here's a little-known astronaut secret: astronauts wear adult diapers during launch and re-entry. Nowak used that strategy to drive continuously for almost a thousand miles from Houston to Orlando to confront Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman in an underground airport parking lot.

Wearing a wig and trenchcoat (a flawless disguise for a frigid locale like Orlando - yet she's literally a rocket scientist?), Nowak attacked Shipman in her car, but couldn't get her to come out.

Besides the disguise, Nowak was carying a BB-gun, but police were more alarmed by a bag Nowak was carrying which contained a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags.

Inside Nowak’s vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel, authorities uncovered a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Shipman and [Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, pilot of the Discovery for its flight last December]. They also found a letter “that indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein,” an opened package for a buck knife, Shipman’s home address and hand written directions to the address, the arrest affidavit said.

Nowak told police that she “only wanted to scare Shipman... " and was initially charged with attempted kidnapping, vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery.

Before she was released, police put two and two together and Nowak is now being held on an additional charge of attempted murder.

posted by Mr. Barkan @ 11:07 AM 0 comments

this really bites

A recent NY Times article pointed out that dental evidence is far from the exact science that some would tell you it is.

"Fifteen years ago, Roy Brown, a hard-drinking man with a criminal record, was convicted of stabbing, beating, biting and strangling a social worker in upstate New York. The case rested largely on one piece of forensic evidence: bite marks on the victim that the prosecution’s witness, a local dentist, said matched Brown’s teeth.

On Tuesday, Brown was released from prison, after DNA testing on the saliva left by the biter proved his innocence and implicated someone else in the crime. At the time of his conviction, Brown, 46, was missing two front teeth. The bite marks, meanwhile, had six tooth imprints..." more

DNA has proven to be one of the more reliable methods of determining the validity of other physical evidence.

posted by Mr. Barkan @ 7:52 PM 0 comments