I Must Be Really Good
July 10, 2000 at 10:38 AM, I met with a 19 year old white male who had reported to his local Police Dept. that upon entering his place of employment at 3:45 AM July 08, 2000, he encountered a 35 to 40 year old white male already in the closed business. He described the suspect as about 6' tall weighing 145 to 150 Lbs., with brown eyes, dark hair and an orange toned mustache. The victim told the suspect that the business was closed and noticed that the suspect was pushing a shopping cart with meat products inside. The suspect then called the victim over to himself and told him to turn around while grabbing the back of his shirt and making a gesture with his right hand as if he had a weapon in his waistband. The victim says he was with the suspect between 1 and 2 minutes before being pushed into a cooler and told to stay there for 30 minutes. Before entering the store the victim noticed an old tan Ford F-150 pickup in the parking lot with the hood up. the truck had a black front right fender. After staying in the cooler for about 30 minutes, the victim went home to phone the police and while leaving noticed that the truck was gone.
The Market Manager reported around $900. in meat products missing, mostly family packs. The Investigator who is also a customer photographed the meat display coolers and commented they seemed normally stocked at the time of investigation.
The victim made selections from the FBI Facial Identification Catalog which included head shape, eyes, brows, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, hair, facial hair facial lines and forehead. Two days later, when a line drawing had been developed from these selections, the victim made no changes to any features except the mustache which he darkened. Two days from that interview the victim looked at a completed drawing which included tone and shadow and again made no changes, but said it looked "just like" the suspect. Three interviews and only one change and the victim says the composite looks just like the suspect. Man, I must be REALLY, REALLY GOOD.
What do you think? Do you have any ideas on this case? Let us hear from you. Weeks after completing this composite I met with the investigator in charge of the case who told me that he had a photograph of a local man who looked exactly like the composite, however the person is a truck driver and was in South Carolina when the burglary took place, and that's why a composite alone is never enough to identify a suspect.
I suggested the Investigator determine if the young man reporting the crime knew the truck driver, but I've never heard anything more on the case.