Capture

Crime Date: December 27, 2015

Crime: Home Invasion/Attempted Murder

Agency: Ormond Beach, FL Police Department

Ormond Beach Police officers responded to a report of a stabbing that occurred during a residential burglary.

Police said a couple were asleep inside their home when the female resident was awakened by noise inside the home.  When she went to check, she was attacked by the suspect and stabbed approximately seven times.  Her husband was also attacked and suffered seven stab wounds. While the motive for the attack was unclear, both survived and were able to provide police with a description of their assailant.

Two days after the attack, Ormond Police requested the aid of Port Orange Police detectives.  They responded to the hospital where they worked with the victims to produce a composite sketch of the suspect using SketchCop FACETTE.

Once the composite image was released to the public, police received several telephone tips, including one from a father who told police the sketch resembled his son, Michael Phillips, age 19.  Detectives assembled a photographic line-up and both victims selected Phillips, who was later arrested and charged in the case.

I was later contacted by the detective who created the sketch.  He commented, “without the assistance of your software, it is unclear if this case would have been solved.”

Crime Date: July 28, 2015

Crime: Murder, Att. Murder of a Police Officer

Agency: Kern County, CA Sheriff’s Department

On July 28, 2015, three men were taken hostage after they confronted an armed suspect they believed to be living in a cabin illegally.  For the next several hours, he held the men hostage, threatening to kill them. It wasn’t until later they were able to escape and alert authorities. A short time later, they helped construct a composite sketch of the suspect that was widely distributed in the media.

Deputies immediately began conducting an area search for the suspect.  Two days later their search intensified when a retired dentist was found murdered inside another cabin 10 miles away.

On August 1, 2015, members of the Kern County Sheriff’s SWAT team were assisting deputies when they came under fire during a search inside a Kelso Valley mobile home. The armed confrontation led to two deputies receiving non-life threatening wounds and the suspect’s escape.

For the next two weeks, Kern County Sheriff’s deputies conducted the largest manhunt in the department’s history.  During the investigation, fingerprint and DNA evidence led to the identification of Benjamin Peter Ashley, 34, a homeless drifter with a lengthy arrest record, who was alleged to have access to numerous firearms.

It wasn’t until about two and a half weeks after their search began that deputies received a break in the case.

On Saturday, August 14, 2015, a citizen reported that Ashley was inside an Inyokern convenience market making a large purchase of junk food items. Deputies quickly responded to confront Ashley as he left the store.  During their contact with him, an officer-involved shooting occurred during which Ashley was killed.

 

 

Crime Date: August 8, 2014

Crime: Residential Burglary Series

Agency: Auglaize County, OH Sheriff’s Office

Several law enforcement agencies in Western Ohio were investigating a series of residential burglaries committed by an unknown suspect they called, “The Pillowcase Bandit”.  During his crime spree, that lasted several months, the suspect broke into approximately twenty-nine homes in Auglaize, Logan, Shelby and Allen Counties.  After connecting the dots, sheriff’s detectives from all four agencies began working together to identify and arrest the suspect.

A break in the case came during one of the burglaries when he was confronted by two sisters, ages 9 and 13.  The sisters were home alone when they left their bedroom to investigate a noise coming from another area inside the house.  After surprising one another, The Pillowcase Bandit fled, while the girls hid inside a closet.  The next day, they sat down with a Special Agent from the Ohio State Attorney General’s Office – Bureau of Criminal Identification to create a composite sketch.

The sketch depicted a suspect with long blonde hair.  Allen County Sheriff’s Deputies had recently arrested Mark Ball, age 51, on a theft/burglary warrant after he was identified through his DNA left at a crime scene.

Once word of his arrest reached Auglaize County Sheriff’s Department, they learned that Ball matched the composite sketch.  He admitted to the series of burglaries and the cases will be submitted to prosecutors.

 

Crime Date: March 6, 2013

Crime: Bank Robbery

Agency: Grand Prairie TX Police Department

On December 31, 2012 an unknown subject began a series of bank robberies in Dallas, TX.  Over the next six months, he terrorized financial institutions throughout surrounding communities.  Police worked hard to identify him; however their efforts were thwarted by a black, tight-fitting, mesh mask he wore over his face to conceal his identity from well-placed bank surveillance cameras.  Not long after the series began, authorities dubbed him – ‘The Mesh Masked Bandit’.

On March 6, 2013, in Grand Prairie, TX, police received their first break.  A customer witnessed the subject loitering outside the Grand Bank of Texas.  The witness watched as the suspect pulled his mask on prior to entering the bank to commit another robbery.  Luckily, this same witness caught a glimpse of the subject’s face.  The witness was later able to meet with an investigator to create the above composite image which received widespread attention.

Tips began pouring in as the robberies continued.  Shortly after the suspect’s 19^th robbery, Luis Delagarza was identified as ‘The Mesh Masked Bandit’.  He was arrested by local F.B.I. agents and charged with bank robbery.

Crime Date: April 2 and 4, 2013

Crime: Indecent Exposure

Agency: La Quinta Police Department (Riverside County Sheriff’s Department)

On Tuesday, April 2, 2013 and Thursday, April 4, 2013, officers from the La Quinta Police Department responded to an indecent exposure call that occurred in the area of Victoria Drive and Diane Street in La Quinta. Their investigation revealed that at 2:30 p.m., a male adult driving a red sports utility vehicle exposed himself to female juveniles who were walking in the area. Deputies searched the area, but were unable to locate the suspect. Witnesses later helped investigators create a composite image of the suspect.
One week after the original incident, on Tuesday, April 09, 2013, Thermal Station Investigators in conjunction with the La Quinta Police Department, and the Indio Police Department were working a joint operation in the area of the two previously reported indecent exposure incidents. At 2:35 p.m., an officer from the Indio Police Department observed the suspect vehicle in the area of Desert Stream Drive and Bridgette Way in La Quinta. The driver of the vehicle was detained and positively identified as the suspect from both incidents after officers noted his resemblance to the composite image provided by eyewitnesses..

Crime Date: 11/10/12

Crime: Aggravated Robbery

Agency: Grand Prairie, TX Police Department

On 11/10/2012 the Grand Prairie police Department responded to a report of an Aggravated Robbery.  A female employee of a housing development company was inside a model home alone when a Caucasian male suspect entered the location with a knife.  The suspect threatened her with the knife while robbing her of her purse and property.  Detective Tracy Hinson interviewed the victim and completed a sketch of the suspect. The sketch was disseminated to patrol officers. A patrol officer immediately recognized the sketch as a homeless man he stopped a week before the robbery near the location where the robbery occurred.  Detective Hinson compared a current mugshot of the subject against the sketch and it was almost an identical match. As a result, the suspect has been arrested and is awating prosecution.