Cold Case Murder of Krystal Beslanowitch, 1995

Forensic Science Case study

1. Navaira Arif (18) Yumna Saeed (08) Haris Munir (28) Rabia Ikram (19)

2. Cold Case Murder of Krystal Beslanowitch, 1995

3. What Happened? On December 6, 1995, the body of a 17 year old girl was found in the Provo River in Utah. She was found naked and beaten to death with a rock and the granite crushed her skull. River where body was found Crime Scene

4. The Victim

5. The Investigation The police had the alleged murder weapon, a rock from the Provo river, but without a blood, hair or saliva sample, DNA could not be collected that did not belong to Beslanowitch. The investigation took place for two years and eventually ran dry.

6. Evidences Circumstantial, Biological and Individual Blood, Finger Prints Circumstantial, Class and Biological Circumstantial, Physical and Class Hairs Fibers

7. Even though her choices in living weren't the best, the cops still thought this 18 year old needed justice for such a terrible crime. One cop would not give up and spent a lot of his time trying to figure out who it was.

8. Principal Investigator Todd Bonner

9. M-Vac Because of technological advancements between 1995 and 2013 , a new discovery led to Bonner solving this crime The M-Vac is a wet-vacuum based forensic DNA collection device that sucks up any DNA left on an object after a person has touched it

10. “It could glean 40 percent more DNA from a saliva stain on polyester than a cotton swab, and 88 percent more from a blood stain on nylon fabric” –The Salt Lake Tribune

11. Using M-Vac, finger Prints were found at the crime scene on the granite rock that was used to kill Crystal The forensic analysts used the DNA extracted from the finger prints to create a profile to find the person responsible for the murder

12. The Suspect Joseph Michael Simpson

13. Police travelled to Florida, where Simpson was living at the time, and after following him for days they were able to collect a sample of his DNA off of a cigarette that he had tossed on the ground This evidence allowed police to convict him of first degree murder

14. Motive There is no definite motive but the most probable is that Simpson had to kill Crystal was somehow connected to drugs or prostitution. He had also been on parole for a previous convicted murder case which could’ve triggered him further to go about his heinous crime.

15. He was on parole for a 1987 second-degree felony murder conviction when he killed Beslanowitch The 4th District Court jurors debated for less than an hour on Friday and sentenced him to life without parole