By WILL PERKINS
Glasgow News 1
A cold case came alive Monday afternoon in Caitlin Rigdon’s forensics class at Glasgow High School as Bill Carter, a captain with the Indianapolis Police Department, spoke to students about an investigation he helped solve using information he found on social media.
Carter said he helped solve the 1989 cold-case murder of Amy Weidner by using leads from Facebook. He outlined details from this particular case and also discussed the use of DNA databases when solving crimes.
Although he used social media to connect some dots, Carter said there is a lot of misinformation circulating online.
“If you go to like YouTube and watch videos on these cases, they are way off,” he said, adding that sometimes locations, years and other facts can be incorrect. “So take it as it is. If you see a podcast or something like that, unless the detective or the family members are on there, you don’t know what’s being said (is accurate).”
Rigdon said having Carter speak to her students might help them visualize some concepts they have been studying in class.
“We’ve been talking about DNA profiling and creating a DNA fingerprint,” Rigdon said. “Talked about the federal database for DNA and (Carter) really touched on that a lot with his second case, how they came to find a person of interest.”
Rigdon added that she always strives to have her students make these kinds of real-world connections with course content, and takes “any opportunity for our kids to talk to somebody who is using this technology in the real world.”
After his presentation to students, Carter told Glasgow News 1 that the most rewarding part about helping solve a cold case is the relief it gives to the victim’s family.
“It’s hard to give them hope 20 years later,” Carter said. “But then when you give them that arrest, you’ve given them something that they’ve given up on.”
Rigdon said she enjoyed listening to Carter talk about the technology used to create a profile of a criminal based on genealogical DNA.
“It’s like the modern version of the old-school sketching of what a criminal will look like,” she said. “I just think that was really cool.”
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