Event Horizon – The Humanity Behind Homicide Investigations

Not long-ago follower and fellow blogger, GP, (his awesome blog is here) asked a very interesting question concerning my blog on Dr. Murder. His question was if in my experience, was Andy DeShong’s reaction that took the approach of never forgetting the victim in the investigation was a norm. Andy said, “The victim was a person. They were someone’s son or daughter. They were someone’s mother, father, brother, or sister. When someone murders them, they aren’t committing a crime against just that person, but the whole world. A crime against humanity and God.“

Andy was waxing poetic concerning murder. But if you look closely at the wording, he’s explaining his motivation. He goes on to say that it would be a terrible thing to bring the killer to justice, but loose the victim in the middle of it all.

Let’s stop and look at that and let me expand on it.

First, not all detectives think that way. Most have been in the job for a long time and let’s be honest about it, you see some rough stuff. It’s easy to become jaded. And sometimes, it’s easy to forget who the victim was or is.

In my time as a detective, I’ve seen it all. From people ripping off old Veterans to drugs to human trafficking and yes, Murder. And the sad part is, we’re talking about people on both sides of the equation. Some have done the evil deed and been left wondering what they did and why. Others don’t care.

I know a lot of people in Law Enforcement have built a little room in their brain. This is where the cases, the abused kids, the abused spouses, and dead people go. You end up stripping that person of their humanity just so you won’t cry.

Andy is based on a real-life detective who shall go nameless, and while he had little sympathy for the perp of the crime, he had all kinds for the victims. He felt that by reminding himself who these people were, that it made him better at bringing them justice. He wanted to remember them, the emotions he felt, and why he did the job.

I asked him about it once and he told me a story of murdered hooker. Someone had strangled the girl and left her in a rented hotel bed. She left behind a purse without an official ID. The name she ran under, went nowhere. In her purse were a couple of pictures of her as a young girl. She was smiling alongside a young boy she’d been playing with. Another picture was a child he assumed was her learning to walk.

They never found her killer and they never found out who she was. No one ever came asking. She was buried in a corner of a graveyard without a name.

And he realized she’d be forgotten, left in a dusty file and forgotten soon enough. He decided he needed to remember these people and who they once were.

So, my answer would be, he’s more an exception that the rule.

But in Event Horizon, we’ve got four detectives (or at least four people filling the role). Each brings a wealth of strengths to the case. And they bring their own emotional baggage into the game.

Will Diaz – Will is, of course, the central character in this story. He’s also the last person in the world who should have anything to do with this case. He had a relationship with the victim characterized by his statement of:

Webster defines homicide as “The killing of one person by another.”

     Sounds simple enough.

     What Webster doesn’t say is that homicides are something that happen to other people. As a rule, I usually didn’t know the murderer or the victim.  Every homicide I’d ever investigated maintained that rule.

     Now, that had changed.

     Death had reached out and taken a friend. I’d spoken with Eva. I’d heard her dreams, broken bread with her and danced at her wedding.

    Those memories ended here with her dead on the floor.

Has it colored his reaction to the investigation? Absolutely. This was someone he called a friend. They had history together and he was momentarily rendered ineffective as a detective because of that past. And that history is reflected in his interview with Zorro. In a very subtle, manipulative way, he expressed that anger by forcing the man to tell what happened. The telling effectively destroys the man.

This is danger to every investigation out there. Having a relationship with a victim almost means you shouldn’t be there. When I was a rookie officer, a friend of mine and another officer was found beaten, naked, and sexual assaulted. Our Patrol Sgt sent us both home and had us leave our weapons with him.

They didn’t want us anywhere near the incident.

There’s another strike against him. He thinks of the killer as a brother.

Micheal (Jonesy) Jones – Michael is an officer on vacation from LAPD. While not a “Detective” in rank, he and Will did the job in the Army. Like Will, he’s a friend of both Max (our perp – more on him later) and Eva. Like Will, he wants to see justice done. Unlike Will, he stays focused on the case. Will knows Jonsey is affected by the incident, but Jonesy keeps his mouth shut and instead focuses on pulling the information together to make the tracking of Max possible. He hides his emotions to focus on the job.

That’s illustrated here:

“RJ, you got that county map in your ruck?” I asked.

    “I sure do,” he answered. He looked through his ruck and pulled out a topographical map of the county. The map also showed trails and roads.

     I took a pen from my pocket and found our location. “Ok, we’re here. Jonesy, what did you find?”

     Jonesy pointed at a “T” intersection on the map. “I walked up to here. Where do these roads go?”

     I pointed at the one that headed south. “This goes up to La Jara Reservoir. This one,” I said, indicating the one that ran west up into the mountains, “goes up into the Terrace Reservoir area.”

     “The tracks went past the T and kept heading west. He’s going towards your Terrace Reservoir.”

I do get to have a little fun with Jonesy. As he walking down the road getting Will the information he might need, something interesting happens:

A couple of cars passed him as he walked.

     In the years to come, the drivers of those vehicles would create a rural legend that would haunt us for decades.

     The story was that we had the wrong guy in the murder of Eva. Witnesses would say that a big black man, his shirt covered with blood, was seen walking down the county road away from the crime scene. He had a scowl on his face and was muttering as he went along.

     In 1990s Conejos County, Colorado, a person of color walking down a county road was unusual. There was one black man in the entire county, and he was a highly respected teacher.

    We did put out a statement that the man they saw was in fact Officer Michael Jones of the LAPD and that he was assisting us in the investigation.    

Everyone seemed to have missed the story.

RJ Madril – Will calls RJ brother also. In this book, RJ is finally wearing the rank of detective. With Will being the Undersheriff (think XO), the case ends up being RJs front to back. This is a good thing. While he knew Eva, he didn’t have the friendship Will had. He’s the one who’s name will be on investigation and the lack of a relationship with Eva is an advantage here.

The one single strike against him here is this is his first homicide (not exactly true, but that case is still being worked-this case will give him the confidence and knowledge to crack that one). The good news is his father is no stranger to murders and he’s got Dr. Murder along to help advise him. He’s in the position of being the student in charge but he’s got the best teachers in the world to assist him.

He’s also the best person in the world to support Will and Jonesy as they conduct their manhunt in the mountains. One of the good things RJ has working in his favor is he knows what he doesn’t know and isn’t afraid to ask for some help.

But there’s a few places no amount of help can prepare him for.

    “You ready for your first autopsy, RJ?” Jim (he’s the county coroner) asked as they brought the gurney in.

    RJ hadn’t thought about that and went a little pale.

    I’ve helped butcher cattle and sheep, field dress game, and never got sick doing it.  Watching a human being split open like a chicken is a whole different experience.

    I lost my lunch.

And he’s not afraid to give credit where it’s due.

I studied the map. “Good setup on the patrols and observation post.” The setup was denying Max any escape out onto the valley floor and probably pressuring him higher into the mountains.

     “Hey, I’ve read all those FMs of yours,” he said. “And I’ve got this cute Marine. . .”  Pam smiled when he said that. “. . .another Marine and two Army types advising me.”

     “If you ever think about it, I can tell you who to talk to about OCS.”

      He smiled at the thought and then shook his head.     

Then last but not least:

Andy Deshong (AKA – Dr, Murder) – Andy is coming up on retirement. He’s handled dozens of homicides and the fact he’s older and more experienced is just what’s needed here. He helps the younger detectives to stay focused, and yet knows enough to allow them to remain in charge.

The older detective must take their energy, strengths, and talent and focus them towards a successful conclusion to the case. He makes them stay on target as evidenced by this conversation.

Her arms were out as if she were on a cross. Knowing I was messing up the crime scene, I picked up the jacket to look at her.

    Her eyes were open, and they stared up at the tongue and groove ceiling. Like so many girls from Germany, she had blue eyes. I’d always thought they were her best feature.

     As Jonesy and I knelt by her, I half expected to see something in them. Maybe some look of recognition, or at least a look in our direction. 

    But those blue eyes just stared up at the ceiling. There was no motion at all. No change in the pupil size. No tears. Just a blank stare into the face of eternity. 

    The girl who had looked out through those eyes was gone.

     Jonesy and I were trying to understand that this thing on the floor had once been a friend.

     It wasn’t working. 

    “We were at their wedding,” Jonesy said.

    “It was at the Barton Chapel,” I said. “It was June, and the place had flowers all around it. We delivered Max to the chapel in handcuffs.”

    “And forgot the key,” Jonesy added. He chuckled at the memory. “Eva was beside herself.”

    I studied the empty face and eyes. “I remember the chaplain reading the vows and Max promising that he’d love and cherish her forever. I’d handed him the ring that he slipped on her finger.”

     “Eva was smiling,” Jonesy said. 

     That had been one of the best of all possible days.

     Now we knelt next to her on what was one of the worst of all possible days. The evidence of broken vows lay before us. We’d been her friends too and there were only a few things left that we could do for her. 

    One was to carry her to her grave, weep over her, and listen as another preacher spoke words over her. 

    The other was to bring her killer to justice.

    We had sworn we would do such a thing.

    Andy knelt by her head. Not having had a relationship with her made it easy for him to be the detached, clinical investigator. 

    His words snapped us back to the here and now.

   “Looks like the bullet impacted the heart.”

    I looked away from her eyes and down to her chest. There was blood on the shirt, almost directly between her breasts. Amazingly, there was very little blood. Andy’s speaking made me stop thinking of what lay here as a friend’s remains and to made me think like a detective again. 

We have four men in this investigation. One devastated by what’s occurred, another angry, and a third investigating a murder for the first time.

The key here is Dr. Murder, without appearing to be the leader, he’s the one who does the leading.