1933 'Murder': The Boy Drowned; No Maniacal Killer
Tony Perry
Chicago Tribune
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San Diego, California(US):
More than seven decades after the case horrified the city and triggered calls for a crackdown on "all known degenerates," the Sheriff's Department announced it has solved the mysterious death of 7-year-old Dalbert Aposhian.
When the boy's mutilated body was found floating in San Diego Bay in July 1933, police concluded that he had been killed by a sex fiend.The coroner's office made the same finding and said the murder weapon was probably a knife similar to those issued to sailors.With other local murders unsolved, local newspapers for weeks had blood-curdling headlines about a maniacal killer on the loose.
But the cold case unit of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, after asking the current medical examiner's office to review detailed autopsy pictures, concluded late last week that the boy accidentally drowned and his body was mutilated by marine life."This was an unfortunate case of someone who fell into the water while playing," said Dr. Jonathan Lucas, deputy medical examiner.
Since 1933, pathologists have learned a great deal more about what bodies look like after being submerged in water and attacked by marine life, Lucas said.
Dec 18, 2005
Tony Perry
Chicago Tribune
____________
San Diego, California(US):
More than seven decades after the case horrified the city and triggered calls for a crackdown on "all known degenerates," the Sheriff's Department announced it has solved the mysterious death of 7-year-old Dalbert Aposhian.
When the boy's mutilated body was found floating in San Diego Bay in July 1933, police concluded that he had been killed by a sex fiend.The coroner's office made the same finding and said the murder weapon was probably a knife similar to those issued to sailors.With other local murders unsolved, local newspapers for weeks had blood-curdling headlines about a maniacal killer on the loose.
But the cold case unit of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, after asking the current medical examiner's office to review detailed autopsy pictures, concluded late last week that the boy accidentally drowned and his body was mutilated by marine life."This was an unfortunate case of someone who fell into the water while playing," said Dr. Jonathan Lucas, deputy medical examiner.
Since 1933, pathologists have learned a great deal more about what bodies look like after being submerged in water and attacked by marine life, Lucas said.
Dec 18, 2005
