Forensic Files 5

*TV Show: Forensic Files

S7E12: Scout’s Honor

*Location: Perry County, Pennsylvania.

*Date: May 27th, 1984

*What happened: A bypassing fishermen found a large box, when opened he discovered a torso of a woman. At first investigators could not identify the woman. The only evidence the police contained was a pair of jeans and a belt that had John Doe’s zodiac sign. A year of no leads a woman called filing a report that her ex-sister-in-law had been missing for some time that matched the physical description of the torso. It belonged to Edna Posey, a single mother that had a very troubled life. She had an 11 year old son that she asked his boy’s scout leader to take in. Donald Ruby and wife started a boy’s scout group for troubled young men. Edna tried to get her life together and moved to Virginia to do so. She agreed to spend one weekend in May with her son where she died. Donald Ruby was accused of killing Edna because all the signs were there. He spent 6 years in prison before he was proved innocent. Investigators confirmed through bug testing that Edna had been dead for about 2 days, and with further testing it was also confirmed that there were 3 different types of semen in Edna indicating that she slept with 3 different men and any of them could have killed her.  

*What evidence was collected:

1. Pair of pants
2. Box
3. Belt with zodiac sign on it

*What did the evidence show (testing results): Investigators  found a pair of pants and belt along with the torso of the victim. It took them a while to identify the woman, but with the help of insect testing investigators were able to get some sort of time frame Edna died between.