Theresa Parker 41, Missing 911 Dispatcher , GA 3/21/07(Remains Found)
NickandNora:
We are hoping and praying that Theresa will finally get justice.
NickandNora:
Sam Parker's domestic violence not fully reported
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9ycpUG5Rlo
NickandNora:
Walker County Messenger-http://www.walkermessenger.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Pretrial+testimony+continues+in+Sam+Parker+murder+case%20&id=2948982-Pretrial+testimony+continues+in+Sam+Parker+murder+case&instance=home_news
Dog experts testify
In Tuesday proceedings, Lisa Higgins with the Louisiana Search and Rescue Dog Team was the first to testify. Higgins retired from law enforcement after 30 years and continues to train search-and-rescue dogs.
Higgins said she brought her Australian shepherd named “Maggie” to search for Theresa Parker in April 2007. Maggie has been a certified cadaver dog since 2003 and is trained in searching for decomposed remains. Maggie lets her handlers know she has found decomposed remains by lying down near the scent.
On April 13, 2007, she and Maggie came to Walker County to search for Theresa Parker, she said. While investi-gating vehicles in the impound behind the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, Maggie picked up a scent of decomposing remains and sent an alert, by laying down, when she came across Teresa Parker’s Toyota Forerunner. Maggie also had a change of behavior when she picked up a scent along the rear passenger’s side of the vehicle.
In response to questions from the defense, Higgins said the scent picked up by Maggie is not necessarily human remains.
Assistant public defender Doug Woodruff asked Higgins if Maggie was infallible and Higgins replied, “No, sir.”
The second witness was Martin Grime of the United Kingdom. He is occasionally contracted by the U.S. govern-ment and is a qualified expert in cadaver dogs.
Grime displayed five videos of his search dog “Eddie,” trained to search for human decomposition. The videos, filmed at the LaFayette Police Department during September 2007, displayed the dog’s ability to pick up on alert scents and did not show any video of the dog searching for the remains of Teresa Parker.
On Sept. 20, 2007, Eddie and Grime traveled to Sam Parker’s residence at 95 Cordell Ave. in LaFayette for the dog to search the property.
During Woodruff’s questioning, Grime said Eddie was used to search the residence — inside, around and under-neath — and found nothing. But in the garage area, between a boat and a pickup truck, Eddie gave an alert of a scent.
Woodruff asked Grime why he did not search the pickup. Grime said that he only screened the areas he was asked to search and if there had been a scent, Eddie would have picked it up.
The courtroom became tense when Woodruff questioned Grime’s reading of the dog and their legitimacy, giving various hypothetical scenarios, such as the dog smelling food instead of remains. Grime replied, “I can’t predict the dog’s behavior. I study the dog’s behavior. You are trying to put words in my mouth and I don’t deal in hypotheti-cals.”
Law enforcement agents testify
GBI special agent James Harris, who conducted an initial interview with Sam Parker and performed a search of his property in March 2007, was brought to the stand.
District attorney Leigh Patterson questioned Harris on the various search and evidence warrants, all of which Sam Parker agreed to.
The warrants included Sam Parker’s residence at 95 Cordell Ave., the area around the residence and the areas adjacent to the residence; Sam Parker’s deceased father’s Trion residence; Sam Parker’s LaFayette Police Depart-ment locker; Sam Parker’s patrol vehicle; and DNA swabs from Sam Parker’s mouth and Teresa Parker’s Toyota Forerunner.
FBI special agent Marcus Veazy was cross-examined about placing a tracking device on the Toyota Forerunner and about the DNA swabbing.
GBI special agent Dan Simms and Walker County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Burt Cagle were questioned by public de-fender David Dunn on why the Toyota Forerunner was eventually driven by Simms to the Sheriff’s Office, if the seat had been moved back to fit Simms’ 6-foot-2-inch frame, and if they took samples from a burn pile on Sam Parker’s property.
Simms said he wanted to get the vehicle processed before Sam Parker changed his mind on consent.
Cagle said he remained with Sam Parker, while Simms investigated the burn pile and took the vehicle in for ex-amination.
Both men, at separate times during questioning, said that when they asked Sam Parker if the vehicle could be taken in for examination, Parker said, “Go ahead and take it. I don’t need it anymore.”
I bolded the words above.
Nora
NickandNora:
More about the cadaver dog debate...
http://www.newschannel9.com/news/dog-982846-send-life.html
"...We also saw video played in the courtroom to demonstrate how another dog, Eddie, found a sample pair of pants hidden in the Walker County Jail that was perfumed with a cadaver scent. Eddie is an English Springer Spaniel belonging to Martin Grime, a world-renown forensic K-9 expert based in the United Kingdom.
Grime testified he was paid $450 a day, plus travel and living expenses, by the FBI to search some areas in Walker County in connection with Teresa Parker's disappearance.
During a visit to Parker's home back in September 2007 Grime said he and Eddie sniffed around their garage.
"He immediately gave a positive bark response within the garage between a truck parked to the left of the entrance and a boat parked to the right," Grime said.
Grime added Eddie did not seem interested in the vehicles but in a scent that was wafting in the air, based on the way the dog held his nose upward. Grime said Eddie then "hit" on an abandoned house next door. Testimony shows that house was never repaired after a fire gutted the inside and killed a child several years ago.
During lengthy cross-examination Grime said there is no evidence to show Eddie smelled anything incriminating against or linked to Mr. Parker. Like Higgins, Grime said cadaver dogs can only prove useful when there is other evidence that corroborates the dog's "hits."
The FBI has a keen interest in the outcome of this case. If Parker is convicted the case could pave the legal way for future prosecutions where there is no evidence other than dog "hits" in connection with a person accused of murder.
Toward the end of the day Judge Wood learned that while Grime has international acclaim he has never testified as an expert witness in the United States.
Testimony ended Tuesday with a couple Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents saying Mr. Parker has always been cooperative with the investigation and allowed them to do whatever they wanted on his property.
A third day of testimony begins at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday.
NickandNora:
http://www.myspace.com/theresaparker911
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