Michael Gargiulo

Name
Institution
Professor
Course
Date
Why couldn’t the Cook County Sheriff’s Office solve the 1993 Tricia Pacaccio murder?
The Cooks County Sheriff’s Office was unable to solve the murder in 1993 due to lack of enough evidence against the suspect.
The state Attorney of the time Richard A. Devine instructed the police not to arrest Gargiulo at that time as his prosecutor argues that the DNA present on Pacaccio may have been left there by the suspect innocently.
What evidence did they have?
Evidence present at the time was foreign DNA that was located in Pacaccio fingernails. This evidence was however deemed not admissible in court as Gargiulo had been present in the victims’ house the night before. This made the detectives rule out that the DNA could have been from “casual contact” between the victim and the suspect.
What mistakes were made that hindered the investigation?
By allowing the suspect to move out to California even with a pending investigation on him, the Sheriff’s Office made a mistake. Travel restrictions should have been imposed until the case is closed.
The presence of DNA should have been evidence enough to have the suspect taken in and charged with murder, but the sheriff’s office went a bit sloppy in implementing this verdict.
What were potential leads/evidence in each case (Pacaccio, Maria Bruno, and Ashley Ellerin)?
The presence of the suspects DNA in the three cases provided the best lead in building this cases.
The suspe…