The Cold Case of the False Arrow

Harry London, a detective retiring from the Knoxville, Tennessee Police Department, frowned when he handed me the file.

"I knew who the killer was, but I couldn't arrest him. I had a ton of reasons he was the killer but it was all circumstantial. There was no firm evidence whatsoever and I couldn't get the son of a bitch to confess, so the DA couldn't prosecute. Maybe you and Rochelle can do better."

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If you haven't read my other cold case stories, I'll give you a short bio on myself and Rochelle. I'm Richard Owens, a detective for the Knoxville, Tennessee Police Department and mostly I try to solve the backlog of cold cases in the department files. Rochelle Roberts is my civilian partner as well as the woman I live with. She's a writer who makes her living writing murder mysteries based on real crimes. We met when my former employer, the Nashville, Tennessee Police Department agreed to let her tag along on one of my cases.

Together, we solved that case and also figured out that we were a really good fit together. Rochelle has certain needs that I seem to be able to take care of, and I'm more than willing to give her everything she needs. Rochelle owned a house in Knoxville and I was living in an apartment in Nashville. It seemed easier for me to move to Knoxville, so that's what I did.

We live together, but we've both been divorced so while we love each other, we're not ready to make things permanent, at least not for a while. One divorce hurts pretty bad. A second would be unbearable for both of us.

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After I read through the case file, I could see why Harry hadn't been able to solve the case.

On November 6, 1999, two bow hunters went out to their tree stands at about five in the morning. By nine that morning, Mr. Arnold Stinson decided he wasn't going to get a shot that morning and climbed down from his tree stand. His hunting buddy, Mr. Roy Johnson, had a tree stand about two hundred yards from Mr. Stinson's, so Mr. Stinson walked over to tell Mr. Johnson they should leave and come back that afternoon.

When Mr. Stinson reached Mr. Johnson's tree stand, he found Mr. Johnson lying on his back with an arrow in his chest. Mr. Stinson determined that Mr. Johnson was dead because Mr. Johnson had no detectable pulse and he wasn't breathing. Mr. Stinson left the body there and walked back to his pickup to call the police.

While Harry and the Coroner examined Mr. Johnson's body, the crime scene techs began searching the area for any evidence. What they found told them that Mr. Johnson had indeed died at the scene, but there might be a different cause than the arrow. That was because about fifteen feet from where Mr. Johnson's body had been found, Suzie Majors, a new tech, found a brass cartridge case that was almost hidden by some leaves. The cartridge case looked new, so she bagged it and then showed it to Harry and the Coroner.

Harry didn't recognize the cartridge case and neither did the Coroner, but both agreed the arrow might not be the cause of death. The Coroner said he'd have to get Mr. Johnson back to his lab to be sure.

That opinion was reinforced by Ricky Jones, a tech who hunted deer with a bow. Ricky said he'd killed a lot of deer with his compound bow, and unless the arrow hit something solid like the deer's shoulder blade, it was usual for the arrow to go all the way through the deer's body. He'd usually find the arrow in the grass beside where the deer had been shot. Since Mr. Johnson wasn't a big man, if he'd been shot with the arrow, the arrow would have probably gone completely through his body. The arrow in Mr. Johnson's body appeared to have entered his chest and kept on going until about six inches was protruding from his back.

The other reason according to Ricky was that there didn't appear to have been any attempt by Mr. Johnson to run. Ricky told Harry that the purpose of a broadhead arrow is to cause massive internal bleeding, and that most of the deer he'd shot ran at least a few feet before they died. He said he'd had to follow some deer for hundreds of feet. Ricky didn't see how a hit by one arrow would have made Mr. Johnson just drop in his tracks.

When the techs had finished sweeping the area and taking pictures of everything, they loaded Mr. Johnson's body with the arrow still in his chest into the Coroner's van. Harry and the techs followed the van back to the station.

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After the techs finished dusting the cartridge case for prints and finding none, and the swabbing the outside for DNA, Harry took the case to Jack McCormack, the firearms expert for the Knoxville Crime Lab.

Jack took one look at the headstamp on the case and told Harry the case had started out as a NATO compliant 5.62 x 45 round used in the M-16 and variants and also in a lot of different NATO firearms.

"The plus sign in the circle designates it as NATO compliant. The LC designates it as having been manufactured by the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri and the 95 means it was manufactured in 1995. The dots indicate which station on Lake City's loading machine produced the cartridge."

Harry said it didn't look like the 5.56 cartridges he'd used in the Army, and Jack nodded.

"It started out a 5.56 but it's been reformed into something else. Give me an hour or two and I'll tell you what firearm fired it."

An hour later, Jack had identified the case as being a 5.56 case reformed for a 7.62 x 25 Tokarev pistol, and he said it wasn't an amateur job.

"This is a NATO compliant 5.56 case shortened and necked down to form a case for the 7.62 x 25 Tokarev round. You can buy both surplus and new factory rounds for the 7.62 Tokarev from a few European countries, but they're usually Berdan primed and can't be reloaded. The ability to reload the cases is important to people who routinely shoot the Tokarev round because new ammunition tends to be more expensive than ammunition for common calibers like the 9 millimeter,.38 Special,.44 Special and their magnum versions. That's because demand for the Tokarev round isn't very high.

"New ammunition is also has a bit less performance as far as muzzle velocity because the same cartridge can be used in pistols that can't handle the pressures generated by the military loads, like the Mauser 96 Broomhandle. The Tokarev round will feed and fire in a 96, but it might blow the side out of the chamber. To be safe, manufactures load the Tokarev round to prevent that. Those lighter loads can cause feeding problems in pistols designed for the Tokarev round like the original Tokarev TT-33, the Zastava M57, and the Chinese copies of both. Handloading is the cheapest way to have a supply of Tokarev rounds.

"Whoever did this knew what he was doing. Anybody can easily neck down a 5.56 case to the right dimensions with a case-forming die. It'll be too long, but you just cut off the excess and use a case trimmer to cut the case neck down to the right dimension and square it up.

"The problem with doing it is that since the 5.56 cartridge generates some pretty high chamber pressures, the case walls get thicker as they go from the neck to the head. You have to ream out the inside of the reformed case before loading it for a Tokarev. Depending upon the size of the bullet you use, If you leave the case walls as they are, the bullet will either expand the case mouth and cause feeding issues or the reduced internal capacity of the case will raise the chamber pressures too high for the pistol. The guy who made this case knew that and he reamed the case neck to compensate for the thicker case walls."

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The Coroner's autopsy determined the wound channel wasn't just tissue sliced through by the broadhead. It was the tissue disruption caused they the shock wave of the bullet hitting Mr. Johnson's body. The coroner also noted that both the wound track and the path of the arrow were nearly perpendicular to Mr. Johnson's chest. He'd been shot while standing on the ground and not while in his tree stand.

In their search of the area, the techs hadn't found any indication that Mr. Johnson had tried to run or had put up a fight. It looked to them and to Harry as if Mr. Johnson was just standing on the ground when he was shot and then fell or was rolled onto his back since most of the blood pool was under his body.

Harry could put both men in the same area at the same time, and since it was on property that the owner only allowed the two men to hunt, there wouldn't have been any other hunters in the area. Harry had confirmed that with the property owner. Since the two men knew each other, Mr. Johnson would probably not have suspected he was about to be shot. Mr. Stinson was also apparently the last person to see Mr. Johnson alive.

To Harry, it was obvious that Mr. Johnson's hunting partner had shot him and then used brute force to push an arrow through the bullet hole and out the other side. It would have been fairly easy to do since the broadhead had four razor sharp blades and the arrow shaft size was only a few thousandths of an inch larger than the hole the 7.62 bullet would have left.

Harry's problem was the only witness was Mr. Stinson and even after several hours of questioning, Mr. Stinson stuck to his story. Harry did check on the arrows Mr. Stinson had with him, but they didn't match the arrow in Mr. Johnson's chest. Neither did the arrows in Mr. Johnson's quiver. With no prints and no DNA on the arrow or the cartridge case, Harry didn't have much to go on.

Harry did talk to the friends and spouses of both men, but got nothing of use in the case. Everybody he talked to said Mr. Johnson and Mr. Stinson were friends almost to the point of acting like brothers. None of them had any reason to suspect Mr. Stinson would have a motive for killing Mr. Johnson.

In the end, Harry had a solid suspect but with no evidence that would get him a search warrant to look for the pistol or to arrest Mr. Stinson for murder.

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In all the investigations I'd done into murders, I'd learned that two things are true. The first is that there is no such thing as a perfect murder. The killer always leaves something behind or takes something with him. It might be really difficult to find, but it's always there. In this case, the killer had left one cartridge case and that cartridge case was for a rather unusual weapon. All the indications also told me that the killer was pretty skilled at reloading his own cartridges. That should narrow down the field of suspects.

The second thing I'd learned is that somebody either knows who killed the victim or at least has a strong suspicion about who the killer is. They'll almost always lie for a variety of reasons. Loyalty to the killer or fear of the killer are probably the most common reasons. Harry just hadn't talked to the right people in the right way.

I couldn't fault Harry for that. At the time of the murder, he was one of the few detectives in the Knoxville PD and had his hands full with current cases that were easier to solve. Every police department keeps a record of the percentage of cases solved by every officer and detective so they can prove to the city budget committee that they are using their budget to the city's advantage. There's also the fact that just like in any other occupation, promotions and the resulting salary increases depend to a great extent upon successfully solving cases.

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I took a copy of the file home with me and gave it to Rochelle to read while I took a shower and changed clothes. When I came out of our bedroom, she was looking at the pictures of the crime scene.

"It's no wonder Harry couldn't solve this case. There's nothing here to work with except a man that's been killed by a bullet and then had an arrow pushed into his chest."

I nodded.

"That's what Harry thought, but there's probably more to the story. We just have to dig deep enough to find it.

"Since the two biggest motives for murder are money and infidelity I'll start looking into Mr. Johnson's and Mr. Stinson's finances. I can't get bank records for either Mr. Johnson or Mr. Stinson for that far back because the law says they have to be retained for only five years. I might be able to get a report from a mortgage company if neither paid off a mortgage until after 2022. A mortgage company would keep a record of every payment from the origin of the loan until it's paid off and by law they have to keep those records for at least three years from the date the last mortgage payment is made.

If I can find out what credit cards they have, I'll request a warrant for those as well, but without talking to them, I'd have to issue a warrant to every national credit card company. That can wait until we have more information.

"Maybe you can look into the infidelity angle. If the Johnson's were having problems, it could be that Mr. Johnson refused to divorce his wife so she either killed him or hired someone else to do it."

"You mean like Mr. Stinson?"

"Well, could be, but everybody Harry talked to said the two men were more like brothers than friends. Harry still thought it was Mr. Stinson, but I'm not sure. I need more evidence to be sure. Harry confirmed with the owner of the property where they were hunting that they were the only hunters there, but it was dark when they got there. It would have been pretty easy for someone else who knew the location of Mr. Johnson's tree stand to get there without being seen, wait for Mr. Johnson to get there, and then kill him."

Rochelle closed the folder and then smiled.

"That can wait until tomorrow. I made fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and asparagus for dinner. After that I want some dessert."

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It was tough getting out of bed the next morning, not because I hadn't slept well, but because Rochelle wouldn't let me go. I've learned that once is definitely not enough for Rochelle. She'll settle for once when we go to bed, but she usually feels like a repeat the next morning. That morning was no different.

I woke up because Rochelle had her heavy breasts pressed into my chest and she was playing with my cock. When I opened my eyes, there was Rochelle grinning.

"Thought this might wake you up. We have half an hour before I need to fix breakfast. Think we can find something to do?"

Rochelle's "something to do" entailed her stroking my cock rigid and then pulling me on my side. It took her a few tries to get my cock in the right position, but when she did, she spread her thighs and pulled on my ass until my cock was buried in her up to the balls. She moaned a little moan and then lifted her left breast up to my mouth. A few little pinches with my lips and then a little sucking had her moaning and rocking her hips to stroke my cock in and out.

It's usually best to just let her do what she wants when she does this. She doesn't make regular strokes. It's just stroke herself over my cock, then stay that way for a few seconds, and then ease her body back out. All I have to do is try like hell to keep from cumming and that's hard. Rochelle has this way of making me feel every little ripple inside her. That and the fact that she gets more vocal the closer she gets makes it really easy for me to lose control. When I was twenty, I'd have been cumming by the tenth stroke. Thankfully, I've gotten older and can stave off the inevitable until Rochelle is ready.

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When I got to my desk, walked down to the County Clerk's office and asked Rachael if she had any records of home purchases for Mr. Roy Johnson or Mr. Arnold Stinson. Rachael smiled and said she'd need an hour or so to check and that she'd call me when she had something.

After I walked back to my desk, I tried to imagine what had happened at the crime scene. I end up doing a lot of that with these old cases. Today, the techs can video the scene from several angles and then use a computer to generate a 3-D model of the scene just like architects do with a building they've designed. Some crime scene departments even have laser scanners that map the crime scene in three dimensions. That model stays in memory forever, so it's easy to make a virtual walk through the scene at any time. I had to rely on still photos.

It looked to me like the original investigation was right. There was little disturbance of any leaves or other ground trash around the body other than a slight discoloration from some overturned leaves on the ground that was probably the killer walking up to and then away from the body.

If the body had been found a week or two after the murder, it was possible that wind, rain, or other animals might have covered any signs that Mr. Johnson had been killed elsewhere and than dragged to the scene. Since only around five hours had elapsed since both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Stinson walked into the woods, Mr. Johnson had probably been killed right where he fell.

Something that was a little odd was that there didn't appear to be much in the way of disturbance of the ground around the body. In my limited experience, it's rare that a person who has been shot just drops to the ground and lies still. Death usually causes at least a few involuntary contractions in the muscles of the arms and legs. I decided I'd talk to our current Coroner, Ron Blake, and see if he had any ideas.

Another thing that seemed odd was that apparently Mr. Johnson didn't have his bow in his hand when he was killed. It was leaning against a tree in the background. That same tree had a ladder leading up to the tree stand on that tree. It looked to me like Mr. Johnson had walked to his tree stand but instead of climbing the ladder had set his bow against the tree and then walked back to the spot where he was killed. I couldn't figure out why he'd do that unless someone else was there to stop him. Mr. Johnson either knew the killer really well or the killer forced him to do that at gunpoint.

Another question Harry hadn't been able to answer was where did the arrow in Mr. Johnson's chest come from? The techs had taken a close-up picture of Mr. Johnson's bow that showed an arrow quiver on the bow. I counted six spaces for arrows and there was an arrow in each space. Mr. Johnson wouldn't have had a reason to bring a seventh arrow, and even if he had, he probably wouldn't have tried to climb the ladder to his tree stand while holding an arrow with four razor sharp edges on the broadhead. That told me that the killer must have brought the arrow with him.

Mr. Stinson wasn't in any of the pictures, but that was normal. As soon as he'd shown the officers and Harry the scene, one of the uniforms would have taken him aside to interrogate him and also to keep him away from the scene so he wouldn't accidentally or intentionally cover up or otherwise disturb any remaining evidence. I couldn't find anything in the officer's reports that mentioned Mr. Stinson's bow or how many arrows he had with him.

The only mention of the arrows at all was in Harry's report and was the statement by Ricky that all three arrows had carbon fiber shafts, but with different colors of fletching. The arrow in Mr. Johnson's body had light blue fletching with one white vane, while Mr. Johnson's arrows had orange fletching with one white vane. Mr. Stinson's arrows were fletched in green but were different in that the nocks had had little lights in them.

Ricky said when the arrow was pulled against the bowstring, it would permanently close a switch inside the nock and make the internal light come on. The tiny little battery in the nock would keep the light on for about two days unless it was shut off with a little screwdriver. That was to make it easier to find an arrow that had missed or that had passed through a deer. Ricky said it also acted like a tracer in a rifle bullet and would show the archer the path of the arrow. If the archer missed and assuming his target was still there, he could nock another arrow and adjust his aim to compensate.