Coroner: DNA not critical to foster child murder case
Investigators say it's impossible to extract genetic material from tiny bone fragments
By Dave Greber
Middletown Journal (Cincinnati, Ohio)
November 04, 2006
CINCINNATI — Investigators say it's impossible to extract DNA data from bone and tissue believed to be from the body of Marcus Fiesel, found near Higginsport in eastern Brown County this summer.
However, DNA is not critical to the case against Marcus' foster parents, Liz and David Carroll Jr., who are charged with killing the developmentally disabled Middletown boy in August.
In September, the Hamilton County Coroner's office gathered 18 pieces of bone and tissue fragments consistent with a 2- to 4-year-old at the site where the 3-year-old child's body allegedly was burned.
Since then, they have worked to obtain DNA data from the remains, but the samples were scorched.
Hamilton County Coroner Dr. O'dell Owens said Friday his office, which has been processing the evidence for Brown County, will search for DNA data no longer.
Clermont County prosecutors have said the Carrolls tied Marcus and left him in a closet in their Union Twp. home for two days while they vacationed in Kentucky.
When they returned to find Marcus dead, prosecutors said that David Carroll took the child's body to rural Brown County and repeatedly burned it using gasoline as an accelerant. He is accused of taking remains that would not burn to Higginsport and dumping them in the Ohio River.
Owens said DNA is not critical to convicting the Carrolls.
"They've got an eyewitness, and we've got tests to prove there was gasoline used at the site," Owens said. "This is not a case where DNA is going to be helpful."
The witness to which Owens referred is Amy Baker, the Carrolls' live-in girlfriend who prosecutors say was in Brown County where David Carroll allegedly burned the body.
Prosecutors have offered Baker immunity in exchange for her testimony.
The Carrolls are charged in Clermont County with several felonies, including murder, kidnapping and three counts of child endangerment. David Carroll also is charged with gross abuse of a corpse.
Following the boy's death, Hamilton County prosecutors have said the Carrolls staged the child's disappearance from an Anderson Twp. park — sparking a massive four-day search — nearly two weeks after his body was burned.
The Carrolls subsequently were charged in Hamilton County with perjury, inducing panic and filing false reports.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2840 or dgreber@coxohio.com.