Detective expects crime lab results soon
BY CRAIG MAUGER
PALLADIUM-ITEM (Indiana)
December 14, 2006
A year after the shooting, the David Douglas casebook is one of three that Detective Michael French still keeps by his desk.
One of the other two is a case about to go to trial. The other is also unsolved.
French says one to two months ago an official from the Indiana State Police crime lab contacted him. The official said the evidence from the Douglas case had begun to be analyzed.
"To be honest, I'm surprised I haven't heard back yet," French said. "It's a waiting game; It's like waiting for a Christmas turkey to get done."
Anytime now, the state crime lab could send a letter to French to explain the completed results.
"They get evidence from the entire state and things get put in a stack," French said. "Obviously death investigations get moved up higher on the stack, but they've got a lot of deaths in the whole state to investigate."
State Rep. Phil Pflum has talked with the Douglas family about the case and the family's search for closure. It's a search Pflum says is taking too long.
"We're still not giving up hope," Pflum said Wednesday. "Bureacracy moves slow, like a turtle's pace, and I'm just not used to a turtle's pace."
In January, an initial toxicology report reported that David Douglas was sober and not under the influence of drugs before his death.
During the past year, French has developed a friendly relationship with the Douglas family and updates them.
Johnnie says French is doing the best he can.
"He just gives us the word of God," Sharon Douglas said of French. "He just keeps us encouraged; he is a good friend.
"We're more mad at the state than anything."
The connection between the detective and the family is based on the shared desire to find the important, but elusive, answers.
"The Douglases are some of the nicest people I've ever met in my life, and I know they would like to get some closure on the matter. I know I would like to give that to them," French said.
When that closure comes, French will finally be able to remove the Douglas casebook from his desk.
"It's always in my memory," he said. "It's not like I think about it intentionally. I'll drive down on the north end, I'll pass their house that reminds me. I'll drive by where he was found and that reminds me. I'll be sitting at home doing nothing, and it just comes to mind."