DOUBT
HUFFINGTON
02.03.13
RADLEY BALKO (3)
‘A LOT OF THINGS JUST
SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS’
Roseman says there’s little doubt in his
mind that if West hadn’t effectively ended the investigation he’d have found Michael Johnson.
“We knew she had been dropped off
with Johnson to get some dope from him
about a week before the murder,” Roseman says. “There were some kids we
talked to who we think saw Kathy’s killer
leave the house. They weren’t volunteering anything then, but they were scared.
Everybody was scared to talk about anything back then, because the crime was
so brutal. If a witness is scared, they’ll
confirm something you already know, but
they won’t always give that to you on their
own. We were going to go back and talk to
the witnesses after we learned Kathy had
met with Johnson. But West ended the investigation after just a few days. We never
got the chance to get that far.”
Roseman says that after the charges
against Gates were dropped, he continued to investigate the case the best he
could, when he could. But a year out,
witness memories had faded. Some had
moved away. The conventional wisdom,
law enforcement officials say, is that the
odds of solving a murder are cut in half
after 48 hours. A year after putting the
investigation on ice due to the mistaken
belief that the killer was sitting in a jail
Belzoni, Miss. (above and below), and Isola, Miss. (middle).
cell, the outlook for closing the case
seemed dim.
But the biological evidence taken from
Kathy Mabry was always available. As
chief of police — and then later as sheriff
— Roseman could have ordered the more
advanced DNA testing himself, really any