Snoopy's Poop Scores Crime Coup

That was a headline announcing the arrest of a suspect in Indiana for a triple slaying. It came about when the suspect stepped in dog poop at the scene of the crime, and when he was apprehended later, he claimed he’d been nowhere near the site. However, not only did he leave a foot print in the poop, there was just enough found on his shoe for the DNA of the only dog on the property to be a match.

The match was made in a small, three-person laboratory at UC Davis – the only accredited forensic lab in the country dealing with animal evidence. They use the same techniques and tools as human labs, although they use primers specific to the animal evidence being tested.  Urine, hair, poop, saliva or other animal evidence left behind can help solve animal cruelty, animal attacks on humans and human crimes like robbery, rape and murder where an animal left a mark behind. Beth Wictum, the lab director said “Some studies show you can’t go into a house where there’s a dog or a cat without picking up some evidence.” For instance, in one case the woman’s dog relieved itself on the tire of the man who tried to sexually assault her. Even though she couldn’t pick him out in the lineup, the dog’s pee on the tire linked him to the scene.

My California rag doll cats watching TV

Once upon a time, animal evidence might have been overlooked, but today’s investigators automatically collect any animal fur, hairs, feces, urine stains and tissue samples found at a crime scene. They also take mouth swabs from pets after they defend their owners against attackers, and increasingly they check the blankets, rugs and sheets wrapped around homicide victims.

On Christmas Eve 2002, Kevin Butler was murdered in his home by two men who broke into his apartment and started to beat him. His pet cockatoo – named Bird after basketball great Larry Bird – tried to come to his rescue. He repeatedly dove down on the attackers, clawing at their skin and pecking their heads. The police found Bird dead, stabbed to death with a fork, but the blood trails Bird created as well as human DNA found in Bird’s beak, matched the prime suspect and helped put his owner’s murderer behind bars for life.

This lab doing such great work is in a humble setup; one trailer parked on a dusty side road on the fringe of the Davis campus. The three lab technicians; Beth Wictum, Teri Kun and Christina Lindquist, have access to databases from years of research at the wider Veterinary Genetics Lab, which includes databases of dogs, cats, horses, cows, llamas, sheep, goats, pigs and alpacas. They help solve animal abuse cases, ownership disputes and have even debunked some Bigfoot cases proving the fur came from a bear or a chimpanzee.

In my first book, The Blue Rose, the police chief sent cat fur in for DNA testing. Because my books cover a one week period and DNA testing can take months, I gave him a longtime friend from college days, who works in a DNA lab and rushes everything through for him. Hey, it’s fiction. What else can I say?

Have you ever included animal DNA testing in your stories?

Novel Pets

In books, a pet can be a confidant, cause trouble or be a savior. I recall few unusual pets in mysteries--dogs, cats and horses are usually featured. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum character has a pet hamster, although I don’t think Rex ever helped solve a crime. I have read one murder mystery with a pet parrot but don’t remember the title. I do remember that the parrot mimicked human language and said words that led to the killer.

My family and I have had unusual pets and I know other people have too. Perhaps with some creativity, these novel pets might lead to a clue, a murderer or complicate a case. Here are four ideas:

When I was young I had a snail named Pearl. At that time there was a trend where snails were sold with rhinestones glued on their backs—probably not allowed today. My friends quipped, “Poor little rich snail.” Pearl liked to crawl out of her bowl and wander around at night but it was easy to find her by following the slime trail the next morning. Maybe a character with a missing pet snail could follow the slime trail and stumble on a clue or a dead body?

My niece has a snake that enjoys studying with her. What if a character’s pet snake escaped its enclosure? Perhaps it could slide under the killer’s door and wrap itself around his ankle. If the killer had ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), direct contact might force a confession.

 

Many years ago my sister went on a Girl Scout trip to Papago Park in Arizona. She found what she thought was an abandoned kitten and brought it home to nurse back to health. The kitten thrived, gained weight…and began growing fangs. My parents took it back to the veterinarian who said that the kitten was probably part bobcat. The vet advised them to keep Fluffy because he wouldn’t be able to fend for himself in the wild. Fluffy lived a long, happy life but retained some wild animal behaviors like eating raw meat off the kitchen countertop when my mother had her back turned.

If a character owned an exotic but domesticated animal it might be falsely accused of a crime and the owner would need to track down the real culprit. If the killer threatens the owner, the pet could tap into its wild side and save him.

Many years ago our family was house hunting. In one house my mother walked in a bathroom and screamed. There was an alligator in the bathtub! It turned out to be the owner’s pet. I’ve often wondered if the alligator was a trained movie animal since a number of people in the entertainment industry lived in that town.

Perhaps a pet alligator could swallow something (or part of someone) and hinder a detective from solving a case.

Can you think of unusual pets featured in mysteries? Do you have or write about unusual animals?