friendship had developed. they had gone four-wheeling together and once steve and karin took ed and his wife patricia on a double date. but really casual acquaintances. so how would ed owens dna end up beneath karin s fingernails? good question. when detective benson went through the file, he discovered that, in fact, ed owens had drawn a mention. in the original investigation. so benson, all these years later, tracked him down. he was listed as a person of interest or possibly a witness, and i wanted to go over his statement and make sure we had everything correct. they had put him on record back then. yes. back in 1980 steve strom told police that when he arrived at work at 12:45 a.m. june 6th, ed owens wasn t there as he should have been to turn over the machine they both worked on. he finally did show up, said steve, a little after 4:00 in the morning drunk and throwing up, claiming he left work at
and ed knew exactly the time steve went to work because their shifts overlapped. how would he get into the house, though? there was no sign of forced entry. well, this is little old woods cross, you know, back in 1980. a lot of people didn t lock their doors back then. there was no forced entry. we don t know the if the door was locked for sure when steve left for work that night or not. so he would have basically barged in on her and started an assault immediately. that s what we believe, yes. and created havoc as she fought back against him. yes. but why would he kill her? well, that would be the only way that he could be assured that the finger wouldn t be pointed back to him. but now, years later, the dna pointed directly at mr. owens. soon after detective benson informed owens of the case being reopened, ed left town. leaving nothing but a note behind for his wife patricia. containing things like bank account numbers. how do you explain behavior like that?
his reaction was considerably different. i didn t believe the whole sample was semen based on the scratches that mr. owens had on his arms and hands and face. this was not a lovey dovey sex scene at all. no. it was a knock down dragout fight. and this man, troy rawlings was taken by surprise, too. he was the county attorney, the prosecutor, he s been about ready to present his case in court when the news about semen hit. we didn t expect that, keith. no kidding. no kidding. that was a curveball, but instead of that curveball making us abandon our attempt to hit that pitch, we just decided, you know what? we need to learn to be better curveball hitters. except what happened next didn t seem so much like a hit for the prosecution, more like a strikeout. county attorney rawlings dropped the charges without prejudice, dismissed the case. ed owens was released. free as a bird. i took some heat over it, no doubt about it. in december of 2007, ed went
guilty person. that s the only way i can explain behavior like that. then a few weeks later another surprise. ed owens showed up and turned himself in and in short order he was charged with karin s murder. i kind of got the gut feeling that to a certain degree he may be relieved to have this happen. as owens awaited his day in court, and apparently relieved steve strom appeared briefly on local tv. it nice they re looking at evidence instead of hearsay and gossip and lies. and for the first time coco began to believe she would finally understand what happened to her sister karin. will it help you to have a resolution to this case? oh, absolutely. and it s not how people say closing the book. you never close the book. you never close that book.
well, this is little old woods cross, you know, back in 1980. a lot of people didn t lock their doors back then. there was no forced entry. we don t know the if the door was locked for sure when steve left for work that night or not. so he would have basically barged in on her and started an assault immediately. that s what we believe, yes. and created havoc as she fought back against him. yes. but why would he kill her? well, that would be the only way that he could be assured that the finger wouldn t be pointed back to him. but now, years later, the dna pointed directly at mr. owens. soon after detective benson informed owens of the case being reopened, ed left town. leaving nothing but a note behind for his wife patricia. containing things like bank account numbers. how do you explain behavior like that? guilty person. that s the only way i can explain behavior like that. then a few weeks later another surprise.