we could find no other evidence. back at homicide, buffington showed the fibers to his superiors. the lieutenant made a big joke out of it and told the rest of the squad that if i went over to the lieutenant s house and cleaned out the lint trap in hi dryer, we could probably clear out all the cases in the city of atlanta. still, buffington sent the fibers to the state crime laboratory. a young forensic scientist, larry peterson, took a look. why was a fiber stuck in the crack of a shoe, why was that important? because it was somewhat loosely there. people don t normally have tufts of carpet fibers loosely stuck in their shoe. from those few thin threads, peterson would begin to build a case to try to catch a killer.