we brought jacob, todd, and the neighbor down to the identification bureau and took footprints from all three of them. todd hale s footprints didn t match. jacob hadley s footprints didn t match either. then there was carlos. it struck me odd as i inked carlos feet and asked him to step down from the chair on to the paper, and he was reluctant to do that. carlos walked down one side of the paper and then walked over the footprints he just made. something s just not right here. it wasn t hard instructions to understand and follow. it was almost like he was trying to obliterate his footprints. finally technicians got usable prints, and they were compared to the bloody footprints in christina s bathroom. this is our guy. it s his footprint. carlos palm print was also a
was a victim of her own trusting nature. carlos was her neighbor. they already met. so when he knocked on her door, she let him in. how are you doing? carlos wasn t wearing any shoes since he lived next door. once inside, prosecutors believe he made a sexual advance which christina turned down. so carlos hit christina with tremendous force, knocking out three of her teeth. he then dragged her to the bathroom where he sexually assaulted her and killed her with a knife. he filled the tub with water in an attempt to wash away evidence, but he grabbed the sink with his bloody hand as he
footprint in a hamburger bun next to christina s body. investigators believed it was made by the killer as he fled the scene. in order to verify their work, iowa investigators took the bun and photographs to gene czarnicki, a certified print examiner at the dci crime lab in des moines, iowa. czarnicki not only confirmed this was a right foot in the soft bread but found enough clear ridge detail to convince him that it was the footprint of carlos robinson. i think if the bun was in a dry or stale condition, the print may have not been reproduced. we were quite fortunate in that the bun appears to have been fresh when he stepped on it. this proved that the only evidence at the crime scene was carlos robinson s. investigators believe christina
this was yet another clue that the killer lived nearby. not only did he have bare feet, but he was concerned about leaving a blood trail, possibly one leading straight to his door. this pointed towards two men who hadn t previously been thought of as suspects. the man who claimed he found christina s body, 32-year-old todd hale, and christina s next-door neighbor, carlos robinson who had called 911. both knew one another since they both helped christina move into her apartment three days earlier. investigators had been suspicious of todd hale s claim that he d been able to enter christina s apartment through a small window opening without disturbing the items on the entertainment center inside. we thought for todd to get in through that window he would have to maybe have an acrobat s physique, which he did not.