unfortunately, these boots weren t unique. how common are they? you re probably not from here if you don t have a pair. and it was impossible to tell the size of the boot from the print. in a justin boot heel, it is possible that you re going to have one physical size that would overlap into several different boot sizes. nevertheless, investigators asked both suspects, bob johnson and pool contractor curtis pope, if they owned a pair of justin brand boots. bob johnson owned a pair. but the heel of his boots was larger than those at the scene. curtis pope also owned a pair of justin brand boots, which appeared to be new, and willingly turned them over to investigators. in this case, my result was inconclusive. i could not eliminate or identify the boot as having made that mark. when investigators talked with pope about his boots, they
pope was distraught over darrell s murder. he came through the receiving line, crying, and i thought he was so touched by darrell s death, and he said, i loved darrell. he was better to me than my own father. pope was 40 years old, married, with a young daughter. he did, however, have a police record consisting of arrests for petty theft. since he was the last known person to see darrell alive, he was automatically considered a suspect. pope agreed to take a polygraph examination. and passed. it is not likely that somebody could come in and intentionally be untruthful and still pass the polygraph test. the next suspect was bob johnson, a roofing contractor. darrell fired johnson just two weeks before his murder. he was upset that he wasn t going to continue to work there
i was able to examine his arms and his hands for injuries. he didn t have any. there was no cuts. on the night of darrell north s murder, the dallas/ft. worth area was hit with a driving rainstorm causing flash floods and power outages. the storm was so bad, darrell sent his construction crew home early. but he stayed behind because he had a 5:00 p.m. appointment with curtis pope. they were going to discuss quality problems with the swimming pool pope was installing at the hotel. pope was having financial problems, his company was headed towards bankruptcy, and darrell north was his only large client, although it s unclear whether darrell knew this. no one knows what the two men said to each other. but prosecutors believe curtis
day of the murder because of the severe rainstorm. she said darrell stayed behind to meet with a contractor named curtis pope. curtis pope was a pool contractor. darrell was basically mentoring curtis into the construction business. he stayed approximately 20, 25 minutes. he left darrell, darrell said he was going to wait out the rain, and let the traffic die down before he headed home. darrell s wife told police, curtis pope could not be the killer. curtis pope had done some repair work on our pool. i said, please don t spend your time looking at curtis pope. he did not kill darrell. please, you know, spend your time looking for the person that did.
body. darrell may have used it to defend himself, causing an injury, a facial cut, or nosebleed. to identify the killer, dna samples were collected from the two suspects, bob johnson and curtis pope. dna testing revealed it was curtis pope s blood at the crime scene. if darrell north had not taken some steps to defend himself, this case wouldn t have been solved. would have never dreamed that firing somebody would cause somebody to, you know, go postal. darrell s family couldn t believe that the man whom darrell had mentored in business and treated in many ways like a son would have done this. not until the day they came out here to the house and told me that it was his dna that had been identified did i really believe. the bruises police noticed under pope s eye were probably the result of the fight.