from the same batch. the odds of a bullet from the same batch being in the victim and being in the hillside of not being fired at the same sequence of shots, the odds against that were just astounding. prosecutors believe janice dodson planned her husband s murder almost from the day they got married. and she chose a campsite just a short distance away from where she knew her ex-husband had camped every year for the past 20 years. at some point prosecutors say janice quietly made her way over to her ex-husband s campsite, wading through the mud in the pond so she wouldn t be seen. while her ex-husband is away, she stole his remington .308 caliber rifle and ammunition, but she never realized that the
they remembered that janice dodson s clothes had been covered in mud on the day of her husband s murder. janice s muddied clothing had been kept in evidence for the past three years. jacqueline battle scraped some of the mud from the clothing and ground it to a fine powder. battle sifted and weighed the samples. and then examined them under a polarizing microscope. the mud from janise s clothing contained bentonite. bentonite is a clay-like material comprised of minerals of aluminum silicates, magnesium and iron oxides. ranchers would add bentonite as a sealant so that the water would be retained in the watering hole versus seeping through into the ground. the bentonite on janice s clothing was identical to the
this case was built on forensics. the jury deliberated for three and a half days, and then found janice dodson guilty of first-degree murder. she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. when the verdict came in in the courtroom, my legs turned to rubber and all i can do today is, and i never got a chance, i wanted to thank the jury for all the work they did. to investigators and the forensic experts who worked on the case, janice dodson was one step away from committing the perfect crime. janice probably never thought that where she walked and picked up soil on her boots and her clothing might have played a key part in convicting her. bruce was never far from our thoughts during this whole investigation, and i think he got some justice.
if the suspect would have been a better shot and mr. dodson would have been killed with a single shot, it s possible that this would never have been investigated as a homicide. we wouldn t have been looking for bullet fragments. we wouldn t have been looking for mud analysis. prosecutors believe the motive was greed. i believe she married him with the intent to beef up his finances and kill him. that s about as cold blooded as you can get. she would have got revenge. she would have got rid of bruce dodson, obtained approximately $500,000 in worth, and also pinned the rap on j.c. lee to get even with him for leaving with her daughter s girlfriend. i think it was an excellent plan that didn t work. five years after the death of her husband, janice dodson went on trial for his murder. we had forensic firearms evidence, forensic metallurgist.
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