there wasn t enough probable cause to arrest randy or herb because they didn t feel confident that they could convict based on a guy like darrell herrington. but a few months later, another witness came forward, a local nursing aide who confessed she d help steidl and whitlock stab the newly wed couple. okay, tell me what you saw happen. blood everywhere. where s herb and where s randy? one was on the right side of the bed, and one was by the door. when you walk into the bedroom, what was karen rhoads doing? she was yelling, oh, my god, oh, my god! reinboldt also gave police the murder weapon, a five-inch knife and agreed to testify in exchange for leniency. police now had enough to arrest steidl and whitlock.
but this discrepancy didn t seem to bother lead prosecutor mike mcfatridge or the assistant state s attorney. the reinboldt presentation was consistent with the physical evidence that i had. for example, she talked about a broken lamp, one of the firefighters, he found the same thing. from my view, that is what we call corroboration. but callahan was about to find evidence that would call into question both the lamp and the murder weapon debbie reinboldt had given police. imagine - she won t have to remember passwords. or obsess about security. she ll log in with her smile. he ll have his very own personal assistant. and this guy won t just surf the web. he ll touch it. scribble on it. and share it. because these kids will grow up with windows 10.
to have been broken by firefighters as they entered the room and after they suppressed the fire, not during the murders. that meant debbie reinboldt s testimony about the lamp had been false. even more troubling were facts callahan learned about the purported murder weapon. the knife that deborah reinboldt presented was a folding knife, where the knife bends over. that knife had a blade of 5 and some inches long. one of the things the pathologist did was measure the depth of the wounds. on both bodies, the wounds were more than 6 inches deep. we then took it to michael baden, a forensic pathologist and he provided us with an affidavit and analysis. what board certifications do you have? three areas of pathology. anatomical pathology, pathological pathology, forensic pathology.
every night, loaded. be up the next morning, he s in court prosecuting somebody for the same offense. that s what alerted me to the fact that he would do anything he could, you know, to frame me for the rhoads murder. for callahan, this upped the stakes. my question was, would a state s attorney try to railroad and frame two men that were willing to go to the fbi and maybe have him arrested for his own illegal doing? callahan also learned disturbing information about one of the lead detectives in the case, jim parish who had secured debbie reinboldt s testimony. there was instances where both herrington and reinboldt will talk about how police inced them with alcohol. never in my life as an illinois state police officer have i ever seen such blatant disregard for policy and procedure. i mean, you would be destroying your case. they did, in fact, take darrell to jimmy s cabin south of paris and did question him, and did buy alcohol for him.
but police reports show debbie reinboldt also claimed to have been with steidl and whitlock that night. debra reinboltt comes forward with a story that says, well, i was with herb and randy that night and they invited me to come along with them to the rhoads house. what position was karen rhoads in? did she try to leave when you cut her? no, i didn t cut her. so she was just lying there, watching steidl and whitlock stab her husband? yes. is that what happened? the stories from the key witnesses left callahan with a glaring question. they d made this case based on the two eyewitnesses, but the eyewitnesses contradicted each other. darrell herrington was supposed to have been at the same scene and her story doesn t include him and his story doesn t include her. they never saw each other. never knew one or the other was there. that was a problem for me, as a police officer.