from a photo lineup. adams also had the serial number of the gun he sold to myers. it matched the serial number of the shotgun found in the stillwater river. but prosecutors needed to find a way to definitively tie gregg myers to the evidence found in the garbage bag. and to do that, scientists looked once more at the pair of latex gloves. most fingerprints are perspiration, and perspiration is 99% water. i didn t hold much hope we were going to get any fingerprints, because this bag had already been in water for days, submerged in water. so the chance for fingerprints was very minimal. but just to be sure, they used ultraviolet light both inside and out. the light will basically reflect off the surface, and basically, i think the light is
since the serial number on the shotgun had been ground off, investigators sent the gun to forensic scientist timothy duerr. he knew that scratch marks usually aren t as deep as the initial engraving. the serial number may only be a few thousandths of an inch, but the compressed metal goes a lot deeper into the metal. duerr applied an acid solution that when applied only goes at one level and goes no deeper. it will actually eat away and you can actually burn past the point of compression. it reacts differently between the compressed and uncompressed metal. the acid solution removed the top surface, leaving the bottom, or compressed metal, virtually untouched. upon utilizing restoration techniques on this shotgun, i was able to restore five of the
ammunition, the same used in the murders. and that happened just two days before the crimes were committed. gregg myers was arrested and charged with two counts of murder. prosecutors believe gregg bought undersized shoes, overalls to protect his clothing and what he believed to be an untraceable shotgun. he fashioned a homemade silencer, then headed to his father s house around 4:00 in the morning. he staged the scene to make it look like a break-in and left his shoe impressions, evidence he wanted police to find. according to the autopsy, he shot his father first. his stepmother woke up, raised her arm to protect herself, and he shot her, too.
when he got there, he described the scene in the only way he could, by simply explaining what he saw. i walked into my grandparents room and i found them a jury found gregg myers guilty of two counts of aggravated murder. he was sentenced to two life sentences with no possibility of parole. for all his careful planning, he never realized two things. first, that the police could raise the scratched serial number and tie the shotgun to him. and second, that he left his fingerprint inside the latex glove that tied him to everything in the garbage bag. when we found that shotgun, it was just amazing. it was a sense of relief that we had some physical evidence we could get our hands on that i was hoping was going to connect him. mr. myers attempted to commit
investigators had no proof that the shotgun and clothes dumped in the stillwater river belonged to their prime suspect, gregg myers. one of the things we suspected was that he probably sought out a firearm through a classified ad, which also means there s no atf paperwork to connect gregg to the firearm. on a hunch, investigators subpoenaed gregg s cell phone records and looked for any unusual numbers. detectives basically went through those records looking for individual numbers that stand out. two numbers belonged to individuals who advertised shotguns for sale in a local newspaper. one seller recalled making a sale that week. eugene adams advised detectives at that point, yeah, someone had called his number, came and purchased the shotgun from him. adams told investigators that a man who identified himself as gregg myers bought a 12-gauge winchester shotgun. adams identified myers picture