The English-speaking girl was discovered around midnight on Wednesday, huddled between the front and back seats of the British-registered BMW, under the legs of two dead women thought to be her mother and grandmother, a public prosecutor said.
Apparently too scared to move, she went unnoticed by police for some eight hours until investigators finally opened the doors of the car, standing on a forest road near Lake Annecy, to begin a close forensic inspection.
“She’s clearly shocked but she’s doing okay. She’s not injured,” Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud told reporters in a late-night briefing.
Four people were found killed in the attack in the French Alps — the young girl’s presumed parents and grandmother, and a local cyclist who had been reported missing.
Chandler didn’t respond with blinks to every question in the 17-minute video, and there were solo blinks. But triple blinks came in response to repeated questions asking if he knew the shooter and whether the person in the photo was the culprit.
An upcoming murder trial hinges on the videotape of those blinks, a rare effort by a prosecution to show a defendant has been identified by gesture: the nod of a head, squeeze of a hand, blink of an eye.
Legal experts say such cases — while not unheard of — are unusual, and dying identifications relying on gestures rather than words are often not used in trials because of concern over reliability or differing interpretations. But some have been used in murder cases around the country that have ended in convictions.
Chandler died ten days after the interview took place. The suspect identified, 34-year-old Ricardo Woods, could face life in prison if the evidence in the video convicts him.
Virginia lacrosse murder case: George Huguely sentenced to 26 years: George Huguely was convicted of second-degree murder for the murder of fellow University of Virginia lacrosse player (and his ex-girlfriend) Yeardley Love. Juror Ian Glomski on the final verdict: “We all really believe justice was served.” source
He’s eager to be released, as you can imagine, after all these years. He’s kind of going to be Rip Van Winkle — he’s never held a cell phone; Reagan was president when he went in. There’s going to be a lot of adjustments, but he’ll be fine.Houston lawyer John Raley, who works with the Innocence Project • Discussing the imminent release of convicted murderer Michael Morton, who is expected to be released today after DNA evidence exonerated him from the crime of killing his wife in 1986. DNA evidence implicates a convicted felon who has also been tied to a similar 1988 murder. Morton, meanwhile, was convicted on circumstantial evidence and otherwise had no history of violence. Enjoy your freedom, Michael — they have these things called iPhones now, and they’re awesome. (thanks Michael Cote for the tip) source (via • follow)
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