Today’s POV blog

The world watched with bated breath as a boy named Falcon Heene floated aimlessly for more than two hours across the Colorado landscape trapped inside a weather balloon. The real surprise came once the craft set down and the child was not onboard. Falcon, the youngest of three Heene children, was later found hiding in a box in the attic of the garage.

With the media in full frenzy, the Heenes appeared the next day on Larry King Live, where Falcon responded to his father and said, “You guys said we did this for the show.”

While the Heenes adamantly deny the charges that this was all a publicity hoax, a number of events have come to light that have prompted the authorities to seek charges. Robert Thomas, a former associate of Richard Henne, stated today in a Gawker interview that he helped plan a number of possible scenarios as a method for promoting the Heenes for a reality TV show. The plan in which Richard was most interested was that of a flying saucer.

At concern now is the massive state and federal resources that were spent following the balloon in fear that the child would fall from the craft —helicopters, rescue parties, and even manpower that may have been kept from actual emergencies – all for what now has the appearance of a publicity stunt by a family addicted to the limelight.

Richard and Mayumi Heene face possible felony charges including conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and making a false report to police. The felony charges carry a maximum sentence of six years’ imprisonment and a $500,000 fine. They may also risk having their children removed by child-protective services.

Lavinia Masters was raped at the age of 13. After 24 years, her case was reopened and tested for DNA. A match was made to a criminal already serving time in prison for a number of unrelated cases. Unfortunately, due to the statute of limitations on her case, the man was not prosecuted. She has since become an advocate for getting rape kits from cold cases tested.

Comparatively speaking, the science for evaluating DNA evidence is rather new. In previous years, when a serious crime was committed where DNA was present, the DNA was stored as evidence with the rest of the case — waiting for technological advances. This created a backlog of cold cases. With such a large queue waiting to be tested, many cases are still waiting to be solved. Often cases are only re-opened when they meet the criteria for an exceptionally heinous crime (as was the case with Jennifer Schuett), crimes may go cold until long after the statute of limitations expires, thus negating the need to continue to save DNA.

In Canada, unless the crime is sufficiently petty, the defendant can be charged at any time in the future. This policy would give our law enforcement all the time they need to solve cases and with a solved case, bring closure to the victims. Lavinia certainly has her work cut out for her.