Police match robber’s DNA with blood found in a leech

TASMANIA Police have used blood taken from a leech to match DNA eight years after an aggravated robbery.

In what is believed to have been a world first, police found the engorged leech about an hour after the crime.

Peter Alec Cannon, 54, of Lalla Rd, Karoola, north of Launceston, pleaded guilty in court yesterday to an aggravated armed robbery committed on September 28, 2001.

Detective Inspector Mick Johnston said he had never heard of a leech being involved in a crime scene before.

“It is the oddest way of convicting anyone I have ever been involved in,” the 25-year police veteran said.

“I have not been able to find any similar cases anywhere in the world — nothing like this at all.”

Det-Insp Johnston said the leech was the only thing found during a full forensic investigation.

“It was the only evidence we found, and as there was no evidence of any leech bites from the victim or the police present we thought it was a good chance to have come from one of the offenders,” he said.

“We took it from the scene because it didn’t belong there.”

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Billboard Obituaries

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Des Moines residents are learning about people’s deaths in a new way: electronic billboards.

The obituary, long a staple of newspapers, has taken an evolutionary twist, thanks to Iles Funeral Homes of Des Moines and the local division of Clear Channel Outdoor.

“This is not anything I’ve ever heard of,” said Jessica Koth, spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association in Brookfield, Wis.

Obituaries have broken out of print in recent years with the advance of technology, notably the Internet.

Funeral homes publish obituaries on their Web sites, and Koth said she’s heard of funeral homes that post obituaries on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. But she said advertising on billboards is new territory.

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My death will probably be tweeted.  If I’m lucky, it will get a few retweets.

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Bag of Randomness

MorganLens

  • The other day I drove past a GM dealership during my lunch break and noticed a TV crew and satellite truck at the dealership.  There weren’t any local decals on the truck, and I passed it off thinking that it was probably just a commercial shoot or news report.  It turns out it was a crew from the Ellen DeGeneres Show.  That episode will air today.
  • It annoys me when it rains and people bring in the umbrellas and open them up and lay them on the floor to let them dry out.
  • I may have mentioned this before, but when I’m in a group and everyone is introducing themselves, even if it’s name only, I get freaky nervous feeling like I have to clear my throat and hoping I don’t fumble any words.  I guess I just want to prove to the world that I’m at least capable of saying my name without error.
  • There’s been a time or two when typing my name I’ve made a mistake, and that just feels weird.
  • I wonder if Contact lists will start to include a Twitter option.
  • About ten years ago my sister put together one of those 3-D puzzles of a pharaoh, I decided to bring it to work and make it part of my cube.
  • It looks like all sitcoms no longer have laugh tracks, which I don’t mind; but it looks like all of them are gravitating towards the documentary style.
  • One of my more loyal readers empathized with me regarding my writers block for Bag of Randomness, and he sent me this link to a Donald Miller post about self-promotion that I think I can totally relate to, for the most part.  I’m sure a lot of other bloggers would fee the same way.
  • I keep hearing commercials for a motivational speaking event with the headliner being George W. Bush.  Off hand I don’t think this is something that he would willingly do, so maybe he’s doing as a favor for someone.
  • Southwest’s blog Nuts About Souhwest was just named best blog by PR News for the third year in a row. Link
  • WWII Vet, “The woman at my polling place asked me do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?” Link
  • A baby pig abandoned by her mother has found a new home after being adopted… by a Rottweiler.
  • Oh, you are probably wondering why I posted that picture at the top of this post.  That happens to be a patient getting a Morgan Lens placed in his eye, much like the one I had put in my eye last night when I went to the ER.  Usually I’m pretty good at wearing eye protection, but I didn’t last night as I was spraying a WD-40 like substance which happened to splash into my eye.  Yup, it hurt, but a chemical injury to the eye will get you out of the waiting room and to an ER doctor relatively fast.  The Morgan Lens was placed over my eye to help irrigate and flush it out.  I didn’t think I really needed to go to the ER, but I don’t like to place games with my eyes and don’t want two people in GeedingManor with glass-eyes.  After it was flushed out they did a litmus test on my eye, checked it out with a black light, and sent me on my way home with a prescription and orders to see an ophthalmologist the next day.  So because of the trip to the ER, there are a lack of posts.  My bad.
  • Grace
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