X.+Limitations+and+Errors

Investigators had little to no hard evidence which made it almost impossible to convict Clifford Olson. The only evidence they had attained was an address book found in one of Olson’s rented cars which had Judy Kozma’s phone number in it and an eyewitness. The eyewitness, 18 year old Randy Ludlow, was in the car when Olson picked up Judy only a few hours before he killed her. The police had only found 3 bodies which uncovered no evidence and made the case even harder to break. They would eventually have to make a deal with Olson and his family to get the rest of the bodies. The rental cars, Christine Weller’s bicycle and tools used in the crimes could have been used to uncover various types of evidence. Fingerprints should have been taken from these pieces of evidence as fingerprinting was used prior to other forms of forensic technology.
 * Evidence: **

** Technology: ** They did not have the forensic technology back then that we do today. The genetic tool used for forensics was blood typing and fingerprinting. Blood typing helps prove innocence or increase the probability that an offender is guilty. Blood typing was not very informative and is very broad. Other kinds of DNA typing were introduced in the mid-1980s. RFLP, a type of DNA typing, was introduced in 1985, approximately 4 years after Clifford Olson confessed to murder. This technology was used to determine differences among individuals. Next came VNTR which was more sensitive and increased species specificity. The most recent technology, PCR, is much faster and simpler and can be used to analyze degradable samples. These technologies would have been able to help investigators convict Olson with what evidence they did have.

** Policing: ** The police seemed to lack just about everything in this case. They did not analyze anything properly and struggled to come up with enough evidence to lie on Olson and put him behind bars. There also was a lack of a decision-maker in the investigation. If it wasn’t for the eyewitness, they would have never have gotten the confession from him and he would still be out committing his heinous crimes. There was “linkage blindness” in the Olson case. This means that it takes longer to identify serial murderers and therefore they are able to commit more crimes.

Children were going missing everywhere in British Columbia. Parents would report their children missing and the police would say they were merely runaways, no matter how much the parents would plead with them. They did not take the missing persons cases seriously. This was one of the reasons of “linkage blindness”.

Olson murdered both boys and girls whose ages ranged from seven years of age to 18 years of age. Investigators were relying on prior experiences with other pedophiles and the criteria of Olson’s case did not match up. The age gap and the murdering of both genders confused the investigation. They were not thinking “outside of the box”. Admitting there was a serial murderer on the loose would have negative effects on those involved. All of this was another reason for “linkage blindness”.

During the time of the investigation, key personnel involved in the case were transferred to other police units and there was a shortage of staff during this time as well.

The police had Clifford Olson in their hands many times- when he was in jail for other charges, when he went to pick up a confiscated firearm which he was not able to get back, when they met with him when he said he had information about the homicides in the area and the September 11th attacks. He was a suspect in many cases but police were unable to arrest him for lack of evidence.

** Other Case Difficulties: ** Clifford Olson picked up the children in the area where he lived but once he had assaulted and murdered them, he dumped their bodies in different jurisdictions. This threw the investigators off and led them to think that there was possibly more than one killer. This also made it hard to connect the murders just like the age range and gender of those murdered did as well. The police eventually had to make a deal with Olson and his family to recover the other bodies.