Dan Riehl: Bill Sparkman May Have Been A Child Molester

Agreed its silly for him to do so, it speaks poorly of him, just as it speaks poorly of those who jumped to other conclusions on this case without any facts. All of these speculators look foolish. We just have to wait for some facts.

Dan Riehl has absolutely no credibility in my eyes.

He was one of the diehard supporters of the Iraq War who even as recently as 2006, continued to repeat the lie that Weapons of Mass Destruction had been found in Iraq. As proof, he cited a Fox News report from May 2004 stating that sarin and mustard gas had been found in Iraq. Yet in that Fox Report, it clearly stated that experts suspected that both the sarin and mustard gas came from weapons used back during the Iran-Iraq War, a fact that Mr. Riehl conveniently neglected to mention.

And just in case some of you out there DO still continue to believe that we found the WMD that were the reasons we went to war in Iraq, this is a myth that was debunked by the Iraq Survey Group's final report in 2004 as well as by David Kay (the Former Chief UN Weapons Inspector & Former Iraq Survey Group Chief) himself back in 2006.

It seems to me that the people who were completely wrong about their predictions regarding WMD in Iraq(and refused to admit it...and continued to perpetuate this myth even after expects had debunked it) are precisely the LAST people we should be turning to regarding future predictions.

Dan Reihl needs a case ... There I said it. Pretty mild curse tho considering the advances in care for the disease and new breakthroughs. The real curse is his insurance company rescinding his policy. Muhahahahahahaha! Seriously, Riehl would probably blame a black person for being lynched in the Old South.
He's a Riehl ...

Was the words "pervert" or "molester" found on the body? As someone else comments. Riehl ...

This whole Sparkman episode seems to engender wild speculation.

Having worked on more than 40 murder cases, it is my experience that public speculation is often (though not always) far from the facts of the actual event. dr. e, based on her experience with PI work, addressed this in some detail yesterday in a comment on another thread on this subject. She was right.

We should all, right, left or center, get off the speculation express and wait to see what actually happened.

So........are you the guy that played Quincy, MD in the 80's?

CO asked "So...are you the guy that played Quincy, MD in the 80's?"

No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

Well, I think that Dan Riehl's kind of speculation -- which blames the murder victim by suggesting his death might have been linked to being a child predator, with absolutely no facts to support his suggestion that the victim *was* a child predator -- is a lot worse, by several orders of magnitude, than speculating, based on factual information about the appearance and location of the body when it was found, that this was some kind of political statement by people who wanted to send a message and wanted the victim's body to be found.

The first kind of speculating turns the victim into a villain with no factual basis for so doing; the second kind uses actual facts (sparse though they may be) to make reasonable guesses at possible motives for the murder.

There may actually be some instances in which the "pox on both your houses" philosophy is not appropriate or meaningful.

OK. Here's what I want to know. What does the medical examiner mean by asphyxiation as cause of death? Most ME's distinguish between asphyxiation (generic) and strangulation or, say, drowning or suffocation. What, if any, damage was done to the internal organs of the neck? Traumatic injury there leads to very different suppositions than no internal injury to those organs.

What did the ME find in relation to the rope marks on the neck. Were there any? Did they show slippage as would be evident in an amatuer hanging, were they static as in a staged body placement, were they pre or post mortem, what other bodily injuries are evident, if any?

Were there two independent sets of rope marks, not from slippage, that might indicate hanging in one location and staging with a rope in another location? Was there evidence of the body being moved post mortem? Drag marks? Soil samples from the socks? Blood settling in odd parts of the body indicating a reorientation of the corpse after death? Were his personal possessions found?

Car, wallet, papers, clothes. If so, where and was anything missing? Where was he last seen and with whom? If they were not found, why and where are they? Did he have enemies who would want him dead? Family members? Ex-family members?

If so, would he/she/they be crafty enough to stage the body to make it look like an anti-government murder to deflect suspicion from themselves? Was he followed? Did he have friends or a lover in the area? Did he owe money to anyone? How much cash was he carrying?

Anything else of value? Has it been found? Does he have anything in his history that would give rise to a desire to kill him on the part of others (including, btw, sexual assault, extortion, or anything else)? Not all victims are pure, though some are, and sometimes a victim's impurity is a motive for murder.

Is there evidence of suicide?...odd as it may seem, that is not entirely out of the question based on the physical facts disclosed to date, though it probably seems to most to be highly unlikely. Has he been in the area before? If so, when, why and why is he returning? If not, those questions need not be asked.

Was he hunted or killed spontaneously, e.g. signs of tracking or following? Were hair, fiber or skin scrapings found that were not from the victim and, if so have they been typed?

Yes, I've gone on too long. The real point is not that one person's speculation is more morally defensible than another person's speculation. The real point is that speculation, of any kind, can interfere with the investigation.

Investigators can be forced to pursue, or devote excessive resources, to options that may not be viable, or, often the worst case scenario, can be forced to go public with information to confirm or disprove certain speculation, providing information to an unapprehended perpetrator, though much depends on the sophistication of the perp and the authorities.

In the end, Kathy, you and others engaged in various forms of speculation may be right...or wrong. I advocate only for waiting until the facts are in. If you turn out to be correct, feel free to thumb your nose and say "na na na na na na" to me all day long. You won't be the first.

Youre not going on too long Tidbits imo. (or else you and I and a bunch of other writers and commenters at TMV are too... I think 'too long' has more to do with repetitive rants, than first person experiences).

It's good to bring your factual and first person experience to TMV, esp as in your case as your experiences are genuine and have depth... and not just a fatuous claim as we've found some to make about their actual bona fides. Or non bona fides.

Right now, it would appear the seeming eccentricity of the investigative protocol and public dissemination of facts, the vaguery of report by local LE, as you pointed out... raises more questions from the public than usual.

As Sparrow was pointing out from her research in the county in question, the median income 15k... can you imagine, the literacy and hs graduation rate, dismal. Lack of financial resource often means inadequate investigative techniques/ methodology/ crime scene data gathering, as we know.

It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall as they say, and listen in on the turf 'stuff' between local LE and feds.

Psych profile of victim released thus far leaves much to be desired in this case imo. As you point out ME's report is eccentric, as to make one wonder where ME trained.

In one way, it is no wonder there is so much speculation in every direction by general public; the LE's release of seeming conflictual, vague and disorganized data leaves too much story untold. It's normal human psych. that the mind hearing a story with holes like swiss cheese, try to fill in the holes. Remember the psych test: 'complete the drawing' tests (with essential parts missing of a drawing of a dog for instance) given to children to test perception and judgement? It's like that ... complete the case.

In that sense, people speculating is actually a sign they are instinctually intact in perception and judgement, even though there are not yet enough facts to state anything unequivocally.

There are two things that I keep wondering about. Esp odd to me, is if local law enforcement was withholding evidences in order to pursue unknown antagonists, why not just state that crisply and clearly, using the time-honored proto? What is the reason behind the reason.

The other thing Tidbits, as in Carthage, remember those who lured the older men with promises of delight and then did them dastardly? Throwing their bodies out in the shallow pools and alley ways where only the old women came pulling out the hair of the dead with which to make wigs?

Dont hold me too it, but there's a cloud in this case of perhaps having been lured deeper and deeper into something. Maybe just the outback. Maybe something like Ted Bundy used to do, calling for help with a fake cast, asking for help for a wounded creature that is just over the hill over there... but maybe something farther out than that.
dr.e

I advocate only for waiting until the facts are in.

Which facts? Or how many of them? All? How will we know when that's happened? There could always be more facts out there.

The point with the Sparkman case is that some facts are in -- and it's not out of line, in my view, to speculate on what those facts -- and only those facts -- might indicate, and also what they rule out.

Two speculative conclusions that are certainly legitimate to make at this point are (1) Whoever killed Sparkman, and for whatever reason, wanted his corpse to be found as it was; and (2) Sparkman's death was NOT a suicide, contrary to your assertion, which I think is a very illogical assertion. It's pretty much physically impossible to gag yourself with a rag, tie your own arms and legs with duct tape, put duct tape around your neck, write "fed" on your own chest, tape your own census identification tag to your own forehead, and then kill yourself, and hang yourself from a tree after you're dead, with your feet touching the ground.

Having said all this, there are absolutely no facts whatsoever that could justify speculating that Sparkman was a child predator. That's malicious and irresponsible.

Archangel - Thanks for your comment.

It is always good to remember the days in Carthage, even the dark memories.

z of c

Kathy - I don't want this to become a "cause celeb" between you and I. We have different perspectives because we come from different experiences.

I agree that suicide is extremely unlikely (from what has been reported). To completely rule it out, I'd want to know about the rope marks, internal injuries to the neck and how the hands were bound (loosely or tightly, near the hands or further up the arm/wrist, neatly or sloppily). But, in the end, you're probably correct that suicide is not in play.

On the speculation side, I have personal experience with the ramifications, at least one of which was hilarious (photo with Diana Ross appearing in tabloid with headline about being her new flame...I spoke maybe two sentences to her in my life), the other two threatening and very scary (which I will not detail).

dr.e. is correct that people will speculate regardless of my opinion, and I respect your right to do so.

dear Kathy: It is possible to write on oneself, tape, and bind and hang oneself I am sorry to say. Over the years of my work, I've seen way too many poor souls who have done all manner of suicidal arrangements regarding their bodies. Some look like altars there is so much symbolism placed... for some have created a ritualized scene, pre-deliberated. Mr. Sparkman excepted at this point.

I appreciate your thoughtful reply, and you're right -- as with all else concerning people's opinions, experience informs perspective.