Lotto tickets lead cops to murder suspect

Comment #9

Badger — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:57:55 GMT

Like many lottery players, Tim Fountain used numbers from his own life when he selected 5-1-5-0 and 5-1-5-7 in the Pick 4 game on Aug. 4, 2005, according to police.

Ahah ! So they got the DNA from the victims and the dummy was playing his former addresses. This is a better explanation of the whole process then. The original article was very nebulously written. The reporter must be newly graduated from Journalism school.

Comment #8

justxploring — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 15:03:30 GMT

Newspaper article from last night that's a little clearer...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/about/custom/career/chi-070413double_murderapr13,1,5781259.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Lottery tickets led to suspect's arrest

By Alexa Aguilar and Jason Meisner

Tribune staff reporters

Published April 13, 2007, 9:50 PM CDT

Like many lottery players, Tim Fountain used numbers from his own life when he selected 5-1-5-0 and 5-1-5-7 in the Pick 4 game on Aug. 4, 2005, according to police.

Minutes... [ More ]

Comment #7

onenumber — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 14:41:56 GMT

I saw the news report on TV last night and what they said was that DNA was recovered beneath the fingernails of one of the victims. KYFloyd was exactly right about the address, they ran those two numbers through an address database of previous offenders and came up with a match on those two address numbers and used the DNA found on the victim to finger him.

Comment #6

Badger — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:12:46 GMT

Well they did say they got his DNA. THat means they had to have had something that he touched. I don't know where else they would have gotten it from except the playslips. If he touched the counter (or anything else) in a store like that, you couldn't tell his DNA from all the other people that had touched the same thing. Its the DNA thing that I found so curious. I don't know how a new database would have helped them if they didn't have some idea of who they were looking for first.....unles... [ More ]

Comment #5

justxploring — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 07:39:33 GMT

I agree with KY Floyd that something is indeed missing from the article or it's written poorly. A store would have too many fingerprints and DNA for testing unless they already had a suspect and just running the numbers played wouldn't lead the police to a murder suspect.

This is what I figured when I read the article, but it's an assumption. Badger wrote that DNA was taken from his betting slips, which makes sense to me. If they looked up all the numbers bet that day, stored in the lot... [ More ]

Comment #4

Littleoldlady — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:59:32 GMT

Its too bad he got out in time to do this..it is a very sad thing and I am glad they got him. Let us hope that the justice system will keep him from ever seeing the light of day again one way or another. I also hope that the daughter will seek counseling to help deal with her loss so she can get back into life (finish school).

Comment #3

KY Floyd — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:10:42 GMT

So did I scan that correctly? They got the guy's DNA off his playslips?

As has become SOP in modern news reporting, the story reports a couple of facts and then ignores all the questions they raise. The story mentions the DNA but doesn't tell us how it helped, other than showing he had been there. Anyone else who was in there that day may have left some DNA behind, too, but it doesn't tell you when they wer htere or what they did while they were there. I had to reread the article to see if... [ More ]

Comment #2

onenumber — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 01:28:07 GMT

He said detectives ran the numbers through a relatively new database of known robbery offenders and came up with Fountain as a potential suspect.

And WHAT database would that be?????? Robbers who regularly play the lottery.

Badger, I didn't see anything about playslips, but I'm real curious as to out they figured out these numbers belonged Fountain.

Comment #1

Badger — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 00:58:37 GMT

So did I scan that correctly? They got the guy's DNA off his playslips? Rather cool. Had he asked for Quickpicks they wouldn't have caught him.

Criminals these days never seem to think about where they leave their DNA, nor about cameras. The convenience store across the street from our plant gets robbed a couple times a year. And they have six cameras aimed at the checkout. They aren't hidden. Usually, five minutes after the robbery, the local police are showing us the guy's picture and as... [ More ]

Lotto tickets lead cops to murder suspect

Lottery Post — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:11:57 GMT

Lottery tickets left at the scene of a double slaying at a Southwest Side grocery store in 2005 have led Chicago police to the suspected killer, police said today.

Timothy Fountain, 36, of the 12700 block of South Morgan Street, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the course of a felony in the Aug. 4, 2005, slayings of Graciela Rodriguez, 38, and Nicholas Guerrero, 74, police spokesman Pat Camden said.

Police believe Fountain shot the two during a hold-up inside Magg... [ More ]