Georgia Department of Corrections records show that Sean McDuffy was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1996 for the attempted murder conviction—the sentencing records also showed that he had been charged with cruelty to children.

McDuffy resided with his brother and sister-in-law at the time of their deaths, and had been a prime suspect after the killings.  However, because a judge had ruled in 1986 that there was no probable cause for his arrest, he was released and the case remained closed until Bobbie McDuffy's father, who was dying, persuaded the police to reopen it.  As a result, detectives began reexamining the case files, sifting through boxes of evidence, analyzing crime scene photos, and so forth, which prompted them to focus on Sean McDuffy as the suspect in the brutal killings.

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Following the murders, McDuffy began moving around, and detectives were able to trace his movements to Missouri, Ohio, Arizona, and finally to Georgia where they discovered he was in prison.  Satisfied that they had enough evidence to charge him with the murders of his relatives, McDuffy was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder earlier this year.  McDuffy's parole in Georgia is coming up soon, and it is a certainty that he will be extradited to Cumberland County in North Carolina as soon as he is paroled, according to Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.  If convicted of the murders of his relatives, McDuffy could receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Photo Credit: Police file photo

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"They have that easy access, and they probably would appear to be a friendly face," Spingola said recently.  "They (the victims) get in the vehicle and they can be transported across state lines where, traditionally, departments do not talk to each other."

Spingola, however, says that the HSKI database is beginning to change the way in which law enforcement agencies communicate with one another.  In a nutshell, local cops are now using HSKI as a resource that will, hopefully, connect their cases to other similar cases in other states.

"When you look at what the FBI has done, they've tried to form a line of communication between local, state, and national law enforcement which allows crimes to be compared," Spingola said.  "Hopefully, when one crime is solved in Raleigh, North Carolina, there may be a link to Beloit, Wisconsin."

One of many cold cases that law enforcement agencies hope HSKI will help solve is that of the murder of Crystal Linn Soulier, who left her home in Shell Lake, Wisconsin on October 1, 1996 and disappeared—seemingly without a trace.  Crystal had left home before, but on this occasion it was different in that no one had heard from her after she left, except on one occasion.  In fact, when Crystal's body was found five months later, dumped in a ravine behind an adult bookstore just off Interstate 90 near Beloit, it was a mystery for the Rock County Sheriff's Office that would lay dormant for the next few years all because detectives working the case did not have much to go on besides a dead body.  There was no purse, and no identification on the corpse.

The one occasion in which Crystal had been heard from after she left home was a telephone call she made informing relatives that she was in Madison after having gotten that far by bus and was on her way to visit family members in Beloit.  She had asked if anyone could come to Madison to pick her up, but unfortunately no one had been able to and police now suspect that she had hitched a ride, possibly with a trucker.  Her last words to her relatives were, "I'll see you soon."

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In fact, it was not until August 2000 that investigators got a break in the case.  As it turned out, Crystal's sister, Freedom Philippi, happened to see a poster that the sheriff's office had made—it depicted jewelry found at the crime scene.  Although a part of her refused to accept her grim discovery as fact for a while, Philippi recognized the jewelry and reported it to detectives.

Now, 13 years later, Crystal's murder is still unsolved.  Investigators, however, including Rock County Sheriff's Office Detective Daria O'Connor, believe that whoever killed Crystal had killed before.  In 1994, someone had dumped the body of Terryl Stanford, a prostitute from Chicago, behind the same adult bookstore in Beloit, and O'Connor is hopeful that the HSKI database will help solve the two cases.  The Rock County Sheriff's Office sent both of the cases to the FBI to see if the two murders might be connected and possibly committed by a serial killer residing somewhere in their database.

So far, however, the HSKI has not provided the break that investigators have been hoping for, but they are confident that the break may still be forthcoming.

"I think it's just a matter of time," O'Connor said.  "I think it's talking to the right person, getting the right information."

Information, everyone hopes, that will come about as a result of the HSKI.  To date, the FBI's program has helped close 30 murder cases, and has led to 10 arrests.  Two of those arrests have included two truckers, so it is apparent that the system is working.

We will look at the progress being made as a result of the HSKI from time to time, and will report about it here.

Photo Credit: ID

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