PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This story boggles the mind! This was not a tiny rural police force; it was the FBI, who know only too well the importance of preserving the forensic evidence, such as DNA, not just for use in court, but for occasionally clearing a defendant. The case did not involve a petty theft, say, of a corkscrew; it is said to have involved $500 million worth of art masterpieces. It truly belongs in our 'When you think you've heard it all department.'
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
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STORY: "Evidence in Gardner Museum thefts that might bear DNA is missing," by reporters
"The trail had been cold for years when the FBI announced in 2010 that it had sent crime scene evidence from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to its lab for retesting, hoping advances in DNA analysis would identify the thieves who stole $500 million worth of masterpieces. But behind the scenes, federal investigators searching for a break in the world’s largest art theft were stymied by another mystery. The duct tape and handcuffs that the thieves had used to restrain the museum’s two security guards — evidence that might, even 27 years after the crime, retain traces of DNA — had disappeared. The FBI, which collected the crime scene evidence, lost the duct tape and handcuffs, according to three people familiar with the investigation. Despite an exhaustive internal search, the FBI has been unable to find the evidence, according to those people, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case. It’s unclear when the items vanished — although two people said they have been missing for more than a decade — and whether they were thrown away or simply misfiled, the people said. The lost evidence marks another setback in an ongoing investigation that has been plagued by the deaths of suspects, defiant mobsters, fruitless searches, and a litany of dashed hopes. None of the 13 stolen treasures, which include masterpieces by Vermeer and Rembrandt, has been recovered, and no one has been charged. .......Robert Gentile, 80, faces sentencing in August on gun charges but could walk free if he cooperated with federal authorities, his lawyer said. Despite the enticement, and a hefty reward, Gentile denies knowing anything about the stolen artwork.........A former assistant US attorney, Robert Fisher, who oversaw the Gardner investigation from 2010 to 2016, said investigators should “go back to square one” and study the crime as if it just happened, analyzing each piece of evidence with the latest DNA, fingerprint, and video technology. “What if it happened last night, what would we do this morning to try to crack this case?” said Fisher, an attorney at Nixon Peabody. Told that the Globe had learned the duct tape and handcuffs left behind by the thieves were now missing, Fisher said he hoped they would be found. “Frankly, it could be enormously helpful,” Fisher said of the missing items. “I think present-day forensic analysis of evidence like that could lead to a break in the case.” However, he said the tape may yield no viable DNA, depending on its condition.........The brazen heist — the largest property crime in US history — occurred in the early morning hours of March 18, 1990. Two thieves disguised as police officers claimed to be investigating a disturbance when they showed up at the museum’s side door on Palace Road in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. They were buzzed inside by Richard Abath, a 23-year-old security guard who, by his own admission, has never been eliminated as a suspect. The thieves wrapped duct tape around the hands, eyes, and mouths of the two guards on duty, then left them handcuffed in the museum’s basement as they spent 81 minutes slashing and pulling masterpieces from their frames. Boston police found Richard Abath handcuffed and duct-taped in the basement of the Gardner Museum after it was robbed in 1990. In the days after the robbery, FBI and Boston police crime scene analysts scoured the museum for clues. They lifted partial fingerprints from the empty frames but found no matches in the FBI database. At the time, DNA evidence was in its infancy. But scientific advances have since opened new doors for investigators, cracking unsolved cases across the country. DNA experts said it’s possible the thieves’ DNA could be pulled from the tape, although the chances are slim. Success hinges on a number of variables, such as how the evidence was preserved and how many people handled it while freeing the guards and storing it. “Certainly people have retrieved DNA from samples that old, but how much you can get is the big question,” said Robin Cotton, director of the Biomedical Forensic Sciences Program at the Boston University School of Medicine. Analysts would also need DNA samples from the police officers who removed the tape to distinguish their DNA from the thieves, Cotton said. Tom Evans, scientific director of the DNA Enzymes Division at New England Biolabs, an Ipswich firm that conducts DNA testing, said technology has come so far that it may take only a single cell to identify someone through DNA analysis. But DNA breaks down over time, especially in hot or humid conditions. “Twenty-seven years later, it might work and it might fail,” Evans said."
The entire story can be found at;
See Wikipedia account at the link below: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation took control of the case on the grounds that the artwork could likely cross state lines.[13] They have conducted hundreds of interviews with probes stretching across the world involving Scotland Yard, Japanese and French authorities, private investigators, museum directors, and art dealers.[1] The FBI believes the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England, and that the stolen paintings were moved through Connecticut and the Philadelphia area in the years following the theft. Some of the art may have been offered for sale in Philadelphia in the early 2000s, including The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; however, their knowledge of what happened to the works after the attempted sale is limited.[2][14][15] The FBI stated it believed to know the identity of the thieves in 2013, but in 2015 announced that they were now deceased. They have declined to identify the individuals.[16]No single motive or pattern has emerged through the thousands of pages of evidence gathered.[1] The selection of works puzzles the experts, specifically since more valuable artworks were available.[7] The FBI's lead agent assigned to the case, Geoffrey J. Kelly, finds it difficult to understand why this assortment of items was stolen despite the thieves being in the museum for enough time to take whatever they wished. On their way to the finial, the thieves passed by two Raphaels and a Botticelli painting.[4] Titian's The Rape of Europa, which is one of the museum's most well-known and valuable pieces, was not stolen.[4] Due to the brutish ways the criminals handled the robbery, cutting the painting from their frames and smashing frames for two Degas sketches, investigators believe the thieves were amateur criminals, not experts commissioned to steal particular works.[3] Some investigators believe the works were destroyed, explaining why they have not reappeared.[1] Theories on the theft include that it was organized by the Irish Republican Army in order to raise money or bargain for the release of imprisoned comrades. Another theory states Whitey Bulger was the ringleader of the theft. At the time of the heist, he was Boston's top crime boss and an FBI informant.[1]The museum first offered a reward of $1 million, but that was later increased to $5 million in 1997.[1] The reward is for "information that leads directly to the recovery of all of [their] items in good condition",[15] which remains on offer more than a quarter-century later.[1] In May, 2017, the bounty was doubled to $10 million, with an expiration date set for midnight on December 31st of that year.[17][18] Federal authorities have stated they will not charge anyone who voluntarily turns in the artwork, but anyone caught knowingly in possession of stolen items could be prosecuted.[19][2] The thieves cannot face charges because the five-year statute of limitations has expired.[2]Loss of DNA evidence: In 2010, the FBI announced that some evidence from the original crime scene had been sent to the FBI's Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia for retesting with the hope of finding new DNA evidence to identify the culprits of the theft. In June 2017, The Boston Globe reported that some of the crime scene evidence collected by the FBI was missing and they were unable to locate the handcuffs and duct tape that was used to immobilize the museum's two security guards could not be found, even after an exhaustive search. The handcuffs and duct tape could have still contained traces of DNA material from the thieves."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum_theft
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
