About once a week, I revisit what  I call my “murder book” on the Stacey Burns murder. It is a very thick , three ring binder, filled with all sorts of notes, emails, newspaper clippings, interview transcriptions, etc. The murder book term is a common one in stories about homicide detectives and I always run across items in mine that had slipped my mind over time..  Even though some of the quotations below have been used in this blog previously, I thought some of the newer readers might be interested in them.

“Our primary responsibility is certainly our current cases. We are pretty much straight out 24/7 keeping up with current stuff.” Sgt Steve Rowland, N.H. Business Review, March 3, 2009. (Two months before Stacey Burns was murdered-Sgt. Rowland was the original lead detective on the case)

“We have evidence, but not enough to make an arrest and that is what the state police are continuing to build on.” Jeff Strelzin, N.H. Senior Assistant Attorney General, February 10, 2011, Wolfeboro Police Commission meeting as reported in the Granite State News of February 17, 2011. (Less than two years after Stacey Burns was murdered)

“Our job is to get it right. We obviously want to solve cases as quickly as we can. However, we only get one chance. . . . . . If the defendant is found not guilty, he or she walks out the door and we are done forever, which is why we have to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Until we have that much quality evidence, we don’t make an arrest.” Jeff Strelzin ( same source as previous)

Is all this still relevant? Have the state police been “continuing to build on” the evidence since February, 2011? In the same meeting, Mr. Strelzin admits that “cases generally get harder to solve as times goes on” but says that sometimes “new opportunities to solve a case might evolve.”

Well, I’ll put away m murder book for another week or so. Maybe that illusive evidence will magically surface somewhere.

Duke