Friday, August 26, 2011

Miss Maple, 12, cracks burglary

A 12-year-old girl has embarrassed detectives after solving a burglary case by finding clues they had missed. Jessica Maple confronted the alleged burglars after investigating the break-in at her late great-grandmother's house in Atlanta, Georgia. The amateur sleuth used investigative skills she had learned on a Junior District Attorney crime-fighting camp this summer.

Miss Maple showed she was more like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple after she asked her mother to take her to the house to see if she could find any clues. Police had found no signs of forced entry, but Jessica found otherwise when she checked the garage. "The windows were broken. There were finger prints by the glass. Everything was ramshackled. There were clothes everywhere," she said.


YouTube link.

Jessica and her mother then went to a local pawn shop and found her great-grandmother's property on sale. The manager of the shop gave the girl both men's picture IDs and she called the investigating officer to tell him she had solved the crime. Jessica said: "He was like: 'You beat me to this stuff', and I was like: 'I did your job again'."

The girl, accompanied by her mother, then went to one of the burglar's homes to confront him. "We went up to him and I asked him why he did it," Jessica said. "At first he denied it, but then he confessed." Despite the evidence, no arrests have yet been made by police. "They have all the evidence," Jessica said. "I have no idea what is taking so long."

No comments: