Snowball helps solve Shirley Duguay's murder

It’s sad, but it’s another case where a known domestic abuse victim eventually becomes a murder victim. The occurrence of this fact chain is startling common. This case’s investigation unfolded in stages:

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

• First, Shirley goes missing, but no one reports it for four days. It was said her venturing off wasn't a surprising occurrence, but I would think the mother of five children between the ages of 8 and 15 would keep those close to her informed.
• Then the abandoned car is located with medium velocity impact spatter, and the blood-soaked pillow she sat on to drive. Shirley was only 4'9” and weight under 100 pounds.
• Soon after, the police found the shovel with two black hairs just half a mile from Shirley's vehicle. One would think that Doug wouldn't have taken Shirley's body too far from the murder site before burying it, and I might guess he left the shovel after burying her (though when her body is found, it's hardly buried).
• Weeks later, investigators found the bag – a treasure trove of potential evidence. 15 miles from the car would indicate it was discarded at a subsequent time, since Doug probably didn't walk the distance. The blood-stained leather jacket and the shoes were exactly the type of evidence that more care should have been taken in disposing.  
• Finally at the seven-month mark, Shirley's body was located. The authorities had a pretty solid case against Doug by that time, with the cat hair DNA tying him to the jacket, and the forensic footwear evidence showing he owned the shoes.

Doug Beamish‘s brutality was affirmed with the autopsy reporting which showed Shirley’s jaw broken in three places and one of her teeth lodged in her own lung. Doug’s motive was affirmed when it was learned he’d rather see Shirley dead than for her to have custody of their children. They had been separated for 18 months by this time, but the threat was written in Doug’s own blood. That’s frightening. And almost as frightening, the Canadian justice system only gave Doug a sentence of 18 years. I’m probably used to the American courts where a murderer gets 30 years (and gets out in 6). Perhaps Doug will serve his entire sentence. Perhaps prison in Canada focuses more on rehabilitation than punishment.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

With a title like “Purr-fect Match”, it was obvious this episode was going to focus pretty heavily on the cat, Snowball. These are so many cases/episodes where dog or cat hair is among the evidence that helps tied suspects or victims to locations. Having owned cats on and off for years, I know how pet hair can collect and travel. It’s not often that the animal’s hair is typed for DNA, and this was the first case where animal DNA was used to convict in a murder trial.

Snowball was significant to me directly – I’ve owned not one, but two different pure white cats before. I got Loki as a kitten in the late 1990s and enjoyed his companionship for 11 years. But his heterochromia iridum (two different-colored eyes, blue and green) didn’t make him special, his chill demeanor did. Years later, I adopted the pure white cat of a domestic partner – it was like déjà vu. And this new frosty feline had an appropriate name: Snowflake. So, seeing Snowball (of course, played by an cat actor) being carried in a cage and getting his blood drawn made me a little squeamish.

Finally, how cool was Melvin Duguay? For a gentleman who’d lost his daughter and probably at least shared a hand in raising her five young children after her demise, Melvin had a lot of poise and composure, giving a great interview. Between sorrow at the loss of his __ and the anger at her abusive partner, Melvin also shared a bit of humor. I adored his recounting of the apprehension of Snowball for evidence collection (quoted above).