New Lead Emerges In Reyka Murder Case
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - There is a new lead in the unsolved murder of Broward Sheriff's Sergeant Chris Reyka and it comes all the way from England.
Investigators have recovered fingerprint details from one of the shell casings used in the crime, using a new technique that can lift a fingerprint from a spent casing; even if its' been wiped clean. The technique was pioneered by a British scientist, Dr. John Bond.
-->Reyka was shot at 10 times in a Walgreen's parking lot in Pompano Beach in August 2007 as he checked a license plate on a suspicious car. No one has been charged with his murder.
Crime scene investigators gathered the spent shell casings as evidence. Several months ago, detectives traveled to England and took those casings to Dr. Bond.
The result?
"We did find what appeared to be some fingerprint-rich detail in corrosion on at least one of the casings that we looked at for him," Dr. Bond told CBS 4's Carey Codd in a phone interview.
Dr. Bond said his technique goes beyond standard fingerprint analysis on casings. He said when someone touches a casing they leave behind finger sweat. However, that sweat can be removed.
"The technique we've perfected will work when the sweat has been removed by washing or wiping because we're looking for corrosion of the material caused by the sweat," he said.
Dr. Bond uses electricity and powder to produce a fingerprint.
"To find a fingerprint on a shell casing like this can provide really good evidence because it's giving you someone whose handled that casing prior to the crime being committed," he said.
Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti did not confirm what the tests revealed, but he did say he's encouraged by the results.
"This is another lead that we can follow in a direction that we didn't have before," Lamberti said. "So I'm optimistic that we have a positive direction to go in."
Neither the gun used to kill Reyka, nor the killer's getaway car seen in grainy surveillance video, has ever been found.
Suspicion has fallen on a group of accused drugstore robbers -- including Timothy Johnson and Gerald Joshua. Lamberti will only call them persons of interest.
Whether the new result from across the Atlantic is the key to solving the 3 and a half year mystery of who killed Sergeant Chris Reyka is unknown. However, Lamberti says it only adds to the arsenal of evidence investigators have.
"We're still missing that one piece of the puzzle," Lamberti said. "This could be it but we still have one piece of the puzzle that's going to solve the crime."
The fingerprint technology used by Dr. Bond is only a few years old and neither Dr. Bond nor Lamberti are aware if it's ever been used in a U.S. court.
"It's a very new technology," Lamberti said. "The reliability of it to me seems to be very good. It hasn't been tested a lot so we'll be breaking ground if we get to that point."
Investigators are still looking for the weapon and the car used by the killer in the case. The car is described as a white, four-door Mercury Marquis or Crown Victoria. The license plate on the car has also not been found -- it is F16 8UJ.
There is a reward of $267-thousand dollars in this case. You are urged to call Crimestoppers at 954 493 TIPS if you have any information.
