Summary

Marie Grisotto

Introduction to Criminal Justice

SAMPLE

Assignment 1 - Current Events in Criminal Justice

1. Lambe, J. (2021, June 1). Severed Head Found Inside Plastic Bag in Louisiana

Swamp Identified Years Later as Missing Texas Woman; Body Remains Missing. Law

and Crime. Retrieved from https://lawandcrime.com/crime/severed-head-found-inside-

plastic-bag-in-louisiana-swamp-identified-years-later-as-missing-texas-woman-body-

remains-missing/

2. Criminal Justice Topics: Crime (murder, unsolved cases); Forensics

3. In March of 2018, a litter abatement team was cleaning up the grassy swampland

along Louisiana Highway 27 in Cameron Parish and found a severed head in a plastic

bag. Law enforcement authorities ran the DNA of the severed head to try to identify the

person, but they did not find a DNA match.

The severed head was sent to the Louisiana State University Faces lab in 2019.

Scientists at the lab reverse-engineered a facial reconstruction and released an image of

what the person likely looked like. Law enforcement circulated the photo and two years

later they received an anonymous tip that the person in the photograph looked like Sally

Hines, a missing person from Texas.

Sally Hines had been reported missing in December of 2017. Authorities

compared dental records and were able to confirm the severed head did belong to Sally

Hines. The Sheriff of Cameron Parish stated that he believes Sally Hines was murdered.

Nobody has been arrested yet. The Sheriff said that it is not uncommon for people to

dump bodies in the swamp thinking that the alligators will eat the body and destroy the

evidence.