Kevin Neal

More Forensic Clues

One other clue led Lehman to believe that the children had been dead for some time when their bodies were found.

"One thing that was interesting ... from the point of view of a forensic pathologist is that where the bodies are lying the grass is dead," Lehman said. "It's like if you leave something on your lawn ... for a long time, the grass disappears. The same thing has happened where these two bodies were lying."

Much later in the criminal justice process, another expert would dispute this assumption, pointing out that decaying fatty tissue will kill vegetation much quicker than Lehman estimated.

In the end, Lehman, based on his 14 years as a pathologist, was convinced the children had been dead "an extended period of time."

"You have a skeletonized — completely skeletonized — head, very decomposed body," he told Assistant Attorney General R. Daniel Reif. "Everything points to someone who had been dead for an extended period of time."

Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio

How extended, asked Reif, who was on loan from the state Attorney General's Capital Crimes section to assist Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio with the case.

"It's consistent with two months," Lehman said. "Anything less than that is less probable or less likely."

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1. Messages from the Dead
2. 700 Years Later
3. The Children are Missing
4. Unhealthy Family Dynamic
5. Complex Relationships & Conflicts
6. Search for Children Called Off
7. Behind the Scenes
8. Neal's Criminal Past
9. Lies
10. Sexual Predator
11. Bodies in the Cemetery
12. A Ghastly Find
13. Physical Laws of Death
14. The Stages of Death
15. The Bureau of Criminal Identification
16. Working the Crime Scene
17. Manner of Death
18. Not Much to Work With
19. Cause of Death
20. More Forensic Clues
21. "We Are Not in a Rush"
22. No Smoking Gun
23. "Hurt Someone They Love"
24. Incriminating Statements
25. The Physical Evidence
26. Forensic Botany
27. Bug Collecting
28. Forensic Entomolgy
29. How Flies Tell Time
30. After the Blow Flies Flew Away
31. Enter the Cheese Skipper
32. Date of Death
33. The Secondary Screwworm in Court
34. Battle over Bug Evidence
35. Cheese Skippers for the Defense
36. Counterpoint
37. The Body Farmer
38. Dr. Bass for the Defense
39. "The Liver Bothers Me"
40. The Jury Decides
41. Bibliography