Kevin Neal

Incriminating Statements

Even more damaging to the defense, Selvaggio promised that the state would present testimony from three witnesses who would swear that Kevin Neal made incriminating statements about himself.

The morning of the murder, Selvaggio said, Neal called his aunt, Carolyn Gragg, and told her "something terrible had happened" and that he was considering suicide. The next day, after a day of intense questioning by authorities followed by a night of heavy drinking, Neal told Sue Neal's sister, Libby Wyatt, "Libby, I might as well just confess so all this will stop and get it over with. The only thing I'm afraid of is the death penalty." Finally, Selvaggio said Neal told another woman that he "took the whole blame" for the children's disappearance, adding, "I couldn't walk to the electric chair."

Tripplett responded in his opening statement by pointing out there was no physical evidence linking Kevin Neal — or anyone else — to the crime. Later, Meyers would question the accuracy of Gragg's recollection of the conversation she had with Neal, who insisted to his attorneys that he had not said "something terrible had happened," but that he told Aunt Carolyn that "he was in deep shit" because Sue Neal wanted him out of her home.

"This is a case about earnest police efforts that simply reached ... a very wrong conclusion," Tripplett said in his opening statement. "Before (the day the children vanished) was over, sheriff's deputies and others began to point an accusing finger at Kevin Neal despite the lack of any indication of wrongdoing on his part,'' he said. The state "cannot show you how these children died, when these children died, and cannot show you where they were killed. And yet he will want you to supply the who — Mr. Neal."

• Print version
• Email this
• 

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