Vincent E. Brothers Case

Vincent E. Brothers Case

Murder Scene

Linked to the crime scene:

Vincent Brothers (murderer)

Kimsey (Entomologist)

Vincent E. Brothers

Marques (4-yrs-old)

Lyndsey (2-yrs-old)

Marshall (6-yrs-old)

Earnestine (70-yrs-old)

Joanie Harper (Wife)

Kelsey Spann (Family Friend)

All first-degree murders; stabbing, shooting, and strangling. May 29th, 2003, a death sentence is represented.

It was believed that someone entered the house through the backyard carrying a .22 caliber pistol. Kelsey, a family friend, was worried after days of no contact and decided to checkup on Joanie. When she unlocked the door, someone was keeping the door shut, blocking it from entrance. The sliding glass door on the other end in the house was unlocked though, which is unusual. In Joanie’s bedroom to find Joanie face down on her bed with three gun shots in the head and two in the arm. There were also seven stab wounds. Next to the mother, the six week old was under a pillow, with a gun shot wound. The four-year-old was also on the bed, a gunshot wound on the right side of the head. On one hand, it looked as if the fingertips were bitten, and bone shown through. The two-year-old was at the end of the bed with a gun shot to the back. The grandmother was in the hallway shot twice in the face, with a pistol she was holding beside her.

-The brothers cheated a lot

-He was trying to end financial problems

The FBI tracked the man named Vincent to Ohio, where he rented a car. The former vice principal tried to convince the FBI that he lives in Ohio and had visited California. Thing is, the FBI believes he killed five of his family members. They were found dead on July 8, 2003 in their Bakersfield home.

The catch

They noticed that there were dead bugs on the windshield, where they went off from there to identify their wings, legs and fragments. They were trying to prove that he had gone to the Rocky Mountains. California is the only place to find a california grasshopper and wasps, which were on his car, this proved that he had visited the Rocky Mountains. He claimed he’d stayed in Ohio. They said he’d driven to California. This also proved that he driven at night because they are nocturnal insects.

The murder took place during spring in California near the Rocky Mountains. Vincent was not under anything that could of influenced his murdering. He used no poison and did not steal anything.

Grasshoppers

Kimsey, the one who found the insects and examined them fought in court stating that the insects are only in the west, and are very much so in California. “We found no butterflies--no painted ladies, no sulphur butterflies. That indicated to us that the car wasn’t driven during the day, but at night.” The grasshopper was significant to their discoveries, for its leg size was close to two inches long with red with black markings. Brothers was arrested for suspicion of murders, and tried to say he was in Columbus, Ohio, but he was caught on an airline from Cali to Ohio, also renting a car, then into Bakersfield where his family happened to be murdered. He was arrested, and sentenced to death September 27, 2007.